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

[one more]

I am saddened to see Jony Ive leave Apple, as his design genius coupled with Steve Jobs uncompromising passion for Apple products truly revolutionised our tech world. Tim Cook seems to be an efficient company manager and logistics expert, but I have never perceived the same amount of Apple-enthusiasm radiating from him as it was with Jobs, talking about a new product or service. While on stage, Steve was super enthusiastic, whereas Tim looks like he is just reading somebody’s tax return form, real dull. So I guess in a way Jony Ive might have felt somewhat creatively “orphaned” after Jobs’ passing, as he could not get the same super-charged feedback for his new ideas as before. I just hope that somebody else can reignite Steve’s startup spirit at Apple and shake the tech world once more. “Stay hungry, stay foolish!” style.

 

[Yojimbo007]

Speculation, Tim hunt, and click bait galore .

Much ado about nothing.

 

[mossback]

Extremely troubling. None of this portends good things.

 

[TonyC28]

How could it flop when it was never designed to be a big seller?

How about it didn't sell as well as they had hoped and according to MacRumors "thousands of the gold version are said to have gone unsold"? Obviously the gold version was not a big hit for them but the Apple Watch overall has been a huge success.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

I don’t have a problem with operations people running Apple. It’s a complex company and that skill set is probably best placed to understand all of the pieces on the board.

In fact if you have truly amazing creatives, computer scientists and product people you don’t want them running the company or even managing vast departments of people - you want them working on amazing products.

It’s difficult to predict if this is ‘the beginning of the end of Apple’. Innovation tends to happen in waves. The smartphone wave is subsiding. Let’s see how Apple fares in catching the AVR & electric car waves & then we can judge.

Finally, is Cook as good as Jobs? He’s obviously a truly exceptional CEO but Jobs was one of the few business geniuses of his generation (and probably of this era).

I really hope you are right, even if I don't think so.

Also, what exactly makes Tim Cook exceptional?

Jobs was exceptional BECAUSE he was a product guy running the company (he created).

 

[Darth Tulhu]

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 think it was a perfect storm: Jony wanted to make things thinner and simpler and Tim gave in because simpler means cheaper to produce with greater profit margins and added revenue streams in the form of mitigation devices to bring back lost built-in functionality.

BOTH skipped the step where Steve used to step in and say: That sucks.

But Apple has 2 golden eggs that drive everything else: macOS and iOS. Until someone screws THAT up, I think we'll be fine.

Maybe.

 

[kis]

I always felt that the gold Apple Watch had Jony Ive written all over it. After all, Ive is a watch guy. He owns an Omega Speedmaster and a Patek Phillippe, so it makes sense that he envisioned the AW as a fashion accessory. However, while many high-end watch collectors won't blink an eye at a $17K mechanical watch, even they couldn't justify spending that kind of money on a device that will be outdated in four years.

Where the AW really woke up the Swiss was with the bands, straps and bracelets. There's no way that the Swiss could produce similar quality for the low cost, including the link bracelet. A Rolex OEM bracelet can run $1500+ and you still need tools to remove links.

It also made the Swiss aware that there is some value in a connected watch as evidenced by Tag Heuer and Mont Blanc, to name two. However, they also realize that this is a very niche market for them.

The AW is beginning to find its niche in health and fitness, which IMO, is a main driver of current sales.

If you're seriously comparing the super cheap Apple Watch bracelets with an Oyster bracelet, you don't have the faintest clue what you're talking about.

 

[ghanwani]

But Apple has 2 golden eggs that drive everything else: macOS and iOS. Until someone screws THAT up, I think we'll be fine.

Maybe.

They have 2 geese that lay golden eggs. Hopefully no one kills the geese.

 

[Rogifan]

How about it didn't sell as well as they had hoped and according to MacRumors "thousands of the gold version are said to have gone unsold"? Obviously the gold version was not a big hit for them but the Apple Watch overall has been a huge success.

Thousands meaning what, 1,000? 10,000? We have no idea how many Apple expected to sell. All we know is the gold watch was never mentioned on stage when they announced models and pricing.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Personally I think Ive’s best work is behind him. He iterated some designs to dead ends (because they are so good) and unfortunately the consumer tech world appears to have tapped out all the obvious innovation paths given current component capabilities.

It is a shame he didn’t walk sooner as Apple started to move away from being a user experience driven company to an accountant led, overpriced, techno-tart one.

Agreed. The moment that Microsoft (MICROSOFT!!) unveiled the Surface Studio, I KNEW something was seriously wrong at Apple. I suspected, but at that moment I KNEW.

This news somewhat confirms my suspicions.

Still, if Microsoft can pull off a machine as impressive as the Surface Studio, the influx of new blood at Apple might bring us something really cool.

I refuse to take the pessimistic role here, even if that is my nature.

 

[Rogifan]

I think it was a perfect storm: Jony wanted to make things thinner and simpler and Tim gave in because simpler means cheaper to produce with greater profit margins and added revenue streams in the form of mitigation devices to bring back lost built-in functionality.

BOTH skipped the step where Steve used to step in and say: That sucks.

But Apple has 2 golden eggs that drive everything else: macOS and iOS. Until someone screws THAT up, I think we'll be fine.

Maybe.

You mean the same Steve Jobs that pulled the original MBA out of a Manila envelope and spent most of its intro talking about how thin it was? Again, pure conjecture. You’re imagining what you hope Steve Jobs would have said.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

You mean the same Steve Jobs that pulled the original MBA out of a Manila envelope and spent most of its intro talking about how thin it was? Again, pure conjecture. You’re imagining what you hope Steve Jobs would have said.

The MBAir didn't have a crap keyboard, had an array of built-in connectivity, MagSafe, and an SSD at a time when they were relatively rare. It worked awesomely and I can't remember ANYONE complaining about it. It being thin resulted in no loss of functionality, it was an added feature.

The PRODUCT spoke for itself. That was all Steve, baby.

And Apple produced fatter laptops ALONGSIDE it with different feature sets. Again, Steve.
[doublepost=1562011040][/doublepost]

They have 2 geese that lay golden eggs. Hopefully no one kills the geese.

The goose died in 2011. Cancer killed him.

 

[jgbr]

I think it was a perfect storm: Jony wanted to make things thinner and simpler and Tim gave in because simpler means cheaper to produce with greater profit margins and added revenue streams in the form of mitigation devices to bring back lost built-in functionality.

BOTH skipped the step where Steve used to step in and say: That sucks.

But Apple has 2 golden eggs that drive everything else: macOS and iOS. Until someone screws THAT up, I think we'll be fine.

Maybe.

I suggest you google Mac OS Core rot.

 

[Silver Idaten]

Really Jony? Because I became ‘dispirited’ with the camera bump, devices so thin they inevitably fail if they’re not already defective out of the box, and reusing the same stale design year after year after year. Goodbye, Jony.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

I suggest you google Mac OS Core rot.

I saw articles from 2013 on that!

I think I'll be OK. At some point soon, an iPad will suffice for my non-work computing needs.

I'm running 2011/2012 hardware as it is (High Sierra), with no plans to upgrade for several years.

 

[skitidetdu]

Remember that apple lost some technically-inclined board members because they started competing against those board members’ companies. It’s an inevitable result of apple competing in more markets.

I’m talking about a board that isn’t part of apples “dna” as it used to be. The relation between that and the price that they put on it and the products is becoming more and more fragile to me.

 

[TonyC28]

Thousands meaning what, 1,000? 10,000? We have no idea how many Apple expected to sell. All we know is the gold watch was never mentioned on stage when they announced models and pricing.

Oh. Well I guess they were just selling so well that they decided to stop making it.

As for how many they expected to sell...I guess they expected to sell at least the thousands that are sitting on a shelf.

 

[LizKat]

Extremely troubling. None of this portends good things.

"Portenders" have never gathered either sandal-footed followers or eyeballs or clicks off of "good things" in my casual glance back at human history from ancient oracles up through the pontificating of tech analysts right up to yesterday afternoon. And anyway we're all so brilliant at reading Apple's tea leaves that the Apple Death Knell counter is up into what, triple digits now?

 

[KPOM]

Do you think he alone could make that decision?

No, but when someone explained to him that a new USB design that was a similar size as Lightning was coming out and could handle video output, I’m sure the 12” MacBook prototype wasn’t far behind.

 

[nylon]

Reading these comments I don't think people realize how rare it is for companies to have the kind of synergy that Jobs and Ive achieved. It should be noted that they failed a lot as well. Failure is key to success. That was an amazing era for Apple but it could not have lasted forever. I don't think Ive's departure is such a bad thing.

 

[Rogifan]

Here’s Apple’s website from...2008. A good chunk of the MBA intro focused on thin it was.

 

[kmj2318]

Who edits these articles? Apple didn't partner Hermès for the gold watches.

What is parallelism?

 

[BigBoy2018]

Here’s Apple’s website from...2008. A good chunk of the MBA intro focused on thin it was.

I loved the macbook Air. And then they began focusing on thinness to the detriment of other important qualities ... across their entire product line.
Now I regard the original Air as the cancer it became to the kind of Apple products I used to love.

 

[Rogifan]

The MBAir didn't have a crap keyboard, had an array of built-in connectivity, MagSafe, and an SSD at a time when they were relatively rare. It worked awesomely and I can't remember ANYONE complaining about it. It being thin resulted in no loss of functionality, it was an added feature.

The PRODUCT spoke for itself. That was all Steve, baby.

And Apple produced fatter laptops ALONGSIDE it with different feature sets. Again, Steve.
[doublepost=1562011040][/doublepost]

The goose died in 2011. Cancer killed him.

Oh good grief. LOTS of people complained about the original MacBook Air. The 2010 version is the one people loved.

 

[KPOM]

The MBAir didn't have a crap keyboard, had an array of built-in connectivity, MagSafe, and an SSD at a time when they were relatively rare. It worked awesomely and I can't remember ANYONE complaining about it. It being thin resulted in no loss of functionality, it was an added feature.

The PRODUCT spoke for itself. That was all Steve, baby.

And Apple produced fatter laptops ALONGSIDE it with different feature sets. Again, Steve.
[doublepost=1562011040][/doublepost]

The goose died in 2011. Cancer killed him.

The original MacBook Air had a single USB port and a mini DVI port. It lacked a SuperDrive. And the same crowd that complained about the 12” MacBook also slammed the original Air. The SSD model was $3000 for 64 GB of storage.

I remember the Macworld Forum conversations how “no one needs a 3lb notebook” and how it was “useless” without the SuperDrive.