Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Steve Jobs Organized Apple to Give Jony Ive Complete Operational Freedom
Yesterday, we highlighted an Associated Press report on Walter Isaacson's forthcoming Steve Jobs biography addressing Jobs' views on Android being a "stolen product" and his commitment to "destroy" the platform at all costs.
The report contains a number of other tidbits from the book, but one other interesting one that has been gaining some attention is Jobs' disclosure that Apple design chief Jony Ive has nearly complete freedom to do as he sees fit, an organizational structure purposely set up by Jobs.
He called Jonathan Ive, Apple's design chief, his "spiritual partner" at Apple. He told Isaacson that Ive had "more operation power" at Apple than anyone besides Jobs himself -- that there's no one at the company who can tell Ive what to do. That, says Jobs, is "the way I set it up."Ive, Apple's Senior Vice President for Industrial Design, has been at Apple for nearly twenty years, the last fifteen of those as design chief. In his role, he has been responsible for essentially all of the iconic product designs that have come out of the company over that time. At the end of Jobs' tenure as CEO earlier this year, Ive was one of seven senior vice presidents at Apple to report directly to Jobs.
Ive's team is said to operate out of a secretive high-tech lab on Apple's campus where he is given ultimate flexibility in his work, a standing earned through his team's creation of numerous iconic products and a plethora of design awards. And while Ive's design work ultimately must mesh with the hardware requirements coming out of Apple's engineering groups under Bob Mansfield, it's clear from Jobs' comments that Ive is free to pursue his own design solutions for Apple products. That freedom ultimately helps to guard against a watering-down effect that could occur if his designs were subject to the approval of and revision by others in the company.
[ 201 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
102 months ago
Sometimes the best way to lead is to hire smart people and just let them do their… er, jobs.
102 months ago
Let's hope Jony Ive stays at Apple for a very long time. That would be another sad departure.
102 months ago
Best job in the universe...
design cool stuff, no one tells you what to do, get paid millions to do it.
nice.
design cool stuff, no one tells you what to do, get paid millions to do it.
nice.
102 months ago
Not surpring for a creative function
In well run organizations, the creative types are often separated from the other types as they need the autonomy to do their work. Also, the creatives often don't fit in with the more business focused/operations people -- both types can be an inhibition to each others work
In well run organizations, the creative types are often separated from the other types as they need the autonomy to do their work. Also, the creatives often don't fit in with the more business focused/operations people -- both types can be an inhibition to each others work
102 months ago
As someone who has personally witnessed enough 'design by committee' to last a lifetime, this is very refreshing to hear.
I'm not saying that all designers should just have carte blanche to do whatever they see fit (as that too can lead to just as many problems), but it kills me every time I see a great design changed (or even scrapped entirely) because it doesn't meet some arbitrary demand insisted upon by a dick from Marketing.
I'm not saying that all designers should just have carte blanche to do whatever they see fit (as that too can lead to just as many problems), but it kills me every time I see a great design changed (or even scrapped entirely) because it doesn't meet some arbitrary demand insisted upon by a dick from Marketing.
102 months ago
This is how all design should be. Products catered to please the people at the top are always watered down and never achieve the designers intended look. Give a designer ultimate freedom and you get art.
102 months ago
Always liked Ive. It's nice for a Brit to have contributed so much to the world around us today.
[ Read All Comments ]
Twelve South today announced the all-new Journal for iPad Pro, a new leather case made specifically for the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models.
Journal for iPad Pro includes a built-in...
There are quite a few discounts on the MacBook Air going on this week, including models from late 2018 and mid 2019. Sales can be found at Best Buy and Amazon, with as much as $350 off...
Chase Bank today announced that it will be shutting down its Chase Pay app for iOS and Android in early 2020, at which point the QR code-based payment service will no longer be available for use in...
Apple has just launched an account on Twitter dedicated to its new credit card, which went live for customers in the U.S on Tuesday.
The official account, which goes by the handle...
Non-profit organization Girls Who Code today announced plans to begin offering a new Swift coding tutorial option for its upcoming 6th to 12th grade clubs as part of Apple’s ongoing Everyone Can Code...
Netflix today introduced a new "Latest" section to its service, which is designed to highlight newly released titles and movies and TV shows that are coming soon.
According to Variety,...
Struggling movie ticket subscription service MoviePass stored thousands of customer card numbers and personal credit cards in a database that was not protected with a password, reports TechCrunch.
...
While it has yet to be announced, we're likely just three weeks away from Apple's annual September event at Steve Jobs Theater, where the company is expected to unveil new iPhone and Apple...
