Apple is no longer renewing its contract with Jony Ive and his new company, LoveFrom, which he founded in 2019 after leaving the tech giant where he worked for 27 years. The New York Times on Tuesday said despite Apple’s prior commitment to work with Ive’s company on a long-term basis, Cupertino has decided not to renew its contract with LoveFrom. The multi-year contract was reportedly worth over $100 million and would have given Apple effective control over LoveFrom by not allowing it to execute work that Cupertino found competitive.
Ive was a close friend and collaborator of Steve Jobs, but his relationship with Cook has been somewhat rocky; the end of his consulting agreement with the former chief design officer possibly gives more fire to these rumours. With Apple and Ive parting ways, it seems this will be the first time the star designer won’t be associated with Cupertino in any form.
Jony Ive helped make Apple the design powerhouse
Ive had a long tenure at Apple that helped reimagine the look and feel of its products as it emerged from a lull in the 1990s. Ive, who was born in Chingford, East London and studied at Newcastle Polytechnic, led Apple’s design team from 1996 to 2019. He is responsible for Apple’s most popular products, some of them even on display at museums.
A close collaborator of Steve Jobs, Ive made global headlines for the first time when Apple debuted the iMac G3. The bold, colourful desktop computer not only changed the history of computing but also saved Apple from going bankrupt. Its playful design changed the perception of a traditional computer that was always hidden under a desk in the office.
Then came the iPod. With its revolutionary click wheel interface, rounded corners, and pocketable size, the iPod was a little computer that played music.
The launch of the iPhone put Apple at the front of cutting-edge innovation and gave Ive both name and fame as a leading industrial designer.
Ive also helped design the MacBook Air, the iPad and the Apple Watch. Perhaps his biggest achievement was that he taught the entire industry why design matters and how simplicity and experience make for a great consumer product. He introduced average users, not just enthusiasts, to premium products, and made them pay more for a device that warrants extra attention and detail.
But after Jobs died, Ive’s responsibilities expanded beyond leading the industrial design team. He was put in charge of the software as lead of the Human Interface Department, an area he didn’t have much expertise in. He also took over Jobs’ role in overseeing the planning and construction of Apple Park, the $5 billion spaceship headquarters. And, on top of this, the development and launch of the Apple Watch, a project close to Ive, put a lot of pressure on the designer.
In 2015, he was named Apple’s first Chief Design Officer.
The reports that came out after Ive left Apple claimed he felt “dispirited” by Tim Cook’s lack of interest in design, and the CEO’s decision to focus on selling software and services. Cook called the reports “absurd”.
Jony Ive with Tim Cook. (The New York Times Photo/File)
Apple’s change in design philosophy
It’s hard not to acknowledge the influence that Ive has had on the design of Apple products, but more importantly, the products he created changed our relationship with technology.
But, there have been instances in the recent past where Ive’s design philosophy has led to the creation of a bad product, irking Apple’s core audience, especially pro-consumers.
The Mac lineup, for that matter, suffered the most. Ive liked thinner and lighter computers — an obsession that led to multiple failed Macs.
The most shining example is the 2013 “trash can” Mac Pro. Apple, in fact, had to do a rare roundtable with select journalists to explain what went wrong with the desktop computer aimed at professional users.
Apple had a similar experience with the 12-inch MacBook in 2015, a notebook meant to replace the MacBook Air. Its single USB-C port, butterfly keyboard, low-powered Intel processor, along with a high price led to bad reviews of the product. Ultimately, Apple had to discontinue the device.
Then came the 16-inch MacBook Pro with TouchBar and the flat butterfly keyboard. Maxing out at just 16GB of RAM and without the latest Intel processor at launch, the new MacBook Pro failed to impress pro-consumers.
The missteps Apple made with the 12-inch MacBook or the 16-inch MacBook Pro invited negative press and gave a bad name to the company that thrives on its design and brand power. While Ive’s influence can still be seen on many new Apple products, including the AirPods Max, some design changes are underway.
For example, gone is the butterfly keyboard which was first introduced in the 2015 MacBook. In 2020, Apple replaced the keyboard, which plagued its laptops for years, with a design in favour of a scissor-switch mechanism. Similarly, the MacBook Pro no longer comes with the TouchBar that was replaced with physical function keys.
The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros launched in 2021 incorporated an SD card slot and an HDMI slot. They are also a bit thicker and denser. These design changes were widely praised by creative professionals who hated to carry multiple adapters when they go on the field.
The new Mac Studio, Apple’s most compelling Mac design in years, is compact, cool and powerful. Even though the design has a Jony Ive stamp on it, the Mac Studio has a ton of power but still maintains a compact design. Even the iPhone has got a revamped design post the exit of Ive from Apple. Beginning with the iPhone 12, all new iPhones sport a new design language which includes squared-off edges.
Under the watchful eyes of Tim Cook, Apple’s design philosophy seems to be changing, often aligning with customer demand. It’s unlikely that Ive’s influence on Apple’s upcoming products will not be felt — Cupertino likes to work on multiple generations of a product in advance — but what we will see is a less stubborn Apple.
Further, the era of drastic design changes seems to be over and Apple knows it very well. Cupertino has understood that sometimes a beautiful design can turn out to be bad, and fixing a faulty product leads to a PR crisis and loss of sales.
