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

[Rob_2811]

Poor Jony, I can only imagine how weary he became spending so many years crossing swords with a visionless drone like Tim.

Its a shame that Tim has chosen to turn Sir Jonys retirement into an unseemly public spectacle also.

 

[John-Paul Hunt]

Sits in simulator chair and taps mirror once done to see if there is any acne on face.

 

[Abazigal]

Understand, my issue is more with the words than the intent. Based on your location, Singapore, you may not be as upset with the term Fake News as I am considering the President of the USA basically coined the term in his attacks upon our 1st amendment which is freedom of the press. It's a sore spot with me. If it weren't for him, I probably wouldn't have taken umbrage with your use of it.

I think a distinction needs to be drawn between a free press and the accurate reporting of news.

Here in Singapore, our news is largely dominated by one news company (straits times) which is pretty much a mouthpiece of the government. As such, I find that while our news tends to shy away from criticising the government, it is also quite factual in nature and largely leaves us free to draw our own conclusions.

While the US clearly has more leeway to report what they want, how they want, my observation is that “flat” reporting seems to have given way to sensationalism and bias. It seems to have gotten worse with the advent of the internet and social media, because it means that when you are just one of many similar articles in a common feed, the only way to stand out is by using clickbait headlines to draw in the views. It also means your president is resorting to social media to get his side of the story out because he can’t trust the media to report him accurately (or so he claims).

It’s practically unheard of in our country, which is why I find this whole phenomena very fascinating. Like a giant train wreck I can’t look away from.

I won’t say our system is any better than yours, and I do admire your press freedom, but I wonder if that is causing as many problems as it is solving, because it seems like the news outlets basically get to report however they want without fear of reprisal for one-aided or erroneous content.

And because nothing draws the clicks like an Apple-bashing article, there is incentive to exaggerate the situation.

 

[koruki]

Bloomberg... they forgot the Chinese put a tiny spy chip in Jony's head to make him quit too right

 

[I7guy]

Poor Jony, I can only imagine how weary he became spending so many years crossing swords with a visionless drone like Tim.

Its a shame that Tim has chosen to turn Sir Jonys retirement into an unseemly public spectacle also.

Tim didn’t make the retirement a spectacle, the press did.

 

[macsimcon]

Yeah, let's have Jony run the company. A fashion accessory? Thousands unsold? What a talentless hack.

And thanks, Jony, for eliminating the Home button. My iPhones have routinely missed gestures, which wouldn't happen if I had a Home button. And I hate having to look at the screen so the iPhone will unlock rather than using Touch ID, which was both faster and more reliable.

No Home button. Macs so thin they have anemic battery life and lackluster features. By now it should be obvious to everyone that Steve was the real design talent in that partnership.

Is there designer on Earth with less talent than Jony? Sure doesn't seem like it.
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I’ve said this previously, but it is worth repeating. Jony leaving isn’t surprising, not because of his missing Steve, or because he doesn’t like the focus on supply chain, but rather because he is a designer that has increasingly become stuck in a business that produces but a handful of products that require his attention.

However it happened, I think Steve's death just took the wind from his sails, and he never really recovered.
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There's something you can't beat with a beautiful mechanical heart inside the mechanism. It looks beautiful and sounds perfect in a quiet room....

Uh, unless you want accuracy, which is the primary job of a watch. Thanks, but I'll eschew my Breitling for my Apple Watch's timekeeping.

 

[macsimcon]

5. On the contrary, moral was actually quite low with Jobs. Plenty of interviews about this. Jobs is not an easy person to work with. Sure, he's charismatic, but his social skills left many unimpressed to say the least. Cook, on the other hand, brought moral of Apple to a new height. Moral of Apple is not just the moral of Jonny Ive, Apple is now a huge company with a ton of people.

I know we've all been down this road before, but Jobs was a high-functioning sociopath. As a narcissist, he charmed people to get them to do his will, but he also berated people to do the same. He used whichever worked.

Would we have the Mac, or the iPhone, without Steve? Could a person with a conscience drive people to the levels of excellence that Steve did? No way. A general can't be concerned about the lives of the men in the field, he has to concern himself with tactics and strategy, and Steve did that. I've struggled with this a lot. Is the iPhone such a transformative product that its worth people missing weekends, holidays, birthdays with their families? What about the damage to their self-esteem or morale? I guess the only real answer is to ask the people who did the work if they thought it was worth it.

Just look at the company's output since Steve's death. More bugs. Odd design choices. Market missteps. People were genuinely afraid of Steve in a way they aren't afraid of Tim.

 

[macsimcon]

I think a distinction needs to be drawn between a free press and the accurate reporting of news.

Forty years ago, our media outlets were required to have news departments. The theory was: if you're going to use the public airwaves, then you can do what you want, but you have to devote some time to reporting the truth and facts, in the public interest.

Then a minority party took over our entire government, and they changed laws and policies so the media was free to report whatever they wanted, and could choose not to report news. As news lost them money (reporters, investigations), media outlets quickly eliminated news.

What you are seeing today is an experiment in deregulation. When you deregulate, corporations don't police themselves, they run roughshod over society. Thomas Jefferson believed a free press was essential to watch over the government. But today, our media has no interest in watching over the government, because it doesn't make them much money.

And those same media corporations like low taxes, so why criticize a government which keeps their corporate taxes low?

Your government may be autocratic in Singapore, but ours has become a kleptocracy. Decide for yourself which is better.

 

[LiveM]

Ive was the CEO Apple needed after Jobs' death.

Just gonna stop you right there. The mind behind iOS7, humpback cases and butterfly keyboards cannot be left unchecked.

Perhaps if Scott Forstall hadn’t been fired, Jobs’ expectations for the future would have been realised in terms of design success. In terms of financial success, no doubt they have been exceeded, but I fear that putting the entirety of Apple under Ive would have disastrous.

 

[hotelchevalier]

to paraphrase Dr Seuss : dont be sad that Mr Ive is leaving. be happy that he happened at Apple at all.

 

[Rob_2811]

Tim didn’t make the retirement a spectacle, the press did.

Such a shame Cook had to escalate things in such a crass manner.

Not what Jony would've wanted. I imagine he is at home feeling very disappointed but being very dignified about it.

 

[Abazigal]

Such a shame Cook had to escalate things in such a crass manner.

Not what Jony would've wanted. I imagine he is at home feeling very disappointed but being very dignified about it.

Calling out a news publication over what he perceives to be untrue reporting is escalation now? When the news outlets are the ones who blew up the matter in the first place?

 

[Rob_2811]

Calling out a news publication over what he perceives to be untrue reporting is escalation now? When the news outlets are the ones who blew up the matter in the first place?

Yes very uncouth. I imagine this kind of thing is why Tim repelled Sir Jony.

 

[I7guy]

Yes very uncouth. I imagine this kind of thing is why Tim repelled Sir Jony.

You can imagine or conjecture or opine, but don’t know the truth. At any rate it’s Tims’ job to respond to untrue reporting.

 

[Rob_2811]

You can imagine or conjecture or opine, but don’t know the truth. At any rate it’s Tims’ job to respond to untrue reporting.

Bit awkward when his platform peddles content from the very same publication.

 

[sunwukong]

It turns out the same thing can happen in technology companies that get monopolies, like IBM or Xerox. If you were a product person at IBM or Xerox, so you make a better copier or computer. So what? When you have monopoly market share, the company's not any more successful.

So the people that can make the company more successful are sales and marketing people, and they end up running the companies. And the product people get driven out of the decision making forums, and the companies forget what it means to make great products. The product sensibility and the product genius that brought them to that monopolistic position gets rotted out by people running these companies that have no conception of a good product versus a bad product.

They have no conception of the craftsmanship that's required to take a good idea and turn it into a good product. And they really have no feeling in their hearts, usually, about wanting to really help the customers.

Steve Jobs - The Lost Interview

This is just so right on that it's spooky. Seriously. Compare Apple's years with Jobs, then without Jobs, then with, now without. You have enough data points you can fit the curve pretty well. Not saying, "Hail Jobs!", am just saying that compare with someone that thinks and approaches and acts in one way, and someone else who does it another ($$ focused) way. Sure, yeah, Jobs liked and bragged somewhat on the financial success, but from what we saw he damn sure wasn't a nickel-and-dimer, bean counting, pinch penny, anergic, emotionless, robot, letting multiple core product lines languish for record-length number of years, trying to squeeze every penny out of every dadgum thing, (cables, cable length, 5 watt chargers, packaging, $30 for this, $60 for that, comparatively piddling 'free' online storage, not even enough to back up your iphone), and stop reporting sales numbers and just report the $$$ because that 'better reflects our success', I mean it's pretty obvious, using Occam's shaver, and all.

 

[sunwukong]

I have to say, regarding the apple watch, except for the most ardent Apple fans, most people saw that high end apple watches were not going to be popular, even amongst the rich and ultra rich. Why buy a watch for that much and have it only last a few years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have the first generation apple watch and it barely functions, only after 4 years, can you imagine someone dropping a 1,000+ or more on a rolex and it only lasting a 4 years? Not likely.

Right. However, I think it was $10,000 for the Edition models. My 2015 with leather loop was about $760; pretty close to $1000 right there.

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

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

Do you honestly think Ive reported to anyone? He was the talent, when you’re the talent you call the shots. Do you think Tom Brady can miss meetings when he wants? The answer is absolutely.

 

[sunwukong]

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.

Thanks for writing that.

 

[nylon]

It's fine if he stays or goes. The contributions of Jony Ive and his team have been legion, and certainly he has deserved a say in when and how he steps back.

Meanwhile regarding assorted Apple failures, they have clearly understood the truths of "nothing ventured, nothing gained." Apple popped the Newton out there and aside from a few insatiable early adopters, people said ok yeah right uh no thanks, rofl, lmao. Death Knell Counter must have been upped behind that thing, model after model. Then later came the iPhone. Hmm... Yeah I took one of those, damn straight.

What's between drawing board and assembly right now? Is it nothing? No, it's "something" and "something else" and etc., because Apple has been a company that's grown relentless in trying and learning and designing and eventually producing yet another great "one more thing". It's in their DNA as a goal.

I dare say the biggest challenge any tech outfit including Apple may face these days (past maybe beating the heat of computing power in tiny objects) is in overcoming the utter cynicism with which potential users of tech greet any product rolled out by any maker, and the blatant trolling (for free or otherwise) that's indulged in on social media.

It's too bad in a way, because the negative ambience surrounding tech rollouts may even now be dulling the enthusiasm of the next generation for honing design and engineering skills in the interests of helping make new computing gear... and it's their desire that continually upgrades corporate ability to profit from human curiosity, creativity and desire to master seemingly impossible challenges, and provides us with new unboxing experiences.

Some of the negativity following on news of Ive's changed arrangement is clearly lost on people who manage somehow to think that batting .450 is Hall of Fame territory... but that tech companies should fear dropping a pitched ball, should never strike out, and should not even just look hard at four pitches and settle for a walk instead of maybe swinging at one for a double.

Wake me up when we all hit .350 in our sandlot games. I was so bad at that as a kid that they made me pitch for both teams and never let me up to bat.

Very well said and reasoned. I especially agree with regard to the point about the indulgent cynicism that social media generates.

 

[Abazigal]

Yes very uncouth. I imagine this kind of thing is why Tim repelled Sir Jony.

Then what exactly is Tim Cook supposed to do in such a situation? By your logic, I am uncouth if I have the temerity to speak up when I see an untruth floating around, yet if I keep quiet, it is like tacit admission that what is being reported is true.

Apple just can’t win, can they?

 

[LizKat]

I never expect tech items to last more than 5 years. I was able to get a good 4 years out of my first AW until my BF broke it.

I drove a bunch of G4 12" powerbooks into the ground even though they were built like tanks... but it took a long long time to make them give up on life. I still have a working 15" Ti G4 but that got luckier being hooked up to enough MIDI gear that it didn't get moved around so much. With an MBA I was a little more respectful than to the G4s and that one survived to be a hand-me-on to a lucky relative who's still using it.

As far as phones go, I treated the 4S with care on account of the glass but I've liked the sturdy SE better in the long run, it can take a joke and I always wondered if the 4S could. The yellow XR seems another sturdy offering but I shelled out enough for that I rarely have it out of a case. Whatever of Jony went into that thing I must say contributed to my willingness to buy it even though I prefer a smaller cellphone and eventually got another SE and relegated the XR to WiFi only. It has become my go-to for reading books and news even over my iPad mini because of the very wonderful resolution on the display.

As Jony Ive steps back, I will miss imagining what hand he has had over the years in this or that aspect of new gear or software from Apple.

 

[mikethemartian]

Understand, my issue is more with the words than the intent. Based on your location, Singapore, you may not be as upset with the term Fake News as I am considering the President of the USA basically coined the term in his attacks upon our 1st amendment which is freedom of the press. It's a sore spot with me. If it weren't for him, I probably wouldn't have taken umbrage with your use of it.

It’s basically Newspeak right out of Nineteen Eighty-Four.
[doublepost=1562035922][/doublepost]It would be entertaining to watch Jony Ive go full Peter Gibbons.

 

[I7guy]

Bit awkward when his platform peddles content from the very same publication.

No awkward at all. One has nothing to do with another and if anything it shows Tim is not afraid to defend what needs defending. What's the publication going to do? Pull out?

 

[rafark]

I'm no Cook fan, but its hard to deny that he's taken Apple to new heights that Jobs never did, where as Ballmer did the opposite.

This is not true. Steve (and his team) created the iPhone, the product that took apple to new heights. When cook took over, the smartphone market was quickly growing. Steve couldn't live enough to see with his own eyes the massive change he (and his team) made in our lifes. Basically Steve planted the seed and was only able to see a seedling. Cook just watered that seedling. Even a jack wagon like Balmer would have made apple a 500+ billion dollar company with such a strong foundation.
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You mean Scott Forstall, the same guy that brought us that stinking turd of an app called apple maps, or that he hung on skeuomorphism so long that the iOS interface was looking so dated.

At this point, the apple maps excuse is nothing but bs. The trash can Mac pro, the iphone 6 or the butterfly keyboard are WAY bigger flops that has cost apple actual $ and reputation. Yet Ive was not officially blamed (let alone fired) like forstall was.