Jony Ive Says Holding Onto Features When There's a 'Better Way' is 'Path That Leads to Failure'

[sziehr]

Apple PR machine out in full force today. Wonder if the waning sales of the iPhone X are a cause.

Yep the Face ID gamble and the high price it comes with it is not paying off like they had hopped. They needed to show stock outs till January to pump the stock price up to the trillion dollar company mark. Ming Chi will have to spin some new tale on some new super cycle to keep those in it to stay

I Kidd but the reality is this is typical of apple after a launch and the stock levels get back to normal we get to talk to the team about what ever new item is. They did this with AirPods as well. So I am not super surprised

 

[myscrnnm]

It wouldn't bother us if they offered more designs/alternatives. If Jony & Dan & Tim ran Honda, there'd only be NSX's & F1 cars in the showrooms.

This analogy makes absolutely no sense. The iPhone X is like an NSX (halo product with latest technology and highest price), iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are like the Civic and Accord (established midrange models that will appeal to the average consumer), and the SE is like the Fit (compact no frills experience for someone who only needs their car/phone to do one thing). Therefore both companies are run in a similar fashion.

The product lineup at Apple is varied and has something in every niche, which makes complete sense as it makes more business sense to have a slice of every pie rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. Although personally I believe this has compromised Apple's vision; gone are the days when there was one iPhone and two color choices.

 

[GoldenJoe]

Absolutely mind boggling that someone can keep their job after designing the notch, which is not only ugly and hated by 99% of users, but also required an API change and for developers to adopt it. Only Apple.

 

[ToneDriver]

Sheesh, I suppose you need to have high minded ideas about everything if you work for a company like Apple, but take it down a notch ~giggle~ now and then Jony. You too, Tim.

 

[the johnmc]

So, we should have a magsafe, sunflower, spring loaded, iMac and iBook right now? Magsafe was great and I'm weary of buying a new Macbook without but unless they can come up with Magsafe USB C I can understand.

Wary or leery. Weary means tired.

 

[macmurray]

Dear Johnny,
I hate face ID. It fails at least 30% of the time even after many re-trains. The truth is this:

You needed an edge-to-edge display because the Android guys were killing in there and you couldn't figure out how to get touch ID under the display so you gave us this other garbage instead.

Dont get me wrong, I love the iPhone X. I have no problem what-so-ever with the notch, but face ID is pure (provenly insecure) crap.

Weird, Face ID has been flawless for me in all types of scenarios. Low light, bright light, partially obscured face, etc. And neither of my children (who I’ve been told look a lot like me) can unlock my phone. The only time I kind of miss Touch ID is when the phone is laying flat on a surface and I don’t feel like picking it up, but even in that case I can just enter the passcode and it’s not a big deal considering all the other positives I am experiencing with the device and Face ID in particular.

Are you aware that Face ID trains itself as you use it? By manually re-training you are throwing out all that learning every time you re-train. Maybe let it build a profile for a while and see how it works after a week.

 

[fairuz]

Its hardly clutter-free in my opinion... Its a grid of apps that snap to position and you have no control over. Being able to move apps where you want them to make your home screen clutter free would be ideal. Or, the user option to add other information, like widgets, since we all have different needs.

So you just want to be able to move them to positions that aren't aligned? That would make them more cluttered. There are already folders and pages. There's no need for further control over where exactly you put the icons. And there are already widgets, just in a dedicated screen so the app pages aren't cluttered.

 

[WitneySi]

Source?

Common sense.

 

[myscrnnm]

Absolutely mind boggling that someone can keep their job after designing the notch, which is not only ugly and hated by 99% of users, but also required an API change and for developers to adopt it. Only Apple.

Where did you get that metric? Pretty sure the majority of people who actually own an iPhone X don't mind the notch at all.

 

[scorpy2643]

Jack must return on iPhones.
Jack must remain in iPads and Macs.
USB-A, HDMI and SD-Card slots must return to Macs.

Damn minimalism. I want a real computer, not a ****ing accessories ****-show.

I want to use my damn headphones and all my devices. Do you guess what port allows me to do that? Yep, the danm Jack port.

I need to use Touch ID because Face ID does not work for me because of with my disabilities.

****ing Apple.

I've been a loyal customer for 15 years. Now I want to nope out of Apple because all this nonsense, among with macOS and iOS software quality (horrible).

**** John Ive, **** the current Apple.

Hi, this is Bob at the horse and buggy shop. We put the new buckboard on your buggy, and oiled your whip. Fresh shoes on your horse as well. That will be 3 chickens please! Please come before dark, as we haven't installed those new fangled electric lights yet.
[doublepost=1510864024][/doublepost]

Where did you get that metric? Pretty sure the majority of people who actually own an iPhone X don't mind the notch at all.

He used the anal extraction method. Messy, but oh so scientific.

 

[JGIGS]

Apple PR machine out in full force today. Wonder if the waning sales of the iPhone X are a cause.

PR Machine is out in full force (in general right now) because they recently released products in their most popular and largest revenue generating segment. One of which is a totally new design. If sales are waning (proof?) It doesn't mean the X or 8 for that matter are devices people don't like and not making a purchase based on that. One is still the best of an older design and the other has been pretty well received by most buyers/reviewers. Pricing and people not needing to upgrade a phone model as urgently may have an impact.

 

[marty1980]

Silly Time, it’s pronouned iPhone ‘X’

 

[Rhartford]

About it failing for you, no idea why that's happening, it's flawless for me. When it fails, I know why - the phone is in landscape mode, I'm laying back in a recliner watching tv and looking down at it, it's further from my face than should be expected, etc.

That’s a lot of reasons for it to fail, tbh...

 

[Suckfest 9001]

I don't see why we have to listen to a fashion accessory designer who's speaking of things completely outside of his realm of expertise.

 

[JamieLannister]

The amount of dung this guy speaks even my father would approve...

 

[deanthedev]

Apple PR machine out in full force today. Wonder if the waning sales of the iPhone X are a cause.

If you hope and pray enough maybe this will come true. Maybe.

Meanwhile the iPhone X is flying off the shelves and Apple is predicting $84-87 billion revenues in this coming quarter. Amazing how Apple can have the highest record quarter in their history with “declining” sales.

 

[RuffyYoshi]

So using $80 dongles is a 'better way' than having ports that everyone needs? F*ck off.

 

[edenwaith]

Removing legacy components is not necessarily a bad move, per se, as long as there is a better replacement.

When the original iMac was released without a writable drive, it effectively turned the machine into a "read-only" computer. It wouldn't be until three years later that the iMac came equipped with a CD-RW. In the meantime, anyone who wanted to be able to swap data back and forth with their iMac had to buy and external disk drive. The "i" in iMac stands for Internet, but the internet in 1998 was still mostly dial-up at home, and not a suitable means of large data transfer.

At least, by the time the optical drive was removed from the MacBook Pro in 2012, most software was being distributed via the internet, whether it be a direct download or the Mac App Store. Plus, Apple had had a couple of years to get things prepared with the introduction of the MacBook Air in 2008.

My biggest gripe with the removal of the standard headphone jack in the iPhone 7 was that it made it difficult to be able to charge up the phone and listen to music at the same time. With the introduction of AirPods, and now the inductive charging in the iPhone 8 and X, it helps to assuage some of these concerns so the sole port isn't being overloaded.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

It's certainly worked for Apple in the past.

Removed floppy from the original iMac in 1998. People claimed it'd kill it but it was the product that brought Apple back from the brink of failure.

Put USB on iMac. People claimed it was a horridly stupid move but it ended up being the catalyst for the entire market that later moved to USB, thanks largely to the popularity of the iMac which drove peripheral makers to adopt USB.

Removed DVD-ROM from laptops and desktops. Again people claimed it'd kill them and again it worked just fine.

Removed headphone jack. People went crazy but over a year later it seems nearly everyone is perfectly fine with it and most haven't been impacted by the lack of a headphone jack.

 

[dk001]

This is totally wrong. Customers want an end goal but they don't really know the best way to get to it. They always think they do, but you have to show them otherwise. And when you do, you succeed far further.

Yes and no.
I have a good bit of Apple stuff.
I bought a rMB. Won't buy another or another designed like it. The "single port" feature has proven to be a fail.
I looked at the new MBP - not going that route either.
Dongleville is not a route I am happy with and it is not leading me to where I need to be.

So yes, they lost me as a customer in that arena.

 

[pauloregan]

I have to say I’m a bit underwhelmed with the iPhone X. It doesn’t hit the heights the hype implied. I am an apple lover and have about a dozen apple products in the house.

Hopefully the HomePod will be a hit. Looking forward to Aiplay2.

 

[justint1989]

So there's never a time to say "enough" for a given product or technology? I'm not saying the time is now; I'm critiquing Jony's MO that's going to keep over-polishing at the sacrifice of overall user experience: "Keep removing, keep simplifying, keep lessening...the user experience..."

Are you going to write letters for why fork & spoon design haven't progressed in the past century? Or to restart the innovations in new musical instruments that pretty much stopped in the 18th century?

Well to be fair the design didn’t change from the 6 to 8, and people are up in smoke screaming. They changed the design for the X and people are still screaming. No one is ever happy.

 

[Baymowe335]

So is this the device Ive envisioned or does the notch blow it as being a single sheet of glass?

Evidence for said waning sales? Or do you mean the shortening shipping times that Apple telegraphed would happen when they guided for $87B THIS quarter.

Stop posting this nonsense. Apple knows only diehards read this stuff anyway.

Production is ramping and the iPhone X is selling like hot cakes. Good retail ability this morning and 80% of the stores have none now. I can’t get an iPhone X if I wanted one right now and I live in a top 5 metro area.

 

[Tozovac]

This analogy makes absolutely no sense. The iPhone X is like an NSX (halo product with latest technology and highest price), iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are like the Civic and Accord (established midrange models that will appeal to the average consumer), and the SE is like the Fit (compact no frills experience for someone who only needs their car/phone to do one thing). Therefore both companies are run in a similar fashion.

The product lineup at Apple is varied and has something in every niche, which makes complete sense as it makes more business sense to have a slice of every pie rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. Although personally I believe this has compromised Apple's vision; gone are the days when there was one iPhone and two color choices.

8 and 8plus appealing to the "base/average" consumer? Puh-lease. The only thing about your response I'll partially agree with is that for now there are still 6's and SE's and refub'd 6's available from Apple, for the "average" consumers who might prefer a smaller phone, headphone jack, touch-ID, smaller price tag, at least a hint of a bezel for those of us who don't consider our phone a jewelry/accessory piece and who use a case to address the iPhone's durability design flaw, etc. Give it a few years of Jony's continual removing of key user-convenience features and the entire lineup will be headphoneless buttonless bezel-less expensive phones.

My analogy wasn't so much about some consumers shopping for price as much as it was some consumers shop for certain features as well as price. At least I do.

Let's see what things are like in 3 years when Jony & his gang run out of user-interface features to remove, and the entire store is filled with black, white, & rose gold soapbars with no discernible front/back top/bottom...

 

[WannaGoMac]

FaceID across the board, probably not just next year but years to come. That's why it baffles me why add TouchID on a MacBook when you know you already have this tech in-house? Why not just wait till it's featured THEN introduce it to all your product line that can be accessed securely via FaceID (iPhone, iPad, MacBook)?

I've been wondering the same thing. Why did they bother FINALLY adding Touch ID when they were about to release FaceID??