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Jony Ive Details Apple Design Process, iPhone 6 Design Choices in New Interview
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Im generally not impressed by Jony Ive. It seems to me that he likes having his picture taken just a bit too much. While views may vary, I think his work in software is less effective than those before him. I dont care for the flat look. To me, its second rate. Each person has their own views
People who trade off family access/time for work focus make that choice themselves, regardless of industry. I dont have much sympathy for them. Its a problem of their making.
I have most of the iPhones, including 3GS, 4, 5, 5S and 6. Of those I prefer the general feel of the 5. I have cases for all of them and care little what the back looks like. They could put a picture of Alfred E. Newman there and after the first day, Id never see it again.
The screen size for the 6 is a plus. While many like the thin is in approach, I would have welcomed the same thickness as the 5 with more battery. To me, the slightly protruding screen at the edge looks like a liability for screen cracks and breaks. Time will tell here.
There are few real new ideas in the phone business. They all tend to copy ideas already used by others in most cases. The original iPhone was impressive, but represented someone putting a Desktop look on a phone. Both Apple and Microsoft got their graphical UI stuff from someone else, it wasnt their idea.
For me, the underlying additions in software and APIs in IOS8 is way more important than the look of the physical device. Things like being able to answer a text from the lock screen. That works. However many of these areas are ones that have been around for quite some time in hacked phones and other vendor products. I still prefer the control Android devices offered in user settings based on GPS. My Android phone knew I was at the movies and auto silenced itself. When I received texts from important people, while away from my phone, the ability to flash the front LED was a nice feature.
One thing is clear though, Apple knows how to make lots of $. I believe it was Tim Cook who commented that going to the larger formats was related to market research that showed people were buying more larger devices. They have a formula here that works and are sticking to it. To me Ive looks more like a publicity hound and Apple allows it because it brings them more positive PR than negative.
People who trade off family access/time for work focus make that choice themselves, regardless of industry. I dont have much sympathy for them. Its a problem of their making.
I have most of the iPhones, including 3GS, 4, 5, 5S and 6. Of those I prefer the general feel of the 5. I have cases for all of them and care little what the back looks like. They could put a picture of Alfred E. Newman there and after the first day, Id never see it again.
The screen size for the 6 is a plus. While many like the thin is in approach, I would have welcomed the same thickness as the 5 with more battery. To me, the slightly protruding screen at the edge looks like a liability for screen cracks and breaks. Time will tell here.
There are few real new ideas in the phone business. They all tend to copy ideas already used by others in most cases. The original iPhone was impressive, but represented someone putting a Desktop look on a phone. Both Apple and Microsoft got their graphical UI stuff from someone else, it wasnt their idea.
For me, the underlying additions in software and APIs in IOS8 is way more important than the look of the physical device. Things like being able to answer a text from the lock screen. That works. However many of these areas are ones that have been around for quite some time in hacked phones and other vendor products. I still prefer the control Android devices offered in user settings based on GPS. My Android phone knew I was at the movies and auto silenced itself. When I received texts from important people, while away from my phone, the ability to flash the front LED was a nice feature.
One thing is clear though, Apple knows how to make lots of $. I believe it was Tim Cook who commented that going to the larger formats was related to market research that showed people were buying more larger devices. They have a formula here that works and are sticking to it. To me Ive looks more like a publicity hound and Apple allows it because it brings them more positive PR than negative.
I agree that both the six and the six plus are WAAAY too big as a phone. But as an ipad micro the 6 plus is brilliant.
I purchased a 6 plus (I have two phone contracts) as it will drop in my bum bag or belt pouch and I can use it like an iPad micro (with a superb camera) whilst retaining my 5S as my main phone and email device. I don't relish putting something with the cross section of a brick upto my ear - not a good look and more likely to be dropped. The six plus works for me much better than the samsung Galaxy I had before because it runs ios instead of Android and Apple have set it up as a true hybrid device with some of the features of the ipad. I think as they get to grips with the form factor they could add even more tablet like features. It is also much more convenient to carry around than my iPad air when not carrying a bag or backpack.
Now if they allowed all of the iPad gestures it would be perfect.
As to the form factor. I think much thicker and it would have been hard to handle. I think the design was created to make it much easier to hold than a thicker or more squared design. In a smaller form factor the 3GS was more comfortable to hold than the 4 or 5 for example.
And the design, it's all very personal. I keep all my phones in a case but IMHO I like it. My wife persuaded me to go for the gold one (I usually have silver) specifically because the white antenna lines stand out more and make a more interesting design. Thankfully the gold is muted, more champagne than pure gold, which is much more pleasing.
Just an example of what I mean by Apple are slipping with design:
The iPhone 4 rear panel and camera. See how it sits (flush) with the radius in parallel with the outer edge of the phone, the flash sitting neatly in vertical alignment with the power button. Details, very nice design.
Image
See the iPhone 6 rear panel and camera. Well...
Image
While we're on the subject - those antenna bands (ugly, yes, they are whether you pretend to like them or not), remember the iPhone 5? The glass panels in the rear that were made to "microns" thick tolerances, to sit flush with the body? Again, not as nice as the 4 but still, they put the effort in. The iPhone 6? Thick, plastic dividers that you can easily feel the edge of with your fingers, where did the precision, the effort in design go?
"Sadly" I have to agree that iPhone 4 was the most beautiful. While I also like the look of the 5 very much, one have to admit that the "perfection" started to fade away with it. Look at the lens on the i5:
See how it was no longer symmetric? Don't get me wrong, symmetry isn't always the best way to go, and I don't doubt that there must've been some technical reasons behind these design choice, but still... iPhone 4 was the real killer. I loved the i5 too, though not as much as the 4. As for these new iPhones... well, they're nice, still better looking than most of the Android phones, but in my eyes they don't live up to the legacy of the iPhone 4. I might still be getting a 6S next year, because I love iOS.
The iPhone 6 design is amazing. It's a big departure from the design concepts every other phone manufactures are stuck on. You have to see it in person and use it for a while. The way the phone feels in your hands, how the screen makes objects look like it floats on top of the glass, the way the front glass feels so smooth that when you scroll content it feels super buttery (seems like Apple used a different coating this time), etc. It's a a really well "made" phone and you can feel every bit of it. It's got many subtle design cues and tiny details that you will only notice over time (the volume and lock buttons even have chamfered-ish edges that are so tiny!). So the level of unseen detail and the amount of refinement and simplification must have been enormous with the new larger phones. It's too the point you'll either get over the at-first-ugly-bands or actuality end up appreciating it.
Obviously I believe every bit of what Johny said in that interview.
BTW, the phone is nothing like the M8 (just hold one and feel it).
And its nothing like the iPod touches in that not only is the curved glass being seamless to the body and the general shape of the profile view being symmetric is different , but it "feels" completely different.
Obviously I believe every bit of what Johny said in that interview.
BTW, the phone is nothing like the M8 (just hold one and feel it).
And its nothing like the iPod touches in that not only is the curved glass being seamless to the body and the general shape of the profile view being symmetric is different , but it "feels" completely different.
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Copied? Please elaborate a little, I'll wait.
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Your personal biases aside, let's hold until the final iP6/+ sales numbers are in. It seems you'll be dissapointed to learn that this will end up being be the best iPhone launch to date.
Sales don't mean anything in design terms - ie. Beats headphones. Just because something sells well it doesn't mean it's the best actual product. Much of the time far from it in-fact. I work in the Hi-Fi industry and money + marketing talks as per most industries.
And biases aside, I own an iPhone 6, for various reasons. It does many things well. It doesn't mean I'll blindly praise it as perfection and that Apple can only ever piss excellence and do no wrong. That's for the fanboys.
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Completely true - I was one of those saying the leaks of the 5 couldn't be real as that exact point you highlight is so "un-Apple", I was wrong, it was the beginning of a general sloppiness in hardware and software design that seems to be creeping in more and more. Looking at that iPhone camera section it's funny how, in hindsight, it now looks so good compared to the 6! I really hope the 7 is a complete overhaul because the direction since the 4 has not been going the right way! Of course sales are still improving because of reputation and eco system tie-in from existing owners (myself included), but that only lasts so long and the competition have been improving in leaps and bounds.
I can perfectly envision Ive describing to family members about his creation of a prodigious dump that he left in the toilet.
Sleep Button In The Wrong Place.
I own a beautiful Gold iPhone 6 and I am enjoying using it, here comes the but!
The Sleep Button is too high up the side, I completely understand why Apple moved it to the side on the new bigger iPhones but please, opposite the volume buttons
Almost every time I squeeze the 'Sleep Button' I alter the volume up or down. ###
This is not the design thinking that I have come to expect from Apple and enjoyed from the very first iPhone.
I own a beautiful Gold iPhone 6 and I am enjoying using it, here comes the but!
The Sleep Button is too high up the side, I completely understand why Apple moved it to the side on the new bigger iPhones but please, opposite the volume buttons
Almost every time I squeeze the 'Sleep Button' I alter the volume up or down. ###This is not the design thinking that I have come to expect from Apple and enjoyed from the very first iPhone.
Yes! Absolutely my exact same experience. I think of all iPhones so far, the 6 feels the best when holding it, and I have a 5.
I was almost blown away after holding the 6 for a few minutes.
And I'm sure that he tells them that it was unapologetically stinky.
Of course he probably doesn't flush, so that others can appreciate his "work."
Personally, I think Ive was a good hardware design guy. His obsession with thinness is a bit overboard, and I think that form trumps function every time with him. A smartphone that is pulled out of a pocket a million times a day should be more grippy and less prone to being dropped, as opposed to being designed such that it feels like it's been coated in teflon.
My main problem with Ive is not his pompousness or his hardware design miscues; it's the abomination that was iOS7 that we're still suffering through today.
Agreed. I got the 4 and it is still the best. My Mom still uses it. Admittedly she uses it in a case, but if I took it out of the case it would look fantastic. Also it runs iOS 7 very well. And I personally think iOS 7 looks fine.
But my 6 is neither as good looking (especially in the Space Grey I got because I wanted the black front) nor is it as functional. The main use for my phone is to read emails. After every email I have to go back to the mailbox and I can't reach the button in the top left hand corner when using the phone with my right hand. This is such the most basic function for a smartphone that it is infuriating that it requires either use of reachability or a hand shift and stretch to execute. So from my perspective the UI is broken.
The good thing for me is that I've often done more emailing on my blackberry. So I'm reaching more and more for that. The iPhone is definitely the App phone and the big screen is better for surfing the web.
All i heard was blah blah blah, were going to make tiny slabs of unusable pretty things that are more works of art rather than provide the end users with what they are asking for because they are all idiots and don't really want the ability to upgrade or replace components or a good battery life..
but then thats what i hear everytime Jonny Ive opens his mouth.
but then thats what i hear everytime Jonny Ive opens his mouth.
I'm a 6 detractor, but mainly because of the size. But the competition is not catching up. The CPU on the 6 is more powerful and more battery efficient than any Android offering. The fingerprint scanner is the best and will soon become even more important with launch of Apple Pay. The phone is super thin, the screen is really nice, the battery life is great on the 6.
It isn't an inspired looking design. And the length and width is too much for easy one hand use. But nothing out there is as good and I don't think the android manufacturers are getting enough return on investment from their high end phones to continue to fight in this space much longer.
Ideas aren't property, ergo, they cannot be stolen.
Moreover, imitation is the first stage of innovation.
Moreover, imitation is the first stage of innovation.
The biggest thing I find interesting is that I feel in the last year, Apple has seemingly done a lot more press. It seems that Tim and Jony (especially lately) have been "out and about" giving interviews. Perhaps I'm wrong - but i don't remember as much in previous years.
Steve had impeccable taste and he never followed a trend, he set them.
Apple was successful because he didn't lead by consensus or committee.
Unless an insider writes a tell-all book, we'll never how many Jony Ive designs Steve rejected along the way.
Like Lennon & McCartney collaboration produced some of the most memorable songs, neither one alone ever surpassed that going solo.
Apple, Ive & co will still make nice "music" but the biggest hits are behind them.
No, IMO it was not thin enough! I much better prefer the thinner iPhone 6 which smokes the iPhone 5s when it comes to battery life.
Really? He seems to say the opposite when he introduced the iPad and pretty much said it was built on the backs of things like the Kindle. And the iBookstore as well. So he never followed a trend?
I am not discounting he and Apple aren't trendsetters. But no company can exist without ALSO considering the market place.
While I agree with you, I must highlight that you can always swipe back from reading an email to your mailbox (exactly like you can go pack to the previous page in Safari with a swipe), this is a function that was implemented in iOS 7, didn't you know about it?
Unlike the sloppy "reachability" thing, I find this one really neat, I always use it even on my iP5.----------
Your comment kinda made me sad, there must be some truth in it.
Anyway... we just have to keep looking forward. We might never know what future can bring.