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Apple's Longtime Design Chief Jony Ive Leaving to Start New Design Company With Apple as a Primary Client

It all but confirms all of us old-school Apple users/fans who have been calling out the company’s leadership as a greedy operations borefest that’s grown completely disenfranchised with Jobs’ deep rooted legacy of design and engineering, only to be called “haters” and “android fans”.

At the same time, there is and should be more to design vision than trimming mm’s at the expense of connectivity, battery life, heatsink and structural integrity.

Not very optimistic with Jeff on the helm.
 
Duckless In Seattle said:
Good riddance. I'm tired of this "designer" that has consistently put form before function. "Thin" is a lame pursuit if it means taking an other wise good product and making it unbearable to try and use. The keyboards on today's MacBooks are an absolute laughingstock, possibly the worst in the industry, and for what? Two millimeters saved on the thickness? And a giant trackpad that is so large that merely having hands in the normal typing position causes unwanted mouse movements when skin comes in contact with the pad, not to mention having made the action of pushing the trackpad a recipe for carpal tunnel syndrome. And that stupid bar at the top of the keyboard that takes unwanted key strikes just from having a finger glance it?

Is all of this considered "progress?"

I'm typing this on a 4-months-old 2018 MacBook Pro, a $4,000 machine that should be a joy to own but is instead a constant $4,000 reminder that Apple strayed too far with blind obedience to this "designer." Yes, it might be an elegant machine to look at, but those gorgeous advertisements never show the nightmare of the stupid dongles and adapters required just to connect it to all of the tech the customers currently own. A standard USB connection is not even close to being considered legacy technology, and the inclusion of not even a single USB-A port on the latest "Pro" line was a slap in the face. What's so "Pro" about needing to find a dongle or adapter every time to need to use a USB memory stick?

And how many millimeters were saved by not including an SD card reader on this current product line? Last time I checked, those SD cards were pretty thin already.

The only time I enjoy using this newest laptop of mine is when it is in desktop mode at home, connected to an external monitor with a USB mouse and keyboard. It is an absolute chore to use on the road.

So, yes, let's bid a very less than fond farewell to that idiot on his way out. Thanks for taking a great product line and making it terrible. I should get 2-3 years out of this machine before needing to replace it, so hopefully Apple gets back on track with some good sense to actually make a useable laptop again, even if it means (gasp!!) being slightly thicker. If not, I'll be switching to a Windows machine, and I say that as someone who very much does not like Windows...

Good riddance, Jony Ive. Don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you. Or do. I don't really care. Just go away.
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Unfortunately I'm unable to upvote your post 1K times, as I'm on W10 thx to the vanity of being thinner. MBP should be the pinacol of portable computing not a trendy Ultrabook...

Q-6
 
otternonsense said:
It all but confirms all of us old-school Apple users/fans who have been calling out the company’s leadership as a greedy operations borefest that’s grown completely disenfranchised with Jobs’ deep rooted legacy of design and engineering, only to be called “haters” and “android fans”.

At the same time, there is and should be more to design vision than trimming mm’s at the expense of connectivity, battery life, heatsink and structural integrity.

Not very optimistic with Jeff on the helm.
Click to expand...
Remind me how Apple is an "operations company" when their margins are the lowest they have been in years? If Tim was the penny-pinching miser you all make him out to be, shouldn't they actually be improving over time?

In the same vein, how does a company release products like AirPods, apple watch and the iPhone X if it wasn't design-led?

Likewise, one could argue that the company is facing quality issues precisely because they are taking design risks.

So which one is it? Is Apple suffering from too much design, or not enough of it?

If you ask me, Apple products speak louder than those who have a bone to pick with Apple and Tim Cook.
 
Time to look at Ive's first design at Apple when he was right off the proverbial Turnip truck. Yes. I'm talking about the 20th Anniversary Macintosh. To say this design is terrible is an understatement. Many break when they were taken out of the box! No wonder Apple offered white glove delivery (literally a guy in a tux) for $10K.
 
SeattleMoose said:
Sadly he will not be remembered for the good things he did in the first half of his career. Instead he will remembered for his form over functionality decisions (related to "thin" obsession) in the 2nd half of his career. These include removing home button and headphone jack, the butterfly keyboard, war on legacy ports, removal of Mag-safe, the useless "touch bar" on the laptops, etc.

If your idea of perfection is a blank white super thin piece of plastic (or metal), almost everything looks like a candidate for removal.
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Btw, was it Jonny, who designed the all-time worst mouse, the hockey puck?

In the news they say that Jony has been very tired after 2015.
When did the butterfly problems start?
 
Abazigal said:
Remind me how Apple is an "operations company" when their margins are the lowest they have been in years? If Tim was the penny-pinching miser you all make him out to be, shouldn't they actually be improving over time?

In the same vein, how does a company release products like AirPods, apple watch and the iPhone X if it wasn't design-led?

Likewise, one could argue that the company is facing quality issues precisely because they are taking design risks.

So which one is it? Is Apple suffering from too much design, or not enough of it?

If you ask me, Apple products speak louder than those who have a bone to pick with Apple and Tim Cook.
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Well there is this guy:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/17/tim-cook-made-apple-boring-operations-company--former-engineer.html

Take it for what it’s worth. But then again you think Apple is primarily a design company, so /shrug
 
A lot of people are pretending that it's not an incredibly high pressure job that he's held successfully for decades.

"C'mon man! Stay at the job you are tired of and continue making stuff that's better than everyone elses's. What's the problem."

He's done his part, he deserves a victory lap and a rest.

Surely there's a worthy successor, maybe someone we don't even know about, who will rise to the occasion.
 
gotta applaud him from not using his name somewhere in the company name. "Design by Jony" or something would just be too cringey. although he could do something in audio with the moniker "JIVE" :p
 
Apple is now at risk of losing the very thing that made them special to begin with. Thanks to Jobs, Apple became great because it had a singular vision, unmarred by committees. From this point on, it could be very easy for Apple to turn into Microsoft. They need to find uncompromising leaders that are allowed to take big risks and fail at them. And I'm not talking about risks like removing the headphones port. I'm talking about jumping into unknown territories and developing products that revolutionize industries. Tim Cook, while great at the operations game is not a visionary person. The next stage in Apple's life is critical. I've been an Apple user since the Quadra 900 and I'm certainly rooting for them. But the odds are certainly stacked against their success at this point. It's quite difficult to manage a massive corporation while also being progressive and innovative. Most secondary teams don't succeed at this. And when companies achieve a certain level of success, they usually start playing it safe. I'll be quite surprised if Apple doesn't turn into something generic and ordinary over the next decade as the last remnants of the Jobs era depart, leaving a wave of unknowns at the wheel. Good luck, Apple. And thanks for the ride, Jony. There were some really great moments there.
 
The-Real-Deal82 said:
Amazed by some of the negative comments celebrating this news. It’s astonishing there is so little knowledge of what this guy has delivered. I think he’ll be missed at the company but obviously his input will continue as his primary client in his new venture is Apple.
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Indeed. An incredible lack of grace and gratitude on display here from a generation that undervalues design and overvalues the sound of its own voice. (It's a lot easier to knock down another kid's block tower than to build your own, and many people seem to never quite outgrow that.)

I've criticised some of Apple's hardware design decisions over the years too, but I'm not about to dis a great designer and his entire body of work as he steps down. For those with short memories (or are too young to remember), here are a few highlights:
  • The original iMac (Love it or hate it, it broke the beige box stagnation of PC design forever.)
  • The original iPod click-wheel (Before touchscreens, this was a breakthrough hardware control.)
  • MagSafe (Never was a plug easier to use. And it saved a lot of Mac laptops!)
  • The original iPhone (Hardware and software design working together to deliver intuitive use from day one.)
  • The slim 'Magic' keyboards (Clunky, chunky typewriter keys begone!)
  • The new Apple Pencil (Well hey, no designer always gets it right the first time!)
  • The new Mac Pro (Okay, so it looks like a cheese-grater, but tell me it doesn't give you that 'me want' reaction anyway? No one can deny the emphasis on function, and yet it's still beautifully designed… you know, in a cheese-gratery kind of way.)
I could list many others given more time. Of course, no one designer is responsible for all this, but Ive was somewhere at the centre, and we can thank him for that.

I don't know that you can overstate the value Ive and his team places on good design, down to the tiniest details, and how that has rubbed off on the entire industry. Jony, thanks for showing the world why good design matters. I may never own an Apple mouse (you never quite got that one right IMHO!), but I'm very grateful for all the beautifully designed Apple hardware that you and your team has given us over the years.
 
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fenderbass146 said:
Jony! Thanks so much for some awesome designs through the years. With that said, I'm not sad to see him go, seems Apple has been fashion over function in the recent years. Ready to see what the next page in Apples history has to offer.
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To the extent that Jony Ive had veto power over hardware engineering, he has helped to damage Apple's reliable hardware reputation, specifically with respect to overly thin laptops that are virtually impossible to repair and that run too hot (and I hardly need mention butterflies!), and iMacs that cannot be easily opened for cleaning. My assumption is that Jony has been the prime "thinness is above all" mover. I too, look forward, somewhat anxiously, to what Apple's future will bring us. Anxiously, because with the likes of Jony gone, a design leadership vacuum can be as dangerous or more dangerous than the obsession with thinness. Jony Ive did provide design leadership and mostly for good, especially after the sad and too early departure of Jobs.
 
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I miss the exciting days of ground-breaking design that changed the way companies thought about design. Jony Ive created the looks (i.e., the 1998 iMacs) that everyone imitated. It has been a while since Apple came up with innovative, ground-breaking design. I hope this will shake the design team up and start coming out with some unprecedented design. And I miss the secrecy of what was coming out of Apple... now seems everyone knows before the keynote and why watch? Tim is no Steve Jobs when it comes to design and hype unfortunately.

I still love the way Macs work! I have been using them since 1984 (even though I am a consultant and work will all platforms professionally) - even though there were bumps in the road under John Scully, Michael Spindler, Gil Amelio, I stuck with Apple.

Bring back eye pleasing, ground breaking, fresh design Apple!

Best wishes to Jony Ive, I hope this helps him summon up his magical design talent
 
Historic time for Apple. The last wind has passed. Jobs.. Forstall.. Ive.

If Jony has been checked-out for the past few years, then I'm afraid he is not the instigator of the poor design choices as of late. In which case, those responsible have only greater leverage. The "Apple spirit" will only continue to perish without new vision.
 
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Schwyz said:
Historic time for Apple. The last wind has passed. Jobs.. Forstall.. Ive.

If Jony has been checked-out for the past few years, then I'm afraid he is not the instigator of the poor design choices as of late. In which case, those responsible have only greater leverage. The "Apple spirit" will only continue to perish without new vision.
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You make a good point I hadn't considered.
 
PrfPam said:
I miss the exciting days of ground-breaking design that changed the way companies thought about design. Jony Ive created the looks (i.e., the 1998 iMacs) that everyone imitated.
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Was it really imitated?
Transparency, round shapes, especially corners, bubble-like design?
I did’n see anything like that back then; everything was pointy and beige.
IMHO, the mimics started to appear only after the ”aluminium age”...
 
Nintendo imitated it with the N64 (the most beautiful gaming console of all time), to be fair. They then went on to do multiple colours, though mostly opaque, for the Game Boy too.
 
toke lahti said:
Was it really imitated?
Transparency, round shapes, especially corners, bubble-like design?
I did’n see anything like that back then; everything was pointy and beige.
IMHO, the mimics started to appear only after the ”aluminium age”...
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Are you kidding me? Every product in the early aughts came in translucent plastic. Heck, even George Foreman grills!
135017-foremangrill.jpg
 
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I have a hunch that Nintendo brought out the the translucent color consoles before the iMac was launched and not after. I couldn't find any definitive dates but what I saw hints at 1997 at the latest.
 
Craigwilliam said:
I have a hunch that Nintendo brought out the the translucent color consoles before the iMac was launched and not after. I couldn't find any definitive dates but what I saw hints at 1997 at the latest.
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Nah mate. The Funtastic bundle series were launched in 2000. Peak translucency mania.
[doublepost=1566539223][/doublepost]Of course the iMac wasn't even Apple's first translucent enclosure.



And how good would these have been outside of testing facilities?

SELarge.jpg
 
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