The future of Jony Ive and Apple

Jony Ive, the man who helped reignite Apple with the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad had more operational power than the finance group, the engineering group, the services group, even the operations group. Apple, the company that put design first, put design first.

For years Ive ran industrial design (ID) at Apple. When Tim Cook became CEO in the fall of 2011, he added human interface (HI) to Ive's responsibilities. The goal was to remove silos and increase collaboration. Ive, who'd long had Richard Howarth as a lieutenant for ID, brought Alan Dye over from marketing to run lead on HI. The immediate result, launched in the summer of 2012, was the redesign of iOS 7, and the "designed together" motif for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

It was the Apple Watch that showed what a unified Apple design organization was really capable with under Ive.

OS X Yosemite followed, and the new MacBook. But it was the Apple Watch, a product driven by Ive and longtime friend Marc Newson and introduced in the fall of 2014, that showed the full power of Apple's new, unified design organization.

A couple of interesting events framed the Apple Watch launch: Marc Newson was officially brought on board by Apple, and Ive did extensive media appearances, foremost among them a profile in the New Yorker under the banner "The Future of Apple. The first gave Ive a collaborator again, the second gave him position.

Or rather, it started to get us ready for Ive's evolving position.

Few consumer product companies have a senior vice president of design. Fewer still have a chief design officer. At Apple, only Cook himself and chief financial officer Luca Maestri had C-level titles. Ive becomes the third, with Howarth taking on the day-to-day responsibilities of vice president of industrial design and Dye, vice president of user interface design.

That's to free up time for travel and working on other projects like Apple's Campus 2, and the next phase of Apple Retail.

That the change was announced on Memorial Day in the U.S., when the markets were closed, might reflect its gravity. Or it might simply recognize that markets, like people, are averse to change, and that it's worth pausing a reflecting, and realizing that this change, like the last one, won't play out in days or weeks but in months and years.

This change, like the last one, won't play out in days or weeks but in months and years.

Ive appears to have avoided the traps that typically plague highly successful creatives. He doesn't seem to feel like there are no worlds left to conquer, and so isn't retiring or retreating from the world. He also doesn't seem to feel like his ideas are unassailable, and so isn't forcing the production of sequels (or prequels) that are pale shadows of their originals.

Apple's culture likely insulates against those extremes. Ive is used to working with a team in ID, and needed to work with one in HI. And it's no coincidence that Apple's current and future projects, including the new campus and new stores, and the Watch and Titan, are ones Ive seems to care about deeply.

This new position, freed of its day-to-day managerial duties, keeps Ive where he is — at the head of the most successful design company in history, with all but unmatched operational power. And it positions Apple for where the company needs to be — with a foundation and future below and beyond Ive as well.

Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

10 Comments
  • "...this new position and its new potential seem like a way to both keep Jony Ive where he is — at the head of a the most successful design company in history — and position Apple for where it needs to be — with a foundation below and beyond Ive." Nailed it. The guy seems downright exhausted. He still has a strong passion for design, and for Apple. But this move should free him to design more and manage less. It also gives some headroom to those underneath Ive. Just as Steve was not with us indefinitely, there will be a day when Ive calls it quits. And there need to be designers who can gradually fill in his footsteps rather than being thrust from obscurity. I'll bet we see new faces in product videos soon.
  • Never thought I'd see the words "remove silos" in an Apple related article.
  • Unfortunately as you point out the timing was self serving and not something that should have been released on such an important day. Posted via S6 Edge
  • What are you talking about? Malls were open business as usual with sales, sporting events, barbecues and other celebrations all happened but Apple is the self serving bad guy? Apple obviously made the choice for business reasons. Another faux outrage moment.
  • You're right. Shame on me... Enjoy your freedom to go to the mall. Posted via S6 Edge
  • Is Marc Newson still employed with Apple or was that just a temporary position for helping design the watch? Sent from the iMore App
  • I'm hoping that apple will become cool again, they were cool once when their products were exciting and fun, when you would go to a store and marvel at the colours, shapes and funky new designs. Remember when a new apple product was a NEW apple product? The iPod is still an icon and remains the coolest MP3 player ever but when the iPhone comes to play you have the option of two colours which are both colourless and almost the same as the previous phone. Steve Jobs told us that Apple's work would be on the intersection between art and design, now it's a soulless aluminium and glass scheme for every product without any art at all.
  • Just to be clear, you are basing your opinion on your preference of a more postmodern design aesthetic than minimalism. This is absolutely fine. Your opinion that postmodern design is fun is also valid. Where I think you are mistaken is where you claim that Apple cannot follow minimalism and be cool. Coolness is very hard to define, but just social standing and branding on their own are much more prevalent in 'coolness' than colour.
  • Apple are "putting their money where their mouth is". The apple products are led by design and the management structure really reflects that now. This is another reflection of Tim's Apple and further development of the company being a product of the management.
  • In the first paragraph it says iOS 7 came out in the summer of 2012. When in fact it was 2013. Sent from the iMore App