Jobs biographer slams Apple design and missed TV opportunity
Walter Isaacson says Apple should have made the kind of TV Jobs wanted, and claims Apple Park is the company's only great design in the last 15 years.
Apple Park, the company's only great design from the last 15 years according to Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson, author of the official Steve Jobs biography, says that Apple has not been concentrating on design, and has missed opportunities. Now that the company has lost both Jobs and designer Jony Ive, he doesn't expect things to improve.
"We'll see," he told CNBC's Squawk Box show. "I think what you're seeing now is a company that knows how to execute pretty well, but it doesn't have at its core these two spiritual soulmates who just lived and breathed the beauty of products."
CNBC asked Isaacson about whether there was anything left for Apple to design.
"[That's] like in 1900 when they said everything that can be invented has been invented," he replied. "And no, there is really great stuff to be invented. In the last 15 years, the only great design Apple has done has been the Apple headquarters."
In naming Apple Park as the only great design, Isaacson is ignoring the Apple Watch, the AirPods and the HomePod, and says that nothing else received the same attention as the campus.
"Jony Ive and Steve Jobs made sure they knew the curve of every piece of glass," he said, "because that wonderful round building, it doesn't have straight pieces of glass, that kind of detail."
With Ive concentrating on Apple Park, Isaacson claims that Apple took its attention away from new products, including an Apple TV like the one that Steve Jobs had talked to him about before his death.
"I think that you could have created an amazing Apple TV, an end-to-end integrated product that was both the hardware and software and the content," he said. "Which is what Steve did in every other industry from the iPhone to the iPod that he went into. You could've created a camera that was truly an awesome piece of design."
"If I knew more design things they should've done, I'd be doing them myself," he concluded. "But Jony Ive and I think Steve Jobs would've figured out more designs.
Jobs died in 2011, and apart from the Apple Park campus, the last product he was involved with was the iPhone 5.
During his interview with CNBC, Isaacson also revealed how Jobs had lamented that Tim Cook was not a "product person" like Jony Ive.
Apple Park, the company's only great design from the last 15 years according to Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson, author of the official Steve Jobs biography, says that Apple has not been concentrating on design, and has missed opportunities. Now that the company has lost both Jobs and designer Jony Ive, he doesn't expect things to improve.
"We'll see," he told CNBC's Squawk Box show. "I think what you're seeing now is a company that knows how to execute pretty well, but it doesn't have at its core these two spiritual soulmates who just lived and breathed the beauty of products."
CNBC asked Isaacson about whether there was anything left for Apple to design.
"[That's] like in 1900 when they said everything that can be invented has been invented," he replied. "And no, there is really great stuff to be invented. In the last 15 years, the only great design Apple has done has been the Apple headquarters."
In naming Apple Park as the only great design, Isaacson is ignoring the Apple Watch, the AirPods and the HomePod, and says that nothing else received the same attention as the campus.
"Jony Ive and Steve Jobs made sure they knew the curve of every piece of glass," he said, "because that wonderful round building, it doesn't have straight pieces of glass, that kind of detail."
With Ive concentrating on Apple Park, Isaacson claims that Apple took its attention away from new products, including an Apple TV like the one that Steve Jobs had talked to him about before his death.
"I think that you could have created an amazing Apple TV, an end-to-end integrated product that was both the hardware and software and the content," he said. "Which is what Steve did in every other industry from the iPhone to the iPod that he went into. You could've created a camera that was truly an awesome piece of design."
"If I knew more design things they should've done, I'd be doing them myself," he concluded. "But Jony Ive and I think Steve Jobs would've figured out more designs.
Jobs died in 2011, and apart from the Apple Park campus, the last product he was involved with was the iPhone 5.
During his interview with CNBC, Isaacson also revealed how Jobs had lamented that Tim Cook was not a "product person" like Jony Ive.
Comments
TVs are like toasters. They have a finite lifespan - unlike my 2010 MBP that seems to keep on ticking like a timex.
As for TVs, they are a very low margin product that has to interact even now with cable. Coming out with a new TV is a lot harder than I think he realizes.
Isaacson is from my city, New Orleans, and I've seen him speak at local tech talks. It's clear he is not a tech guy, doesn't get tech, and is just riding Jobs' coattails for continued relevancy.
Jobs hired the wrong guy. For compelling reasons why, read Gruber's takes on Isaacon's biography:
https://daringfireball.net/2012/02/walter_isaacson_steve_jobs
https://daringfireball.net/2011/11/getting_steve_jobs_wrong
Inversely, here are his takes on the much better Becoming Steve Jobs:
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/03/02/becoming-steve-jobs
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/03/17/jobs-cook
In the last 15 years Apple created totally new product segments... the iPhone and iPad are *titans*. Also the Apple Watch, AirPods, and lots of innovation on the Mac side.
Sure they haven't reinvented the television market, or the automobile market, like we hoped they would. Not yet at least. But lets be honest, innovation doesn't necessarily present itself in increments of equal duration. We are on the threshold of the rise of AR, VR, and AI based products. Apple is very well positioned to be a market leader in these segments, which will arguably drive as much or more consumer buying as the original PC revolution.
Sorry Walter that July 2019 didn't live up to the readings from your crystal ball. Don't take it too hard though, you're just a writer.
There wasn't any money in hardware, it's long been commoditized, hence why AppleTV isn't a big hit, and won't be even at prices equivalent to FireTV and ChromeCast.
So the real question is whether Apple can leverage games, and 3rd party game controllers, Apple Music, and AppleTV+ to make AppleTV hardware "great again".
For the record, I have an AppleTV HD, but mostly watch stuff on my 5K iMac.
I would consider upgrading to some future AppleTV were it to have a bit more home theater/media center capability built in, ie, some extra I/O or even better, an I/O module(s) as an accessory. Of course, having the latest A/AX series processor would be a plus for games.
Is there a USB 4.0 future with low enough latency to modularize home theater components on a pair of USB Type C connections? I would like to think so.
Note:
For those that aren't aware of it, Intel passed Thunderbolt 3 to the USB.ORG, and it is incorporated into the USB 4.0 specifications, as will be any future enhancements.
...one thing I've read is that SJ did things on principle (x-grid?) vs always for the bottom line... This upredictability apparently made tech CEOs nervous. I use a 40" 4K screen and while not Apple display grade I find it makes a compelling case for a TV/monitor, running @ 110dpi so it matches the scale of both Apple 27" Cinema displays perfectly, and might a 40" 8K be the hi res (retina?) version...? Better late than never?
If you look at the context of Isaacson’s comparison of Apple’s current products to Apple Park, he is right. Everything was meticulously planned out. Whereas if you compare the watch, HomePod and airpods, you can find areas of opportunity. If it wasn’t for health and fitness improvements to the watch, it would have been discontinued. Where are the improvements to the HomePod? Why is there only minute improvements to the second generation of airpods?
IMHO, since the firing of Forestall, there hasn’t been much conflict and passion that is the catalyst of creating all of those amazing products like there was when Steve came back to Apple.