I think the idea that the designer is freelancing for Apple is a PR spin, like his promotion was for the first time.ĩto5Mac Readers weren’t concerned at the time, more than two-thirds of them felt that either nothing would change or it would be good for Apple. I think Jony Ive really left Apple in 2015. My suspicion is that I wanted to leave at the time, but Apple was able to hold him down by letting him play with his new toy – Apple Park – while he gave up his other chores.
The official line at the time was that it was a promotion, but it was clear to everyone that I was playing a less practical role here.
Ive had already withdrawn from direct responsibility for hardware and software design in 2015. When Apple announced Ive was leaving in 2019, I argued that it really checked out four years earlier. It’s even more difficult with I’ve got as his role fluctuates. But here goes: might Apple Inc.’s product design have improved since the departure of Jony Ive The Apple of today would not exist without Ive. Gone are the so-called “butterfly” keyboard, which made the device thinner, but whose clunky mechanics made typing difficult Farewell to the Touch Bar, a touch-sensitive strip display at the top edge of the keyboard, which could display functions for the web browser one moment and mixing tools for music apps the next, but was almost impossible to operate without looking On the back there are HDMI ports that allow you to connect the computer to high definition displays without an adapter.Īrguments like this are always tricky since Apple designs products years before they are launched, making it hard to tell who would have directed a particular design. From Alex Webbs 'Apple’s Product Design Has Improved Since Jony Ive Left' posted Tuesday by Bloomberg: At one time, even broaching the idea would have been sacrilegious. Headlines published five years ago under the aegis of Ive have been discarded.
The unveiling of a new MacBook Pro line of laptops on Monday is evidence of change. He argues that the new MacBook Pro is proof of that.
From the iPhone to the Apple TV to the Macbook, the days are of “damn the user, we think this looks cool.” past. Since he stepped down as chief designer at the end of 2019, Apple seems to have re-emphasized the function. I felt that without the moderating influence of the late Steve Jobs, I might have started giving aesthetics a little too much priority. But there was often a tension between form and function: whether the appearance of a device took precedence over its usability. Apple’s design-oriented approach to product development was seen as groundbreaking. He was the creative leviathan behind the look of the iMac, iPod, iPad, and most importantly, the iPhone. Today’s Apple wouldn’t exist without I’ve. Apple claims that he still works with the company in an advisory capacity today.īloombergAlex Webb says the pendulum swings back from cool to practical. Jony Ive stepped down from product design leadership in 2015 to focus on the Apple Park campus before returning to his original role two years later. It states that without the moderating influence of Steve Jobs I went too far to prioritize form over function and that this has since been corrected …
A Bloomberg piece argues today that Apple’s product design has improved since former chief designer Jony Ive left the company.