Jony Ive's departure follows years of dissatisfaction and absenteeism
Apple's chief design officer Jony Ive reportedly disliked how the company focused on operations more than design and would regularly fail to attend his own design meetings.
Apple's outgoing Chief Design Officer, Jony Ive
Jony Ive will leave Apple later this year to run his own design firm, LoveFrom. However, the Wall Street Journal claims that he effectively left several years ago, with an official reduction in his day-to-day involvement followed by his missing design meetings that he had called. Reportedly, Ive was dissatisfied with how Apple has concentrated more on operations than on design since Tim Cook took over from the late Steve Jobs.
"When Steve Jobs was alive," an unnamed former member of the Design Group told WSJ, "there was a lot of effort toward: Steve's coming to the studio today, so we have to have a lot for him to see. When he died, that went away."
In comparison, sources say that Cook was rarely seen in the design studio and this dispirited Ive.
What Cook did do was to reportedly pay Ive far more than any other Apple executives, and then later to facilitate his working from home more.
According to the same sources, the idea of Ive working from home was to help him recharge after years of intense working on products like the iMac and the iPhone, but it didn't work out.
"The reality was that he worked just as hard and got just as tired," said the source.
The original gold version of the Apple Watch
Cook also backed Ive when the designer was pushing to create an Apple Watch and other executives didn't want it. However, Ive really wanted to make a luxury watch and the company compromised by making it be a companion to the iPhone, but with an optional high-price version.
Reportedly, thousands of the $10,000 gold edition of the Apple Watch remained unsold. Overall, WSJ says that Apple sold around 10 million Apple Watches in the first year -- but that this was a quarter of what they'd expected.
After that, in 2015, Cook made Ive Apple's Chief Design Officer which accomplished two things. It freed Ive from his day to day responsibilities so that he could concentrate on creating Apple Park, and it also further enabled him to work from his homes in San Francisco, Hawaii or the UK.
"The team craved being around [Ive]," said a source the WSJ describes as being close to Apple's leadership at the time. "He's engaging. Him being around less was disappointing."
The industrial design and human interface groups officially had new leaders in Alan Dye and Richard Howarth but the teams continued to look to Ive.
"They still wanted Jony's thumbs-up to go forward," the leadership source said.
"It's not that you needed him to make every decision," said another designer. "He challenged us to do better."
During this time, Ive created a monthly "design week" session with Apple's software designers, but apparently he rarely showed up.
That absenteeism and remote working continued on through 2017 when Apple was designing the tenth anniversary iPhone. Ive did attend a meeting about it, but that meeting took place near his home in San Francisco, and reportedly he did little.
A person at the meeting told WSJ that Ive listened to the approximately 20 designers present as they outlined what they wanted to do. However, he then left without providing responses or answers to their questions.
"Many of us were thinking: how did it come to this?" one designer said. "There was a sense that "Jony was gone but reluctant to hand over the reins."
Apple Park
However, Ive did work on Apple Park and in that building has created new processes and new methods of working that speed up prototyping for both the Industrial Design and Human Interface groups.
"He built Apple into this ID and HI powerhouse," said a source. "What does that mean going forward? None of us know."
Read on AppleInsider
Apple's outgoing Chief Design Officer, Jony Ive
Jony Ive will leave Apple later this year to run his own design firm, LoveFrom. However, the Wall Street Journal claims that he effectively left several years ago, with an official reduction in his day-to-day involvement followed by his missing design meetings that he had called. Reportedly, Ive was dissatisfied with how Apple has concentrated more on operations than on design since Tim Cook took over from the late Steve Jobs.
"When Steve Jobs was alive," an unnamed former member of the Design Group told WSJ, "there was a lot of effort toward: Steve's coming to the studio today, so we have to have a lot for him to see. When he died, that went away."
In comparison, sources say that Cook was rarely seen in the design studio and this dispirited Ive.
What Cook did do was to reportedly pay Ive far more than any other Apple executives, and then later to facilitate his working from home more.
According to the same sources, the idea of Ive working from home was to help him recharge after years of intense working on products like the iMac and the iPhone, but it didn't work out.
"The reality was that he worked just as hard and got just as tired," said the source.
The original gold version of the Apple Watch
Cook also backed Ive when the designer was pushing to create an Apple Watch and other executives didn't want it. However, Ive really wanted to make a luxury watch and the company compromised by making it be a companion to the iPhone, but with an optional high-price version.
Reportedly, thousands of the $10,000 gold edition of the Apple Watch remained unsold. Overall, WSJ says that Apple sold around 10 million Apple Watches in the first year -- but that this was a quarter of what they'd expected.
After that, in 2015, Cook made Ive Apple's Chief Design Officer which accomplished two things. It freed Ive from his day to day responsibilities so that he could concentrate on creating Apple Park, and it also further enabled him to work from his homes in San Francisco, Hawaii or the UK.
"The team craved being around [Ive]," said a source the WSJ describes as being close to Apple's leadership at the time. "He's engaging. Him being around less was disappointing."
The industrial design and human interface groups officially had new leaders in Alan Dye and Richard Howarth but the teams continued to look to Ive.
"They still wanted Jony's thumbs-up to go forward," the leadership source said.
"It's not that you needed him to make every decision," said another designer. "He challenged us to do better."
During this time, Ive created a monthly "design week" session with Apple's software designers, but apparently he rarely showed up.
That absenteeism and remote working continued on through 2017 when Apple was designing the tenth anniversary iPhone. Ive did attend a meeting about it, but that meeting took place near his home in San Francisco, and reportedly he did little.
A person at the meeting told WSJ that Ive listened to the approximately 20 designers present as they outlined what they wanted to do. However, he then left without providing responses or answers to their questions.
"Many of us were thinking: how did it come to this?" one designer said. "There was a sense that "Jony was gone but reluctant to hand over the reins."
Apple Park
However, Ive did work on Apple Park and in that building has created new processes and new methods of working that speed up prototyping for both the Industrial Design and Human Interface groups.
"He built Apple into this ID and HI powerhouse," said a source. "What does that mean going forward? None of us know."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I do think he has gradually stepped away from primary design responsibilities for quite some time (at least 2015) and taken opportunities to design other kinds of products (mostly with his friend Mark Newsom), but 30 years with a stellar record is a great legacy that he should be proud of, and I'm confident his team of designers (most of which have worked with him for many years) will both carry on his discipline and yet also forge their own vision for Apple's future products.
Ive’s departure is a loss for Apple.
"there was a lot of effort toward: Steve's coming to the studio today, so we have to have a lot for him to see. When he died, that went away." In comparison, sources say that Cook was rarely seen in the design studio and this dispirited Ive.
Is it not that anyone is doing a worse job, but that the component (job) of star guest critic is in absentia...? I can't imagine the sense of loss, and presumably the psychic challenges of carrying on, or in trying to fill such a role...
And if he was indeed spending a great deal of time designing Apple Park as the articles states many times, then obviously he didn't have time for his former duties. He is human.
And I would like to know about these sources who say they hardly saw him but claim to know how he was feeling. Nice way to treat a man who made the design team the stars of Apple.
Dropping the $10,000+ Edition was the right move. It wasn't great PR for Apple, as the expectation was no one could afford this watch, and the little developer traction Apple are getting with the Watch now would be non-existent with Edition Watch market. Focusing on both health and fashion was the right move for the product. But let's face it, it's not as if you still can't pay pretty penny for an Apple Watch. If you want to, you a buy a Hermès for $1,500+.
At least a large number of people bought in to the cheaper version...
Apple isn’t a young vibrant company anymore, obviously it’s not IBM, but still has a stifling atmosphere. Apple is probably better off with Ive working elsewhere but still contributing to the vision.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/jony-ive-to-form-independent-design-company-with-apple-as-client/
The watch was insane because it was identical to the $10000 less models.
It was also much to bulky to be a fashion statement.
Oh, and I find it’s hard to believe that Apple built thousands of Apple Watch Edition without knowing the demand first, giving Tim Cook tendency to not oversupply.