I'm pretty sure that Ive's influence had a lot to do with the decline of the MacBook Pro - minimal ports, thinness excluding good battery life, and the Touch Bar and keyboard problems.
I've blamed him for the death of the 17", but that probably had as much to do with poor sales.
OTOH, desktop products could probably use a little pizzaz, whereas iPhones could use a middle of the road approach with functionality (including battery life) and some style.
For a while there, it looked like everything was taken over by the design team which is no better than everything being run by engineers - anyone remember the Blackberry UI?
You need a balance between function and design, with both sides contributing. For computer products, you want to lean a bit more heavily on the engineering side of the house.
That's pretty much as expected. Cooks is an accountant at best who has absolutely no understanding how to keep Apple innovating. He leeched off the state of Apple when he'd taken over and admittedly was an effective Chief Excel Operator indeed. But he failed giving Apple a future and I almost expect the next CEO toy (something with AR) is going to be the same thing as the 'Damn scribble toy' (S. Jobs) that failed to deliver a quality product from that guy that used to sell 'sugar water' (S.J. again). History is repeating itself: The last round John Scully managed to grow the Macintosh after Steve left and essentially proved Apple is no longer able to develop a good product (case in point the embarrassing joke that was the Newton). Now Tim Cook took over (again from SJ) and is executing well on all the (many) things Steve started, but I'm afraid he will fail delivering a quality AR Thingamagick (and the 'old' Apple stuff also starts to crumble in oh so many places). I think Peak Apple is already behind us.
Yeah what a shit job he’s doing. Stock is up 1,000% since he too over, while the rest of the market is up 300%. Time to fire that clown.
I think it's better for him to leave. The longer he stays the crazier Mac stuffs he will come up with that will become totally un-usable. I am glad thicker MacBook Pro is back with SD card slot and more ports so I don't have to pack extra accessories when travel. Kudos to Tim Cook.
So which is it? Is he just an “accountant” or is he personally engineering hardware?
Do we remember when some ‘high exec’ did not apologised by the Maps-gate? Tim Cook asked him to go out. With Johnny Ive he was more nice… after the initial ‘fashion Apple Watch’ fiasco.
The only thing that we must remember is that… “Blaming Apple —and Tim Cook— brings book sales, NYT's page view…”
Do you imagine an Apple Studio with a single port?
What business did Cook have asking Forstall to apologize for Apple Maps? Cook was the CEO. Like President Truman was so fond of stating “the buck stops here”.
That's pretty much as expected. Cooks is an accountant at best who has absolutely no understanding how to keep Apple innovating. He leeched off the state of Apple when he'd taken over and admittedly was an effective Chief Excel Operator indeed. But he failed giving Apple a future and I almost expect the next CEO toy (something with AR) is going to be the same thing as the 'Damn scribble toy' (S. Jobs) that failed to deliver a quality product from that guy that used to sell 'sugar water' (S.J. again). History is repeating itself: The last round John Scully managed to grow the Macintosh after Steve left and essentially proved Apple is no longer able to develop a good product (case in point the embarrassing joke that was the Newton). Now Tim Cook took over (again from SJ) and is executing well on all the (many) things Steve started, but I'm afraid he will fail delivering a quality AR Thingamagick (and the 'old' Apple stuff also starts to crumble in oh so many places). I think Peak Apple is already behind us.
Yeah what a shit job he’s doing. Stock is up 1,000% since he too over, while the rest of the market is up 300%. Time to fire that clown.
What hard make or break decision has Tim Cook had to make at Apple since becoming CEO?
Do we remember when some ‘high exec’ did not apologised by the Maps-gate? Tim Cook asked him to go out. With Johnny Ive he was more nice… after the initial ‘fashion Apple Watch’ fiasco.
The only thing that we must remember is that… “Blaming Apple —and Tim Cook— brings book sales, NYT's page view…”
Do you imagine an Apple Studio with a single port?
What business did Cook have asking Forstall to apologize for Apple Maps? Cook was the CEO. Like President Truman was so fond of stating “the buck stops here”.
I've wondered about that situation. Maybe one day we'll get the inside story. But I won't be surprised to learn that Forstall resisted resigning because he was being made a fall guy for something that was prematurely pushed out the door by someone higher up (e.g., Cook). Pure speculation of course. But I've seen how big companies operate (from the inside) and such a scenario isn't at all ridiculous to imagine. Tons of ego.
I don’t take issue of whether he should have been fired if he failed to do his job, but his job wasn’t making apologies to investors, customers, etc.
If Ive was so great, why hasn't Apple still designed a usable mouse?
Oh great... one of you guys.
I own two of them. They work perfectly. What's your gripe?
Let me guess... plugging your mouse to recharge every month or two overnight, or while you leave for lunch is just too difficult for you? You need a lollipop?
Was Newton really as big a disaster as one commenter claims? The size, the pen, ARM chips, touch interface, 3rd party apps -- it clearly inspired the devices we use today. The major problem was ARM chips in 1993 just weren't fast enough. If Newtons and eMate had an A15 chip, it would have been a different story.
Now Tim Cook took over (again from SJ) and is executing well on all the (many) things Steve started, but I'm afraid he will fail delivering a quality AR Thingamagick (and the 'old' Apple stuff also starts to crumble in oh so many places).
I think Peak Apple is already behind us.
Steve has been dead 10.5 years and two of the biggest engines driving Apple's business now didn't even exist when he was alive: "Wearables, Home & Accessories" (which exceeds Mac revenue) and "Services." And if you think peak Apple is behind us, you obviously aren't paying attention to their quarterly reports, which tell the opposite story across all of Apple's product lines. Apple's best days are still ahead of it for this reason: as device categories continue to grow (desktops, laptops, tablets, phones, watches, earbuds, headphones, speakers, VR, streaming boxes, etc) Apple's tight control over and integration of hardware and software just becomes more and more of a selling point for people. People want all their tech devices to "just work" together easily, and no other tech company is in a position to do what Apple does. Do you realize that in the just reported quarter, half of all Mac buyers were new to the Mac!
Which "old Apple stuff" has started to "crumble in oh so many places?" Their M-chip desktops and laptops smoke anything in the PC world at comparable price points, iPads are best tablets out there, Apple Watch is by far the best-selling watch on the planet, and iPhone continues to rake-in about 65% of all global phone profits, leaving all other companies to battle over the remaining 35%.
I’ve is brilliant snd his influence is sorely missed.
Sure, truly brilliant people can be difficult for others to understand or work with at times, but the results are worth it.
While there is a lot of good still at apple, the aesthetics have clearly nosedived.
It’s great to see Apple back to a focus on performance - something it was all about in the PowerPC days with Jony Ive designing around it - but a focus on performance does not have to be exclusive to truly excellent and beautiful design. Beyond that, Intel was more to blame than Ive for the few years of stagnant performance. Apple tried to do some cool stuff and had some rare misses. To be fair, the butterfly keyboard was s great idea. So was the Touch Bar. But it was obvious there was no support. And the keyboard just did not pan out. Good idea but did not translate to reality. Try hrr E small form factor laptop was tracking with intels guidance. Intel missed and apple was stuck with a chassis built upon that guidance. R&D was done. Parts were manufactured and in the supply chain. Had to recoup that.
The current apple products are ok. But they aren’t really truly special in terms of design. The SOC team is killing it right now. The marketing team as well. The design team? Meh. Wish Ive was still there yo take a new era of performance and represent it in truly special ways.
The studio display is an exception as one item thst looks great. But guess what? It actually goes against the current trend of more performance. It’s basically a 10 year old p as bel with a subpar webcam. But at least they got the aesthetics looking like something Ive would make.
Do we remember when some ‘high exec’ did not apologised by the Maps-gate? Tim Cook asked him to go out. With Johnny Ive he was more nice… after the initial ‘fashion Apple Watch’ fiasco.
The only thing that we must remember is that… “Blaming Apple —and Tim Cook— brings book sales, NYT's page view…”
Do you imagine an Apple Studio with a single port?
What business did Cook have asking Forstall to apologize for Apple Maps? Cook was the CEO. Like President Truman was so fond of stating “the buck stops here”.
Forstall obviously was fashioning himself to be rather Jobsian. As such a threat to the position of CEO. It was all just head office politics and Scott lost the war.
Do we remember when some ‘high exec’ did not apologised by the Maps-gate? Tim Cook asked him to go out. With Johnny Ive he was more nice… after the initial ‘fashion Apple Watch’ fiasco.
I really doubt the decision to position Apple Watch as a fashionable accessory was made by Jony alone. Besides, it wasn’t nearly as much of a disaster as the Apple Maps launch.
Ah yes, a new Apple has lost their <insert Mojo / Soul / Identity / Innovation / Lead> due to departure or absence of <insert staff member / hardware partner / next big idea / production advantage / culture / focus > article.
It's funny how over the years the Apple death-knell articles has never truly gone away, and in retrospect they've always been so incredibly off the mark. While the tech press was hammering down on Apple seemingly having lost interest in the mac, Apple was in reality putting the finishing touches on their most ambitious mac hardware releases in history.
Ah yes, a new Apple has lost their <insert Mojo / Soul / Identity / Innovation / Lead> due to departure or absence of <insert staff member / hardware partner / next big idea / production advantage / culture / focus > article.
It's funny how over the years the Apple death-knell articles has never truly gone away, and in retrospect they've always been so incredibly off the mark. While the tech press was hammering down on Apple seemingly having lost interest in the mac, Apple was in reality putting the finishing touches on their most ambitious mac hardware releases in history.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
An article about how Apple is dying and an article about how Apple’s internal culture is changing (often for the worse) are two very different things, and this post is an example of the latter. Neither the successes of the M1 nor the impressive financial growth of Apple contradict the main point.
That's pretty much as expected. Cooks is an accountant at best who has absolutely no understanding how to keep Apple innovating. He leeched off the state of Apple when he'd taken over and admittedly was an effective Chief Excel Operator indeed. But he failed giving Apple a future and I almost expect the next CEO toy (something with AR) is going to be the same thing as the 'Damn scribble toy' (S. Jobs) that failed to deliver a quality product from that guy that used to sell 'sugar water' (S.J. again). History is repeating itself: The last round John Scully managed to grow the Macintosh after Steve left and essentially proved Apple is no longer able to develop a good product (case in point the embarrassing joke that was the Newton). Now Tim Cook took over (again from SJ) and is executing well on all the (many) things Steve started, but I'm afraid he will fail delivering a quality AR Thingamagick (and the 'old' Apple stuff also starts to crumble in oh so many places). I think Peak Apple is already behind us.
Yeah, the Macs are truly crumpling under that lousy Apple Silicon initiative. /s
Peak Apple may still be $5 trillion in market cap higher. I’d bet on that versus the peak already having come.
The problem with Ive was that he placed more importance on thinness and style than what user needed/wanted. Just look at the multi year laptop keyboard fiasco, the lack of ports. Finally we have laptops that have decent keyboards and reasonable ports.
Just consider the hubris of a gold watch, who were the target audience, certainly not the typical Apple computer/iPhone user. The trashcan high-end Mac, We now, finally, have good desirable and usable Macs.
Personally I think he was fired with cause as he should have been several years prior. He was only successful when there was Steve Jobs there to reign him in.
If a computer company gave what people wanted you end up with Microsoft - crap products that never worked.
Ive was exactly what Jobs and Apple needed. As a previous comment said, it is history repeating itself. Those who care about aesthetics have been replaced by business & logistics guys watching the share price.
The last Apple products that Ive was responsible for designing, I doubt will ever be bettered. It is all downhill to the user-groups wish-lists from now on. A sea of mediocrity. Start collecting now. They will only gain in value as Apple slides.
Comments
I've blamed him for the death of the 17", but that probably had as much to do with poor sales.
OTOH, desktop products could probably use a little pizzaz, whereas iPhones could use a middle of the road approach with functionality (including battery life) and some style.
For a while there, it looked like everything was taken over by the design team which is no better than everything being run by engineers - anyone remember the Blackberry UI?
You need a balance between function and design, with both sides contributing. For computer products, you want to lean a bit more heavily on the engineering side of the house.
Good battery life sure is sweet though 😄.
Which "old Apple stuff" has started to "crumble in oh so many places?" Their M-chip desktops and laptops smoke anything in the PC world at comparable price points, iPads are best tablets out there, Apple Watch is by far the best-selling watch on the planet, and iPhone continues to rake-in about 65% of all global phone profits, leaving all other companies to battle over the remaining 35%.
It's funny how over the years the Apple death-knell articles has never truly gone away, and in retrospect they've always been so incredibly off the mark. While the tech press was hammering down on Apple seemingly having lost interest in the mac, Apple was in reality putting the finishing touches on their most ambitious mac hardware releases in history.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Peak Apple may still be $5 trillion in market cap higher. I’d bet on that versus the peak already having come.
The problem with Ive was that he placed more importance on thinness and style than what user needed/wanted. Just look at the multi year laptop keyboard fiasco, the lack of ports. Finally we have laptops that have decent keyboards and reasonable ports.
Just consider the hubris of a gold watch, who were the target audience, certainly not the typical Apple computer/iPhone user. The trashcan high-end Mac, We now, finally, have good desirable and usable Macs.
Personally I think he was fired with cause as he should have been several years prior. He was only successful when there was Steve Jobs there to reign him in.
Ive was exactly what Jobs and Apple needed. As a previous comment said, it is history repeating itself. Those who care about aesthetics have been replaced by business & logistics guys watching the share price.
The last Apple products that Ive was responsible for designing, I doubt will ever be bettered. It is all downhill to the user-groups wish-lists from now on. A sea of mediocrity. Start collecting now. They will only gain in value as Apple slides.