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

It's really sad that an innovative and creative company turned it's back on what made it special to begin with. I hate Tim C(r)ook, I absolutely loathe him. He's insincere, boring, greedy, and content with mediocrity. Now he's gone and pushed out his creative guru. Good for Ive for getting out of such a toxic situation. On a positive note, he nailed it with the Mac Pro and XDR display as well as the 2018 iPad Pro. At least he had enough passion left to design those products. It's a great way to go out. It's unfortunate that Tim C(r)ook got his dead wrinkly white hands on the pricing of them. Way to ruin something great!
 
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People should not be surprised at this. If Apple watchers paid attention they would known this for many years already. eg lack of product updates, stagnate design and improvements, faltering quality control, cancelled products, etc

It is obvious that Tim Cook has taken Apple in a different direction. It's clear that the board and shareholders have much greater influence and that profit, quarterly returns, share price, subscriptions, etc is the focus now. Jony Ive is not the only one that has left, many others have left too. Tim Cook has turned Apple into a 'me too' corporation.
 
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maflynn said:
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.
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I don’t even have a watch, but I have a friend that is into them. One thing I know from him is that high end watches last a long time. They can hold their value over time. There is a good market for used watches. The Apple Watch doesn’t fit in that category at all.
 
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"Ive is said to have promised to hold a "design week" each month with software designers to discuss their work on the iPhone X, but he rarely showed up."

Mr. "No show" gets blamed for the notch regardless. Even though he knows the first rule of Jobsian design. Let not the engineering show to the final purveyor of the goods.
 
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As many have said, Apple is now all about bleeding customers dry with high prices and purposefully constrained products which don’t match up with their price points.

Since Steve died nobody has cared about the products themselves, which is evident in the complete mess of a product line up they currently have.

Steve Jobs was always about making the absolute best product possible and at a reasonable price which still allowed the company to make a good profit. He also never paid dividends to shareholders reasoning that all money should be kept for the future, whether for company acquisitions or development of new products. Since Tim Cook started paying out dividends to shareholders its all been about the money.

Pure greed is again poisoning this great company just like in the early 90’s when they almost went bust.
 
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He left before he could make the bezels of the iMac thinner. What a shame. The only thing that didn’t get thinner in a decade and the only thing people complain about that actually isn’t thin enough.
PS: I‘d be totally OK with a microphone and camera-less iMac as a consequence. Just bring back the external iSight camera.
 
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Mic'sBook said:
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
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  • Ive was “dispirited” by Tim Cook who “showed little interest in the product development process,” according to sources speaking to the WSJ. This helps explain why Cook sometimes appears to be seeing products for the first time in the hands-on area after Apple events (like the photo at the top of this article).
  • Ive grew increasingly frustrated as Apple’s board was populated by directors with backgrounds unrelated to the company’s core business.
It's like a game of connect the dots! After many flops and wavering I am now certain Apple has no future anymore.
 
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maflynn said:
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. He brought a lot of positives to the table, but he was no Steve Jobs and he messed up with apple maps. Yes, Cook pushed him out because he didn't need a rival. 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.
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Steve Jobs also “hand picked” John Sculley — how’d that work out?

Cook's letter about Ive's departure also announced a promotion, Cook singled out Sabih Khan, an operations guy, as a new VP on the team, and perhaps (IMO) his successor.
 
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Abazigal said:
I don't think firing Scott Forstall was the wrong decision in the bigger scope of things. It seems like he was causing more problems than he was worth, and I doubt anyone is worth the massive social drain on everyone around him.

I would probably have done the same thing were I in Tim Cook's shoes.



But Apple's profit margins have actually decreased. So it stands to reason that the chief reason why Apple products are more expensive is that they simply cost more to make. And products like the iPhone X are more expensive to make because of the way they are designed, which suggests that Apple is not averse to taking design risks, even when they result in lower margins.



But that's precisely the point of a profit-maximising company. Apple serves a way larger market than it did 10 years ago. It's one thing to be able to make a single great product, it's another to be able to mass-produce it in the millions so the people who want one will actually be able to buy one.

That's why I think Tim Cook remains the best person to run Apple, because he will be able to tell you whether your product is realistic to mass-manufacture or not. Which is really what matters at the end of the day.



When you think about it, the iPhone wasn't exactly revolutionary in terms of raw specs. What Apple excels in doing is knowing how best to put all these parts together to offer a better user experience.

I have not seen that change.
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The latest generation of laptops do not offer a better user experience than the previous one.
 
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Royksöpp said:
It's really sad that an innovative and creative company turned it's back on what made it special to begin with. I hate Tim C(r)ook, I absolutely loathe him. He's insincere, boring, greedy, and content with mediocrity. Now he's gone and pushed out his creative guru. Good for Ive for getting out of such a toxic situation. On a positive note, he nailed it with the Mac Pro and XDR display as well as the 2018 iPad Pro. At least he had enough passion left to design those products. It's a great way to go out. It's unfortunate that Tim C(r)ook got his dead wrinkly white hands on the pricing of them. Way to ruin something great!
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree with this. Spot on.
 
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squizzler said:
Jony hasn’t left. He’s gone freelance.
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And maybe he did what he did because he wanted the design team to be able to come up with great ideas and designs, and bring them to fruition with or without him. Because, like Jobs, Ive is also a mortal, a human being like the rest of us.
 
maflynn said:
Actually the 2019 MBPs do, they run cooler, faster and Apple seemed to have corrected the keyboard issue. I'd say the 2019 MBPs are markedly better then the prior 2016 - 2018 models.
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It's only been 41 days since the release. Isn't that a scoshe early to make that review?
 
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maflynn said:
Actually the 2019 MBPs do, they run cooler, faster and Apple seemed to have corrected the keyboard issue. I'd say the 2019 MBPs are markedly better then the prior 2016 - 2018 models.
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I completely disagree. It’s a minute spec bump performance wise. As for the keyboard, they made the same claims last year. Only time will tell with this one.
 
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The person who came up with the idea of notch screen should be prisoned. Guess what? Even the mobile phone like the early 2000s prior to the inception of iPhone possessed more orthodox screen than an iPhone X, it’s time for  to acknowledge its grave mistake by shutting down the production line.
 
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Royksöpp said:
It's really sad that an innovative and creative company turned it's back on what made it special to begin with. I hate Tim C(r)ook, I absolutely loathe him. He's insincere, boring, greedy, and content with mediocrity. Now he's gone and pushed out his creative guru. Good for Ive for getting out of such a toxic situation.
Click to expand...

Those are serious personal assaults on a person. Got facts to back them up?
 
MacRumors said:
Around this time, Ive had reportedly become "dispirited" by Cook, who is said to have "showed little interest in the product development process," according to people in the design studio. Ive also grew frustrated as Apple's board became increasingly populated by directors with backgrounds in finance and operations rather than technology or other areas of the company's core business.
Click to expand...

Ya don’t say.... Cook is a bean counter
 
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MX20 said:
The person who came up with the idea of notch screen should be prisoned. Guess what? Even the mobile phone like the early 2000s prior to the inception of iPhone possessed more orthodox screen than an iPhone X, it’s time for  to acknowledge its grave mistake by shutting down the production line.
Click to expand...
I chuckled actually laughed out loud when I read this.
 
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mwd25 said:
I would rather put on the watch and leave my phone behind if I want. Thats what makes it a great product, to be able to use it WITHOUT the Iphone. If you cant do that, dont release it yet.
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It took years before the iPhone could be used without using a computer to sync and update.

I got plenty of good use out of my 1st gen Apple Watch. Same for my 1st gen iPhone. I wouldn’t go back to either, but I’m glad Apple didn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
 
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