Charisma can be a dangerous thing in the wrong hands. I prefer level-headed leadership myself.
Ever hear the saying, don't judge a book by its cover? Yeah... this is what it means.
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New Profile Delves Into Background of Jony Ive Successor Jeff Williams
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Ever hear the saying, don't judge a book by its cover? Yeah... this is what it means.
Really good question. Sounds like an interesting situation. I guess we’ll know for sure as the year goes on. I wonder if it’s Apple that really wants to hold onto Jony or if Jony really still wants work closely with Apple.
...Or both.
Having Williams oversee young designers isn't a bad thing. He may or may not be a visionary, but a pairing like Jobs and Ive comes along once in a generation. Apple needs to keep looking for and nurturing visionary thinkers and have the courage to let them truly innovate. Management obviously will have to know what a visionary thinker is when they encounter one, and then guide them appropriately. That's where Jobs was brilliant. Hopefully that's the cultural instinct that he tried to leave the company.
Apple didn't really "invent" the future. Jobs was a master at recognizing tech trends and distilling them down to their essence to make them widely accessible. Apple rarely was first to market a particular product category; they just did it better than any other company.
Jony's only charisma was in his designs. He is almost pathologically shy. Strangely enough, for the people now actually working in design, Williams is just fine.
He’s replacing the supposed void that that was Jony these last few years.
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Correction: Does his charisma determine how well he leads people who design things?
He's still got more Charisma that Tim Cook. Cook is trying to make himself look better by surrounding himself with worse people.
Williams isn't replacing Ive. Industrial design and the human interface team is just going to report to Williams. I don't see what the big deal is. Who else would they report to? Schiller? Cook? We've known for years Tim Cook is not a product guy. Jobs even said it in the Isaacson biography.
Ive is tired. He wants to design something else besides the next iPhone or Watch, etc. Honestly, something needs to be done on the Mac side. Apple spent years redesigning their Mac chassis's, then iPods, then iPhones, etc.
They've been in a design lull for the past few years. The current Mac Pro, which was interesting, turned out to be the G4 Cube all over again and iMac hasn't seen a major design change since 2009 (really you could make the argument it's the same design since 2005, just slimmer and aluminum).
They're finally stepping out of the box with the Mac Pro (2019). I would not be surprised to see them make some bolder choices going forward.
This will end up being a positive for Apple and maybe Ive too.
Yes. What Jony and complainers totally miss the mark on is, there is necessary skeumorphism that lends to that “it just works” feel (the absence of which can make an operating system exceedingly frustrating and unnecessarily unintuitive to use), and there is optional skeumorphism that must feel like visual nails on chalkboard to people who just can’t stand green felt, woodgrain, and shiny chrome (but which the rest of us treat like harmless visual candy).
Me, I strongly prefer the good skeumorphism in UIx that helps you subconsciously use an operating system. Buttons, high contrast, 3D “press-able beckoning” items.
Things like flat design and text-based actionable items and 99% of the changes for the sake of change ushered in by iOS 7 have ruined the iOS experience for me and many.
I just hope this new guy gets that and fixes Jony’s unnecessary fashion-first goofology we’ve suffered with since 2013.
It is coming back...at least a little. in iOS13, when you take a screen shot the mark up markers look like little markers. I really like it.
How is charisma a requirement?
Maybe you’re looking for Steve “the Balmdog” Balmer?
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That’s the silliest thing I’ve heard in awhile. Thank you!
Skeuomorphism was an important design element in the early days of modern GUIs in order to coax user interaction.
Now, 20 years later, people have learned the ropes of interacting with a GUI. Today it’s unnecessary distracting bloat.
A lot of y'all sword-swallowers need to get up off your kneepads and stop worshiping Ive and Jobs. Sure, they've done some fabulous work in the past, but they've also made some poor decisions as well. They are not gods; they are/were human beings, fallible like everyone else (and perhaps more susceptible due to their positions of power). Time will tell how this shuffling of management will play out, but I guarantee there are no facts which prove that Apple will churn out products of less quality due to Ive's departure and Williams succession.
For those who can read more than two paragraphs - and can bear to have their viewpoints challenged - Eric S. Raymond posits some valid concerns regarding Steve's (and Ive's, by extension) legacy: http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=3790. For those unwilling to read the whole piece, the most pertinent paragraph therein posits:
Step out of the cave, folks. Stop worshiping the shadows.
For those who can read more than two paragraphs - and can bear to have their viewpoints challenged - Eric S. Raymond posits some valid concerns regarding Steve's (and Ive's, by extension) legacy: http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=3790. For those unwilling to read the whole piece, the most pertinent paragraph therein posits:
Commerce is powerful, but culture is even more persistent. The lure of high profits from secrecy rent can slow down the long-term trend towards open source and user-controlled computing, but not really stop it. Jobs’s success at hypnotizing millions of people into a perverse love for the walled garden is more dangerous to freedom in the long term than Bill Gates’s efficient but brutal and unattractive corporatism. People feared and respected Microsoft, but they love and worship Apple – and that is precisely the problem, precisely the reason Jobs may in the end have done more harm than good.
Step out of the cave, folks. Stop worshiping the shadows.
Seriously? That’s the second dumbest thing I’ve heard today. I guess in your mind that’s how Apple achieved its astonishing level of success.
To be fair the fashion aspect would have sold it to me more than the health/fitness, that said I recall the health side was held back due to sensor issues or something? It wasn’t quite ready for that at that point.
What hurt the first release was not the fashion accessory label, it was that it had to be tied to an iPhone to be of any real use...it should have been a full on stand alone product like it is now. But in the compromise I think they allowed the fashion target Jony aimed for but kept it tied to iPhone instead of a stand alone product.
What hurt the first release was not the fashion accessory label, it was that it had to be tied to an iPhone to be of any real use...it should have been a full on stand alone product like it is now. But in the compromise I think they allowed the fashion target Jony aimed for but kept it tied to iPhone instead of a stand alone product.
"Jeff has shared a first glimpse of the next iPhone."
When Jony Ive announced that he is leaving Apple to start his own design firm, Apple confirmed that chief operating officer Jeff Williams is set to oversee many of the product design responsibilities previously held by Ive. In a new profile today by The Wall Street Journal, Williams' history at Apple is highlighted, including his potential as a future successor to CEO Tim Cook.
According to people who work closely with Williams, he has been "more visible" in the development of Apple products than Cook. Williams has displayed interest in the look and feel of certain products, and helped pivot the Apple Watch away from its fashion-focused launch to one predominantly concerned with health and fitness features that can be achieved without a connected iPhone.
Additionally, Williams was on the product development team that was responsible for the iPhone 4, and his contributions reportedly "quieted doubters" within Apple about his ability to contribute to the design stage. One unnamed source described Williams' knowledge in a thermal-engineering meeting: "It was impressive for a negotiator, and spreadsheet guy, and it just came naturally to him."
Yet, some people wonder if Williams' executive skills are enough to lead Apple product design, and live up to Ive's legacy.
Apple chose to promote from within instead of finding outside blood to replace Ive, which analyst Bob O'Donnell said would have been almost impossible anyway. "What they're doing is saying, 'let's reallocate how we think about this and put someone else overseeing a few young designers to give them leeway.' It's time for fresh blood. The last few iPhones have looked really similar."
Many of WSJ's sources wondered about Apple's future and what its next major product invention will be, and how that will be achieved without Ive's leadership. "You could have looked at Jony and said: 'He's the soul of Steve Jobs,'" said Ensemble Capital president Sean Stannard-Stockton. "I just wonder about their ability to invent the future now."
Ive is set to leave Apple sometime later this year.
Article Link: New Profile Delves Into Background of Jony Ive Successor Jeff Williams
When Jony Ive announced that he is leaving Apple to start his own design firm, Apple confirmed that chief operating officer Jeff Williams is set to oversee many of the product design responsibilities previously held by Ive. In a new profile today by The Wall Street Journal, Williams' history at Apple is highlighted, including his potential as a future successor to CEO Tim Cook.
According to people who work closely with Williams, he has been "more visible" in the development of Apple products than Cook. Williams has displayed interest in the look and feel of certain products, and helped pivot the Apple Watch away from its fashion-focused launch to one predominantly concerned with health and fitness features that can be achieved without a connected iPhone.
Additionally, Williams was on the product development team that was responsible for the iPhone 4, and his contributions reportedly "quieted doubters" within Apple about his ability to contribute to the design stage. One unnamed source described Williams' knowledge in a thermal-engineering meeting: "It was impressive for a negotiator, and spreadsheet guy, and it just came naturally to him."
Yet, some people wonder if Williams' executive skills are enough to lead Apple product design, and live up to Ive's legacy.
Apple chose to promote from within instead of finding outside blood to replace Ive, which analyst Bob O'Donnell said would have been almost impossible anyway. "What they're doing is saying, 'let's reallocate how we think about this and put someone else overseeing a few young designers to give them leeway.' It's time for fresh blood. The last few iPhones have looked really similar."
Many of WSJ's sources wondered about Apple's future and what its next major product invention will be, and how that will be achieved without Ive's leadership. "You could have looked at Jony and said: 'He's the soul of Steve Jobs,'" said Ensemble Capital president Sean Stannard-Stockton. "I just wonder about their ability to invent the future now."
Ive is set to leave Apple sometime later this year.
Article Link: New Profile Delves Into Background of Jony Ive Successor Jeff Williams
What’s telling is we have yet to see anyone corroborate the WSJ stories. You would think if they told truth other publications would be backing them up with similar stories or former employees would be putting up Medium posts or Twitter threads. And yet nothing. Crickets.
Amazing product all the way around. And all the R&D and the technologies that have been developed for it, including miniaturization can be leverage towards better iPhones , iPads, AirPod, MacBooks and more.
I know I shouldn’t judge someone on their appearance, but there’s literally no cool factor about Jeff what so ever. Stale comes to mind. Jony just had something about him, that I don’t think Jeff could ever match.
It really is. The Watch has gone from an accessory to the iPhone to an impossibly miniaturized, self contained wrist worn computer in just a few years. I trust him.
That said, he’s not the most charismatic fellow. Tim’s keynotes aren’t Stevenotes but he has a good energy and enthusiasm. Jeff’s monotone presentation style is going to put us to sleep. He should defer to other presenters. Federighi is fantastic. I’d be ok if he became the face of Apple.
All he needs to do is to allow a design which accommodates bigger battery and he will be alright!
The employees interviewed requested to stay anonymous for a reason. My guess is that they are Scott Forstall loyalists who see this as an opportunity to badmouth Jony Ive now that he is on his way out. They are not going to risk their careers by blogging about it in public; else they would have done it long ago.
In short, it’s much ado over nothing. What company doesn’t have its share of disgruntled workers and office politics? This story would have been a non-starter under normal circumstances, if not for the departure of Jony Ive producing the perfect storm for such a story to take root.
I so hope you are right. I cannot take any more "thin" products. I really cannot. I think we've hit peak "thinness" and now I want products that don't overheat and that can be more powerful and useful without messed up keyboards, etc.
I give Ive credit for some great successes, but his "thin" and "fashionable" crap was ruining Apple's products. Frankly, I'm glad he's leaving. I wish him well, but I am very glad he's leaving.
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I liked it, and I miss him as well. iOS 7 sucked and I'm glad they are beginning to change direction a bit. I would like to see Scott come back someday.
Whoever officially said that the sole purpose of certain skeumorphic affordances was solely for teaching the ropes.
Are you in full belief that offering a button that looks like a button to differentiate actionable items from info-only items offers zero value and is just bloat, and actually "distracting?"
I’m interested in hearing at least 3 ways the ios6 email and calendar apps were distracting and bloated compared to the ios7-13 versions. I can offer numerous examples of how the newer simplified looking uix is worse.
Better yet. If things like “real life” yellow lined paper, green felt pool tables, radios with tactile buttons, and wall calendars with discernible borders/zones still seem to be valued and useful, why have they not been cast away as distracting and cluttered in “real life?” Because they add some value. That value has been stripped away from Apple since 2012. Good riddance Jony.
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