WSJ: Jony Ive Became 'Dispirited' After Apple Watch and Sometimes Failed to Show Up to Meetings

[Cyrax]

I think the lack of a Jobs-like presence with regards to Ive has been felt in Apple for a long time, but in a different way. Cook handed over all of design to Ive and I think the power Ive had is how we ended up with stuff like Macbooks without functional keyboards and phones without headphone jacks. The Touch Bar is a thing of beauty but doesn't feel very good to use and isn't of much use anyway. There are all sorts of problems that come from making the devices so thin yet they keep going down that route. The design of these things is eating into functionality. Now I'm not going to pretend that never happened with Jobs as CEO (puck mouse anyone) but they got it right more often than not. Now, when Apple gets it right they get it really right (AirPods), but more often than not, they release these beautiful products with serious shortcomings in functionality and reliability. I'm not going to say that is Ive's fault, the point of Ive is to design and he designs. It's the lack of a guy telling him that Apple's reputation comes from making devices that are beautiful and functional and reliable.

But now we might be entering a world where the operations MBAs are the only ones in power, and if that's the case, look out. We're in for some rough times and sooner than you think.

 

[AdonisSMU]

“Got dispirited by Apple becoming more of a services company but wanted the Watch to be a fashion accessory.”

Got it, that makes total sense! I used to like this guy. He’s lost it and just became a humorless, pompous git obsessed with thinness. Too bad the millions got to his neurons. Let’s see what he designs for Huawei...

Johnny Ive wanted to be a fashion brand and not a tech company. Yikes!

 

[Rogifan]

Johnny Ive wanted to be a fashion brand and not a tech company. Yikes!

So instead Apple is going to be in the subscription news and TV business.

 

[apolloa]

The Apple Watch has been a much bigger success than iPad. It is about to pass the entire swiss watch industry in sales. It dominates the smart watch market. What are you talking about?

Why do people make this silly comparison, the people who buy Apple watches on average do not spend thousands on Swiss exotic craftsmanship. It’s like claiming Casio’s sell more then the Swiss watch industry. Well of course they do......

 

[Rogifan]

When Steve Jobs was around to question everything and to advocate for the user experience, Jony Ive had a great client and his talents were pointed in the right direction. A designer needs a good client. Without Jobs, well, it seems like Ive sort of checked out, and the design vocabulary of Apple really reflects that. We've gotten half-baked things like the Touch Bar -- a design looking for a problem to solve. Or crummy shortcuts like keyboards that don't feel like keyboards (and break easily). Dead end machines like the trash can Mac Pro. Desktop Macs (new Mac Pro aside) whose design hasn't really been touched in the better part of a decade.

This is pure conjecture. There were plenty of complaints about Apple products when Steve Jobs was running the show.

 

[myrtlebee]

This explains the keyboard cluster ****. He just didn’t care.

 

[Yr Blues]

Good riddance, not showing up for the job that you are paid to do. Which other apple employee has this privilege?

In Apple he is literally God. You can do whatever you want if you helped build a bajillion dollar company and award winning designs.

Cut him some slack. He was the core-DNA of Apple after Jobs died.

 

[BigBoy2018]

everyone wants one.
Get with it.

EVERYONE?

Exaggerate much?

P.S. its a sign of a weak argument if you feel the need to exaggerate.

 

[fonzy91]

It's absolutely true that a team need leadership, and hopefully they'll get a new leader since Ive is leaving. But the fact that the article says that the one product he focused really hard on was the watch is not encouraging news. In my opinion the first Apple watch was one of the least attractive Apple Products, side black bazels on the screen, thick and bulky, an almost squared face. Other brands have designed much better looking smart watches. On the other hand, the iPhone X is a gem and so it's the new gesture basted interface, so I think the team is very capable even without Ive.

 

[Nanotyrns]

I don't have time to go through 11 pages of hot takes where we blame Ive for a long litany of recent Apple failures so I'll just lead with this --

This is very sad to read about. There's no way Ive wasn't heavily impacted by Steve Jobs' passing in 2011. Imagine losing your creative soulmate after working with them for 10 straight years on great product after great product helping to save a company you believed in.

Steve Jobs was the catalyst and brought together a great team that pushed Apple from practically bankrupt to the behemoth it was at his passing. We all knew the company would fundamentally change after his passing. You just don't 'hire' another Steve Jobs. No one ever believed that Tim Cook was another Jobs but he was the hand-picked successor and Jobs believed he had built a company that could survive without him.

It's just not that easy. Both Pixar and Apple changed tremendously without Steve Jobs. Pixar used to be about telling new stories but after it's sale to Disney it's just a sequel factory coasting on past hits. Maybe the same can be said about Apple currently. For a short glorious period every Apple product got updated every single year, from the iPod Shuffle right up to the Mac Pro. Now we're fortunate if MacBooks get a single spec update inside of 3 years to say nothing of the Mac mini and Mac Pro languishing so desperately for so long that everyone began to openly speculate that they might be discontinued altogether.

Apple will never again be the company it was prior to 2011. There is not going to be another Steve Jobs. No one can replace him. To me this is a sad story about Jony Ive finally realizing things were never going to be the same again and wanting to move on.

 

[ronno]

Go back and reread the article, it clearly states that apple creating a 17,000 gold version AND partnering with Hermès Clearly its two different actions.

The way that sentence is written is misleading. It implies that the gold watch and the Hermès partnering are part of the same action.
Since we’re nitpicking

 

[Don1985]

Can we all agree not to abbreviate the term “I have” in articles about Jony Ive?

It’s very confusing.

 

[AdonisSMU]

I think the lack of a Jobs-like presence with regards to Ive has been felt in Apple for a long time, but in a different way. Cook handed over all of design to Ive and I think the power Ive had is how we ended up with stuff like Macbooks without functional keyboards and phones without headphone jacks. The Touch Bar is a thing of beauty but doesn't feel very good to use and isn't of much use anyway. There are all sorts of problems that come from making the devices so thin yet they keep going down that route. The design of these things is eating into functionality. Now I'm not going to pretend that never happened with Jobs as CEO (puck mouse anyone) but they got it right more often than not. Now, when Apple gets it right they get it really right (AirPods), but more often than not, they release these beautiful products with serious shortcomings in functionality and reliability. I'm not going to say that is Ive's fault, the point of Ive is to design and he designs. It's the lack of a guy telling him that Apple's reputation comes from making devices that are beautiful and functional and reliable.

But now we might be entering a world where the operations MBAs are the only ones in power, and if that's the case, look out. We're in for some rough times and sooner than you think.

I actually think that Tim Cook was supposed to be grooming Ive for CEO but Ive was probably just stayed too long and should’ve taken a break to go out in the world and be creative then come back as CEO or some other higher position.

Ive still being at Apple didn’t allow anyone else to fill the power vaccuum.

 

[CJM]

Ive also probably didn't like the idea of AR glasses or the car, after Apple decided to can the prospect of creating a complete car from the ground up. I.e. the self-driving part of it became software rather than hardware.

 

[Defthand]

Steve Jobs personally hand picked Tim Cook to run the show, and its not like Cook hid his abilities and short comings. Jobs knew what Cook was about and chose him.

Leaders with big egos rarely choose equals (or better) to be their successors. Would you risk having your legacy upstaged or diminished by those that follow?

 

[iZac]

When your boss doesn't give a damn about design, you stop putting the effort in. I don't blame him. Having a fresh environment will reinvigorate your creativity. It must be the whole reason he brought Marc Newson in, he wasn't getting any creative input from the management.

I winced when they said the Mac Pro vent design was hanging around for years. It's clear that the 2013 Mac Pro was pulling design features from the G4 iMac. Hell, the current MacBook Pro design is essentially from 2009.

I'm not saying recycling old designs is bad in and of itself, but it speaks to a lack if fresh ideas.

 

[davidhunternyc]

No, no, no! This is BAD!
Who is going to do the voiceover to the next products video presentations?

Ricky Gervais

 

[gldoorii]

WSJ lol

 

[Pablo.A.Pucci]

If this rumor it is true, may end being a good thing for Apple... The company needs people with a powerful will to make wonderful things... It is time for a change.

 

[jscooper22]

Who knows how true any of this is, but it does seem a good time to spin this classic once again:

All those unsold gold watches gives you an idea of the excesses of Jony’s unchecked pursuit of elegance, without Steve’s more grounded focus on ‘getting the product into as many hands as possible’. It’s increasingly clear that Apple’s magic was down to how well those guys complimented each other. Gonna be an interesting decade ahead...

I would pay serious money to see someone behind the curtain swap files at Apple's next big rollout and run this clip in lieu of whatever else they'd do ... with Cook onstage. Maybe then he'd get it.

 

[cmaier]

I meant all-USB-C. It certainly made the design more aesthetically pleasing, and in the case of the MacBook Pro, more symmetric.

Again, I’m sure he had nothing to do with that decision. It’s exactly the sort of decision Apple has always made - when they switch to something new they aren’t shy about immediately dumping “legacy” options.

 

[jimbobb24]

The gold watch was a terrible idea. The insistence on no home button was a terrible idea.

Others have said it but Ives is genius but he needed Jobs for correction. What a great team. Without Jobs, Ives just follows his own whimsy too much and the user experience suffers.

But Ives should be proud of the Apple Watch. It is a market dominating product with the best features. All the people crying about Apple being behind- look at the advanced and unique Apple Watch features. It’s a pretty great device.

 

[rumplestiltskin]

A colleague who has worked closely with Ive told WSJ: "He built Apple into this ID (industrial design) and HI (human interface) powerhouse. What does that mean going forward? None of us know. It's not the team that he inherited."

Actually, Ive single-handedly destroyed Apple's HI design ethic by ignoring the Human Interface Guidelines book written in 1987. Now one might think "it's so old; doesn't it need updating?" but Guidelines recognized Human Interfacing and, unless I'm mistaken, we're still human and have expectations that don't really embrace discovery as the primary means we learn and master human/machine interfaces. Discovery is a bonus, not a requirement of passage when it comes to phones, computers, etc.

Discovery is what caused two Boeing 737 Max airplanes to crash.

 

[AppleInLVX]

Ah, yes, because the one word that comes to mind when discussing Linux is “personality.”

Yeah, I know... Well, sorta. I ran Linux for all of 6 months between my Windows and OSX days. You can make it what you want, or so ‘they’ say. I never got good enough with it to make it easily usable. I was just thinking that if OSX becomes just another Microsoft, then what’s left?

 

[Defthand]

You guys are suffering from a bad case of nostalgia. Subconsciously you are probably relating some unrelated positive emotions from the time you were using OS X tiger as an OS to the OS itself.

Similarly, I can't wait to see how those who were weened on iOS, rather than MacOS, regard their experience thirty years from now. Will they think their phones were life enhancing? Or will they think the product was a social wart?