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Jony Ive Says Holding Onto Features When There's a 'Better Way' is 'Path That Leads to Failure'
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I own both a 5.5" iPhone and a 7.9" iPad. The difference in screen size is larger than the difference between the larger iPads. Not even the same class.
Jony’s official title is chief design officer, a title that was unofficially held by Steve Jobs, so as chief design officer it’s his responsibility to ensure an overall well-balanced design.
Excerpts from a very well written article focusing on the lessened ease of use from iOS from 7-9 (the “this”below):
“DESIGN ISN’T HOW IT LOOKS, IT’S HOW IT WORKS.
JONY IS NOT SINGLE-HANDEDLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS.
But he’s the most powerful design leader inside Apple, and it’s his job to fix it.”
http://cheerfulsw.com/2015/destroying-apples-legacy/
If you think for a minute that marketing dictates anything to Jony more than the other way around, you are kidding yourself.
Many of us honestly do feel that’s somewhat of an accurate statement when you consider he’s such a minimalist compared to Steve who used to be more about the user experience.
You do realize that pretty soon Jony’s design kingdom that he oversees will find a way to get rid of two doors down to one, then one door down to none where you’ll have to exit via software.
Apple is now starting to remind me of how Microsoft use to be, the mentality of "We know what's best for you and you don't". Consumers like you who are clearly blindly devoted to the company are certainly a value for Apple and help foster that mentality. That's not me. Once a company, any company stops producing products and software that solve a problem for me and instead create new problems that makes it more difficult for me to perform regular actions, I know it's time to look elsewhere for solutions. I have both a MBP mid 2015 with industry standard ports and a company assigned MBP 2017 with just USB C ports (thunderbolt 3). The MBP with all USB C ports cost me an additional $120 in just dongles and the time it took to find them and it requires the use of those dongles 90% of the time I am using it. The 2017 MBP in no way improves my performance or is more convenient for me over the 2015 MBP (which is my preferred laptop). Why would I be satisfied with that or think that is okay? It is not.
One of the biggest reasons I grew to be really accepting of paying 2 to 3 times the cost of a pc for a Mac when I jumped aboard the Apple Mac Pro train in 2006 (and then an iPhone 4 a few years later) was their consistency of a great software/UI experience compared to windows. The beautiful software with UI’s that “just worked” (a phrase I have not heard regarding Apple products for a few years) housed in a clean and simple case were worth the higher cost of entry then membership.
Honest to God‘s truth is that even in the 90s into 2000’s, Microsoft’s completely reinventing Windows every few years was pretty amazing and to me screamed of them admitting they completely blew it before, so: try this new spaghetti on the wall! Apple’s OSX UI and Iphone UI however stayed pretty much the same until around 2014, as it was well-designed from years of experience and then massaged every few years, almost always for the better, never with any radical reinventions just for the sake of style or change. Was no need to fix what was not broken.
Not any more. I gave in reluctantly to ios7 since Apple sets a Chinese finger trap regarding iOS updating, and I hurriedly purchased a MacBook Air in 2014 that still has Mavericks instead of the Fisher Price OSX starting with Yosemite. I sincerely doubt I’d return to a new MacBook if I could not re-image my Mavericks-based Time Machine backup to it, and if they remain usb-c-only. I’m for ease of use, not style of the day.
Your use case is not applicable to the universe of MBP buyers. Apple balances many different factors. Their users want powerful, small and light laptops with long-lasting batteries, and they want them to work well at the office or home, and while out and about. Compromises need to be made amongst these competing interests.
Apple makes what they think will best satisfy the largest number of people. Some would want the smallest and lightest, even if it had less battery run time. Some want the best battery life, even if it were twice as heavy.
Among pros, requirements differ greatly. You wouldn’t prefer your 2015 if you needed to plug in a 5K monitor or two, would you? The 2017 would be the answer to your prayers.
The thing is, Apple doesn’t owe you your perfect laptop. Wanting Apple to make what best suits you, at the expense of satisfying others, is an entitlement mentality that does nothing for you except set you up for continued, future disappointment. Technology moves forward, even if your particular requirements don’t.
Exactly. One random user has no idea what will best satisfy all potential users. They only know what they want, and it always seems to be something from the past, something which won’t require any change on their part. Because for some, change is scary, and must be avoided at all cost.
No insight into what other users need, in fact they couldn’t care less. They just want what they want, and anything else is “unacceptable” or “a toy” or “not pro enough” and proof of “Apple losing its way”.
Yep it’s just me, just one person who would prefer something different than what limited range is offered. You are correct.
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Ives was a force to be reckoned with coerced and emboldened by Jobs. Under Cook he’s just another highly paid employee.
Example:
The top cartoon/statement is simply an incorrect assumption at this stage in Apple’s minimalist design contest of a product plan. Cute try tho!
Actually, I said: one random user has no idea what will best satisfy all potential users.
Apple makes minor refreshes to MBP every year. They make major changes every few years, based on what they think will benefit most users—because they want to sell more MBP, not fewer.
You speak for yourself, and I’m sure others with a similar use case would agree with you. But even if you speak for 30%, you’re still on the losing end. Unless you think Apple should cater to your needs and say screw the 70%.
Compromises have to be made; 100% of users can’t be satisfied when users have different desires. Pretend for a moment that you’re the product marketing manager for MBP. The decisions you make affect all potential customers of next year’s model.
If 30% would prefer the same or slightly thicker but more battery life, while 70% want thinner and lighter even if battery life goes down, what would you have Apple do? Can you answer?
Easy answer. Provide more options. Stop assuming a one-minimalist-size-fits-all approach across such a limited field of hardware options. Secondly, I would re-focus back on function first and fashion/design second, like things used to be. Easy as that. Note that there's an air of "not assuming what's best for all" in there, for which you clearly feel that I (and others) are mistaken to do.
It's too early to know whether Apple will retain MacBook Air and iPhone SE types of options, retaining headphone ports, magsafe, lower resolution 13" screens for better battery life, etc., but that would be a step in the right direction assuming they don't start stripping down those too.
Let me ask you and @Abazigal -- Are you saying there's never a point of too much for you? That you have and will happily accept whatever Apple puts out from here out?
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But it's not just one random user. Certainly more than just me feel as I do, but perhaps more interestingly: how do you/we/Apple know whether more users might actually prefer undoing certain recent changes unless they're given the chance to choose? The problem is there's no choosing. Headphone jacks, usb ports, magsafe, home button, replaceable battery/memory/storage...forced singularity and possibly soon (if MBA & SE go away) no options. Apple's Chinese finger trap method of iOS "upgrading" (no way back) allows zero option for the user who might not prefer what Apple thinks all users should use. Sure Apple owes nothing to the user if Apple chooses to stick to their current ways, but why is it so hard to admit that that path might not be the *best* path for the users? Again, I ask: Are you suggesting you're in for the long haul and willing to take *whatever* Apple puts out?
You didn’t directly answer my question, but I assume you meant you would make two models of MBP, one thicker with more battery and one thinner with less. You’re idea to make both is a disaster, because if you apply that logic to all questions of required compromise, you end up with a proliferation of many different similar models, with different form factors and features in a multitude of permutations. That is a product management nightmare.
Apple is Apple. They make generational changes including port changes when they think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. They believe they’ve designed a better machine for their users than the previous one, and that’s what will be for sale until the next generation is released.
Sometimes they’re wrong—look at the Mac Pro. They blew it. Sales tanked. They recognized the problem, admitted they screwed up, and the next generation will be better as a result. Apple makes mistakes, and when they do, they usually fix them.
When they mis-read the market, they’ll do a reset and try again. But when sales are as good or better than ever, that’s not a sign they screwed up. People complained when they eliminated the floppy, the dvd drive, FireWire, VGA, MagSafe, Ethernet, etc. Life goes on.
Apple is Apple. They make generational changes including port changes when they think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. They believe they’ve designed a better machine for their users than the previous one, and that’s what will be for sale until the next generation is released.
Sometimes they’re wrong—look at the Mac Pro. They blew it. Sales tanked. They recognized the problem, admitted they screwed up, and the next generation will be better as a result. Apple makes mistakes, and when they do, they usually fix them.
When they mis-read the market, they’ll do a reset and try again. But when sales are as good or better than ever, that’s not a sign they screwed up. People complained when they eliminated the floppy, the dvd drive, FireWire, VGA, MagSafe, Ethernet, etc. Life goes on.
Yeah, it was downright awful that they had an MBP and MBA back in 2014 where there was a healthy difference between the two to where I had the option to pick what worked for me better. Yep, Apple would never offer an iPhone SE, 6s, 6s+, 7, 7+, 8, 8+ and X at the same time. Or two different MBP's (touch bar & non-touch bar) at the same time. That'd be really disastrous.
I did answer your question, even if not to your liking.
You didn't answer mine though - Do you believe there never will be a point of Apple going to far, where you'll always happily take whatever Apple gives?
You think thinner isn’t ultimately driven as much by lower bill of materials as Jony’s (imagined) obsession with thinness?
Apple makes one iPhone X. You call that forced singularity, whatever. By your logic above, Apple should make at least four different models of the X: no headphone jack, no home button; no headphone jack, with home button; headphone jack, no home button; headphone jack, with home button. Some don’t like FaceID, they want TouchID. So now Apple needs to make eight models. That would be ridiculous, a complete disaster.
That’s not Apple. Apple makes one X, it has no headphone jack, no home button and no TouchID.
It’s my choice whether I want the new model or not. If Apple “goes too far” and makes something I don’t want, I won’t buy it. I assume everyone else will do the same.
But you won’t find me bitching day after day, that Apple should make me a X with a headphone jack, TouchID and an LCD screen that I prefer over OLED.
Lithium is a very expensive material, the more efficient apple’s products can be, the less battery they can use, the lower the cost to them is. Aluminium is quite pricy too, the less they can use of that, the lower their costs will be. It’s all about margins. A thinner MBP will have a lower bill of (raw) materials
Good Lord.
Forced singularity = trending towards no headphone jack, no magsafe, no usb 3.0, etc. Reduced ease of use and well-rounded experience for the sake of "less is more" minimalism. Not two types of iPhone X (regardless of there being two types of 8, 7, 6s, etc.) but rather: at least maintain an iPhone w/smaller footprint, headphone jack, and button (all things I prefer), and a MacBook with magsafe, usb 3.0's, and (wishful thinking) replaceable memory/storage/RAM. Sure, removing an optical disk drive & Ethernet port were controversial, then died down. But there can be a point of too much, where all you're left with is a screen (if we're lucky), a keyboard (if we're lucky), and a trackpad (if we're lucky).You do sound like others should not complain at all, but take what they're given, end of story. Related, I'll ask you a third time: Do you feel that there never will be a point of removing too much? That you'll happily accept whatever Apple offers?
Answer?
1) There’s still a “healthy difference” between the MBA and MBP, and you’re still free to choose which works better for you. No idea what you’re complaining about.
2) Apple continues to offer older models as long as they sell. That’s different from introducing a new generation with multiple models that offer both the new features and old features.
3) You didn’t really answer my question of would you do thinner or thicker. Both was not a choice. Then Apple would have to design and manufacture two different form factors. That wasn’t an option.
4) I did answer your question, you just aren’t waiting long enough for the reply.
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Already answered, you are just too impatient.Good Lord.
You do sound like others should not complain at all, but take what they're given, end of story. Related, I'll ask you a third time: Do you feel that there never will be a point of removing too much? That you'll happily accept whatever Apple offers?
Yes it is.
I've noted elsewhere that making things thinner and lighter significantly reduce packaging and shipping costs, which contribute significantly to margins.
Though, for the record, Jony IS obsessed with thin for the sake of it.