Apple's Jonathan Ive Considering Moving Back to England?

[eye]

I'm sure people predicted the death of Ford when Henry Ford died. And they keep making cars. This is business, they have the top talent of the world to choose from. You can't say any one person dictates Apple's future.

And if they fail, some other company will fill the niche and we won't even think about Apple, but some other company who makes products we enjoy.

 

[rdowns]

I would seem that with all of this talk about succession plans at Apple, Ive just found out the he was not the number 2 man.

That makes perfect sense.

Jobs took 2 previous leaves. Succession plans have been in place for quite some time. Ive already knew he wasn't it, if in fact, it isn't him.

 

[ovrlrd]

To me, if this is true (which I have my doubts), it is a bigger deal than Jobs leaving the company at this point. I think everyone has kind of gotten used to the fact that Jobs is going to eventually retire his post, but Ive is way too valuable to the company at this point. I can't imagine it being good for Apple and wherever he went to work after would mean some other company would be gain a huge competitive advantage all of sudden.

Of course, Apple would live on without him still, but I fear certain future designs of products would suffer a bit, especially at first while the company realized what a mistake it was to let him go.

 

[apolloa]

Again, where do you get your information from? Your knee jerk reactions are not based on any facts.

Of course Ive is important, as are many Apple employees. You have no idea whose designs we are using. For all we know, some non-paid dweeb intern designed the iPhone. Ive leads a team, a very capable team.

What? The fact he is on the board? the fact he is the lead desginer? the fact he tells other designers what is good or bad? the fact he most likely tells Jobs what is good and will sell and how much it costs to make?

The fact he does his job? the fact he is in all those videos promoting products being stated as the desginer?

As your obviously much more clever then we are, instead of typing knee jerk reaction yourself to my comment, how about posting some of your OWN FACTS? Oh that's right... you can't, all you are capable of dong is picking on someones post, trying to look clever as though you know better when the reality is you DON'T!

 

[SmallWalrus]

A friend of the family told The Sunday Times: 'Unfortunately he is just too valuable to Apple and they told him in no uncertain terms that if he headed back to England he would not be able to sustain his position with them.'

Actually, this sounds like he is not valuable at all. "If you want to telecommute like an executive stuff we will have to axe you!"

 

[Apple OC]

What? The fact he is on the board? the fact he is the lead desginer? the fact he tells other designers what is good or bad? the fact he most likely tells Jobs what is good and will sell and how much it costs to make?

The fact he does his job? the fact he is in all those videos promoting products being stated as the desginer?

As your obviously much more clever then we are, instead of typing knee jerk reaction yourself to my comment, how about posting some of your OWN FACTS? Oh that's right... you can't, all you are capable of dong is picking on someones post, trying to look clever as though you know better when the reality is you DON'T!

Are you related to Ive?

Ive is the Design Lead (kind of like the Spokesperson) ... I doubt he does much work on any of the latest ideas.

There are hundreds of Designers working for Apple ... probably many that are more talented than Ive.

Time to move forward with or without him ... I do not care whether he stays or goes ... Life goes on.

 

[ivladster]

no reason to panic

Although he is a great industrial designer, he is not the only in the world. Just because it's apple he get's so much credit. People need to realize that Apple is not just Ive, Jobs and the senior management; it's a company as a whole.

I am sure there would be ton of applicants if/when Ive leaves Apple.

 

[Jarcrew]

How would somebody like him effectively telecommunicate? His job is designing physical objects. All the equipment for making the prototypes is in his department - there's a YouTube video where they showed part of the design department with him in it. They're not going to FedEx him every prototype for notes and wait a day to see what he thinks. He needs to be on site. He might actually be the one man at Apple who absolutely cannot telecommunicate.

And frankly, the idea that he's irreplaceable is insane. He possesses an extraordinary keen eye for elegance and good design, but there must be others who "get it". Frankly, I'd be interested to see a generational shift in Apple's industrial design; even with multiple product revisions, Ive's hand is visible in everything Apple have done since Jobs returned. I love his work and would rather he stayed but perhaps a change of hands might be good. I'm sure there are exorbitantly talented young men and women working beneath Ive who are more than capable of keeping Apple at the front of the pack.

 

[Tommy Wasabi]

The solution is simple...

Let Jony move.

Then pack up the entire design team and have them move wherever Jony is.

If Jony wants to live in the UK - Apple should open up their design facility in the UK.

This isn't tough people.

Let's see - have a chance to learn from Jony and live in the UK or stay in California and work for his replacement. - Not a tough decision if you are a design engineer.

TW

 

[Skika]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Just make a new deal with him, £64.0M ought to be enough for anybody!

He's probably earned quite enough money to live more than comfortably for the rest of his life. If he wants to move back to England there's not much Apple can do about it. What can you offer the man who has everything?

A man never has everything. A bunch of money is not what is considered everything for very people like Ive and Steve. Do you seriously believe Steve or Ive do their job for the money? Ive wants to design and he wants to do it for a company he believes in, he is a creator he must create. He cant just retire and be happy he made a bunch of money. Only people who believe in struggle think that way about life.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Why is everyone saying this guy is irreplaceable?

He has been with Apple for 20+ years. Do people not remember the 90s?

 

[lifeinhd]

I'm sure the hundreds of designers at Apple are just there to take up space.

Right, except... they haven't got hundreds of designers. They have a small team led by Ive, and that's it.

Why is everyone saying this guy is irreplaceable?

He has been with Apple for 20+ years. Do people not remember the 90s?

He came in '92. By my calculations, that isn't quite "20+ years." And he's only been exercising his talent for 13-14 of those years.

 

[Tonewheel]

Is the sky falling?

Do any of you know who works directly under Ive? Who they are? What degree of input they've had in the design of Apple products? Everyone is replaceable. Everyone. And Apple will go on with or without him, and, I believe, continue to make great products.

As an aside, I read he wants to go home to buy a razor and more black tee shirts.

 

[Discoverer]

Are we talking about the same "Jonathan Ive" who designed the first-generation aluminum iMacs with washed out screens?

Wow, what a true loss it would be if he left the company.

 

[^^BIGMac]

You might want to wait until this story is confirmed before leaping from your window.

^^ This.

Settle down folks. Everything is going to be alright!

 

[Tonewheel]

Are we talking about the same "Jonathan Ive" who designed the first-generation aluminum iMacs with washed out screens?

Wow, what a true loss it would be if he left the company.

He didn't design or spec the screens. He would have designed the enclosure. Got it?

 

[Jarcrew]

Ive wants to design and he wants to do it for a company he believes in, he is a creator he must create.

Says you, and you might be right. We can't really know what Ive wants, because he's been remarkably guarded about his personality and motives.

He cant just retire and be happy he made a bunch of money. Only people who believe in struggle think that way about life.

He probably can retire - he has a family to think of (which - if any this is true - is almost certainly the deciding factor), and if the money is not the reason for his (speculated) desire to leave, he has left an indelible mark on industrial design that will be felt for many years to come.

 

[MacFly123]

ok, let me see if I understand right.

Steve is Sick and is not going to be with us in a couple of years..

Jonathan Ive is going back to England...

In 20?? there will be NO Apple as we know it today.

-----

We are screw.

I agree... Make the man happy and keep him at all costs. He's the best designer this generation has and apple should bend over backwards to keep him around in ANY manner

This could be a game-changer for Apple:

Apple may choose to establish a major corporate branch in the UK.

Makes sense to me, a virtual presence is simply not the same as actually being there.

Who knows what his/ the teams 'creative' process is like.

Apple will be in trouble without Jon designing their products.

Seriously, this does not bode well.

Steve Jobs is away and now Ive might leave? Not good, those two guys are geniuses and make Apple products what they are today.

I really really hope this is not true. If it is this is HORRIBLE news! Apple minus Steve and Jony is no longer the Apple we know and love!

1) Please don't be true
2) If it is true, do WHATEVER is necessary to keep Jony!
3) If Jony leaves is there even anyone at Apple or in the world that would even stand a chance at filling his shoes? Who is under him at Apple???

 

[OllyW]

Why is everyone saying this guy is irreplaceable?

He has been with Apple for 20+ years. Do people not remember the 90s?

He joined Apple in 1992 and was promoted to Senior Vice President of Industrial Design by Steve Jobs in 1997. He's not to blame for the beige boxes of the early nineties.

 

[Surely]

I'm not certain this comment makes sense to me:

"Unfortunately he is just too valuable to Apple and they told him in no uncertain terms that if he headed back to England he would not be able to sustain his position with them."​

If he's "just too valuable," then why would Apple relieve Ive from his position? Apparently the Board feels that no Ive is better than an Ive working overseas. Either that, or Apple is bluffing in the hopes of retaining him in Cupertino.

That's the first thing that came to mind when I read it as well.

 

[johnnymg]

You folks are getting 'spun up' on a BS rumor. This is just a planted story to generate a bit of hysterics amongst the WS types.

cheers
JohnG

 

[kuwisdelu]

If Steve + Woz defined Apple in the late 70's/early 80's, Steve + Ive define Apple of the 2000's. I really hope they find a way to keep Ive, and on good terms. Fire up Facetime and make it happen, Steve.

And I agree what the article is saying the BoD is saying makes no sense. But I tend to assume BoD's aren't terribly smart.

 

[apolloa]

Are you related to Ive?

Ive is the Design Lead (kind of like the Spokesperson) ... I doubt he does much work on any of the latest ideas.

There are hundreds of Designers working for Apple ... probably many that are more talented than Ive.

Time to move forward with or without him ... I do not care whether he stays or goes ... Life goes on.

Do you work for Apple in the design team? How do you know that Ive's does not design any Apple products anymore? How do you know he sits on the board, earns thousands a year just to, well sit there and look pretty?

I hope he does leave, cause then you'll all get the good ol failing Apple back, the Apple that very nearly went bust before Jobs returned. Because you seem to want that?
I don't care either because if Ive's leaves, Jobs dies, Apple will be bankrupt in 6 years. It won't have the leadership talent to continue as it is.

Wiki on Ive's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ive

Now doesn't that suggest Ive's is the guy that designs the products, seeing as HE has won awards, Apple don't have 'hundreds' of designers, NO company does, if they did the products would be really crap and never get made as too many people would be involved. It's a small team led by Ive's, ive's is the one that most likely sits there and draws te designs and then he and his team build it.

 

[powerhouse7]

So Ive is too important to work from the UK, but not important enough to compromise with to keep him on? weird.

 

[whooleytoo]

I remember a similar-ish story a few years ago of Apple trying to get a developer to move from Cork to Cupertino - the developer refused as the move didn't suit him - which lead to Jobs allegedly throwing a tantrum ("****ing Cork!")

It seems Apple are quite set on having all the key talent close together in Cupertino.

p.s. I don't know for certain if the tantrum bit is true, it might be an Apple urban legend.
p.p.s. That developer wasn't me. AFAIK, Jobs is still unaware of my awesome talents.