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Jony Ive Discusses Design Philosophy, Relationship with Steve Jobs, and Future of Apple in New Interview
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Check out the press release when Apple announced Peter Oppenheimer's retirement. Then go back and read the org announcement from October 2012. Forstall got one sentence and no thank you. I don't know exactly what he did to piss off his peers at Apple but clearly he was shown the door because none of them got along with him and he was roadblock to collaboration between teams. I think Craig Federighi is more than capable of handling iOS and OSX and he's just as good as (if not better than) Forstall on stage. It still blows my mind that when Apple was working on the first iPhone Steve wouldn't let the hardware guys see the software or the software guys see the hardware. Is that really the way to design a product?
But another angle there is that in the U.S. in particular, Samsung was able to work the Galaxy line into people's hands at a time when Apple couldn't sell the iPhone on networks not named AT&T. If Apple would've been able to sell the iPhone on more carriers earlier on in the U.S. and other countries throughout the world, I doubt Android would have nearly the steam going for it as it has now. They might've gained a lot of marketshare in the very low end of the market in parts of the world, but that wouldn't have pushed the OS forward like marketshare that generates revenue in the overall ecosystem does. Considering Android has struggled with that even despite getting the jump on Apple on a lot of carriers despite subpar offerings, you have to wonder what things would look like right now if not for so many exclusive agreements.
And at least in the U.S., if the iPhone went to Verizon and Sprint around when Samsung was first launching the Galaxy line and the HTC Evo was the hot Android phone and the Motorola Droid was in there somewhere, Android and the OEMs wouldn't have a prayer in America. I don't think anyone at that point believed for a second that those earlier top Android devices were remotely as good as the iPhone, but too many were not about to head over to AT&T, especially with the ever-present network issues. Again, you just have to look at how much Android has struggled to become a more legitimate competitor in terms of the ecosystem and apps and that's with the early carrier advantages.
I don't think the world revolves around the U.S., but I do think that a crushing victory in America for Apple would've mostly killed any steam developers had to design apps for Android, and that would've made Android more of a non-starter among buyers that are actually looking for a smartphone and not a slightly-smarter feature phone.
I think it's pathetic that Samsung has so shamelessly copied the iPhone over the years as much as more Apple users tend to, but the more I've thought about it, the more I tend to think Apple brought it on themselves by getting stuck in exclusive deals that dramatically limited their ability to sell the iPhone to more people when the competition was much weaker. Ultimately, competition is probably for the best when it comes down to it, but the way in which it developed at Android has been pretty annoying and again, shameless. I'd rather have seen Android die and Windows 7 Mobile perhaps take off a bit more with people. At least they didn't copy, and the whole situation probably would've turned out a whole lot friendlier and complementary than the situation that's developed with Android.
The iPad was innovative. And you say that the iPhone has kept the same design and had no drastic change. Well I disagree I think that going from a phone made of glass to a phone made of mostly aluminum is a big design change. Or going from the plastic back of the 3GS to the glass of the 4. Going back to innovative. Wasn't FaceTime innovative? I think it was. Siri? Faster phones is innovative. What about the double sided lighting connector? I think that was very innovative. Can some one please tell me the name of another phone that has a double sided connector. (I'm not saying they aren't any I just dont know of any). True tone flash. Innovative I don't see other phones that have flash with over 1,000 color combinations.
Couldn't agree more! Love the magic of the Magic Mouse.
Owned one for 4.5 years and it still is a marvel to me how smoothly it scrolls. Now my new MBPr dazzles me with its quiet operation, razor sharp display and bleeding fast responsiveness. Just need an iPad to complete the collection
you do realise MP is not image quality right?
MP is just the resolution (size) of the image. The average phone user only posts to FB anyway which is like 4MP with massive compression haha.
Higher MP is for print, say you wanted to print a poster without enlarging the image past 100% then you would consider a higher MP camera. However I am not sure why you would consider photography for print with a smart phone in the first place it seems a bit stupid when you would be using a DSLR or MILC with different lenses.
Apple has the best phone camera on the market due to the sensor and the optics. If you listen to all that competitor garbage claiming a 16-42MP camera but don't look at the sensor or optics involved you are just going to get a HUGE crap quality photo compared to a smaller, sharp and more accurate coloured photo. 8MP is still print size too.
Anyway, you sound like one of those users that get sucked into impulse marketing by quick buck companies. Go ahead and use the samsung or whatever phone that you think has enough MP for your Facebook needs. You will soon start to hate your photos when comparing against an average iPhone users running rings around yours in terms of image quality.
Seriously, his narration of the iOS 7 intro video brought tears to my eyes. Apple really knows how to present a product!
Interesting, then why is the entire industry copying that?
Also, you may not have noticed but these things called Ultrabooks came out of yet another Apple innovation...those Roku boxes and SmartTV software - AppleTV. So where is this innovation otherwise? Sensors, an area Apple is supposedly getting into.
How about a new OS that features more than just a redesign. How about a simple feature like schedule test messages. How about an innovative project like Google is doing with Glass. How about something more than just updating a camera and processing power that nobody will use or notice at least and come out with innovative features like air gestures and eye detection. How about redesigning a new phone and not just come out with new colors and SLIGHT design changes every year. That's what I want. Sorry if I am asking to much.
Ok, now that you've shown your hand I can only laugh. You are clueless!
There are things about iOS 7 I'm not a huge fan of either and I hope to see improvements in those areas, and I think many are areas we'd agree on. I think things will get better in the next year or two in that regard.
As for Forstall, I'm not denying that the guy was important at Apple and played a big role in some of Apple's biggest successes, but plenty of Apple people have uncharacteristically gone out of their way to address why he got fired, leading me to believe it was probably for the best. Someone summarized the problems heard from plenty at Apple quite well with a sentence, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Scott Forstall didn't realize that being Steve Jobs guy and Steve Jobs' voice on teams didn't make him Steve Jobs."
Forstall was political and a problem when Jobs was around, but once Jobs left, things were getting worse, and many said he was gunning way too hard for the CEO role, trying to divide people even further in his pursuit of it, and all the while doing a poor job of managing the iOS team as iOS struggled to evolve. His last offerings were big on fluff, full of bugs, lacking in functionality, and lacking strategic partnerships. And again, Maps was a thing for a minute there too.
So given all that's been said about the guy by people who know, do you think Apple would've been better off losing several top execs or the one top exec that had a tendency of being at the center of all the others problems?
And to be honest, I'm not sure that we've heard the last of Forstall at Apple. People can grow and learn, and I don't think there's any way that Forstall goes through this process without coming out a better person. No one can deny that the guy is brilliant, and you can't take the success he had away from him. If he can come back to Apple at some point in the future with a better attitude and a firm understanding of what it would take to work in that environment again, he could be an asset that is welcomed back. It's unlikely, but I wouldn't say it's impossible either.
But for now, while I agree, some of the changes are not entirely to my liking, I think Federighi is more than capable of leading the OS X and iOS teams, and I do think many of the problems going on now have a lot to do with the learning curve that accompanies transitions. Time will tell, but a couple years from now, things could be better than ever on the software front for OS X and iOS as the teams adjust and collaboration improves. Hopefully Ive gets over his love of white backgrounds everywhere sometime in that timeframe too. If it all goes to hell, well, maybe Cook will look to some old friends to bring some fire back and shake things up again.
Either way, patience is key, and at it's worst, iOS 7 isn't even remotely as bad as some make it out to be. Really. I could write a very, very long and thorough essay about all the things that annoy me about it and the design elements that I think are utterly terrible, but truth be told, I wouldn't want to go back to iOS 6 after having 7 for about 9 months now counting the beta period. That should tell you something.
Apple will never whore itself to carriers. Android/WP OEMs will. That's one of the reasons I stick with iPhone. I don't want carrier branding on my hardware and I don't want to be beholden to carriers for software updates. I remember when I had an HTC phone on AT&T and neither one could tell me when I was due for a software update. I'd call HTC and they'd tell me to call AT&T. So I'd call AT&T and they'd tell me I need to talk to HTC. Pure madness.
I miss the down button, but at least there is still the option to ignore someone.
Do you really think Apple would've had to make any compromises to get on Verizon and Sprint in 2009 or even early 2010? I sure don't. I think if anything, they might've been able to get a better deal then than they were able to as Android phones weren't real competitors, Windows Phone was barely a thing, Palm had no traction, and Blackberry was bombing in the touch department. Android had already picked up a lot of steam by the time the iPhone launched on Verizon and Sprint, and that's leverage in favor of the carriers, not Apple.
There's a huge difference between the idea of Apple whoring themselves out to carriers and being stuck with exclusive agreements that limit their ability to reach important markets. Huge. The only carrier that had the clout to think about even trying to stand up to Apple around that time was Verizon, but if Apple put out an iPhone on Sprint, T-Mobile and regional carriers, leaving Verizon the only major U.S. carrier out, they would've bent fast. And even so, I don't think they would have put up much of a fuss at all. No one in the mobile world had as much clout as Apple in 2009-2010.
Yeah the back story on all that would be a very interesting read. I've always wondered what the landscape would be like had iPhone been available on AT&T and Verizon at the same time.
UI design is just not his thing and he doesn't really know what he's doing in that field. It's like Michael Jordan trying to play baseball (true analogy btw). I always wondered why Cook couldn't just find someone with similar credentials to Forstall but with a personality and management style that would work well with the rest of the team.
Again why I love Apple. I get the tinkerers who love to customize. I used to be one and would love to build boxes if it didn't cost so darn much and require Windows. But I can deal with the lesser customization when I get such a polished product.
But why? Change for the sake of change? Because one is bored? The iPhone is a great product. It simply works well and the design is well suited to its function. Look at what the latest iPhone can do compared to the first one.