Jonathan Ive leaving Apple

[Colonel_Klinck]

Jonathan Ive leaving Apple. He has been a design genius for them over the past couple of decades. Has to be a big loss.

Jony Ive on leaving Apple, in his own words


https://www.ft.com/content/0b20032e-98cf-11e9-8cfb-30c211dcd229

 

[Raymond Lin]

Leave to start his own company, then have Apple as their client.

And then others too. Basically much larger pay cheque + millions more.

Smart.

 

[Quartz]

It's time for a change. Apple haven't innovated for a very long while.

 

[ChrisD.]

It's time for a change. Apple haven't innovated for a very long while.

lol

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Leave to start his own company, then have Apple as their client.

And then others too. Basically much larger pay cheque + millions more.

Smart.

He is already overwhelmingly rich as he would have received stock options at Apple.

I agree that contracting to a company can be a huge money maker but I somehow doubt he’s going to get paid more unless he retains the stock options or they double what they’ve been paying him. Yes he will be getting paid by more sources but he was hardly on minimum wage

For instance;

In 2011 it was reported that Ive was paid $30 million in base salary with a $25 million stock bonus in total compensation for the year.

That $25M has easily doubled in value at this point and that’s just one year in question. Assuming he hasn’t sold all his stock then I doubt his motivation is the cash tbh.

I see this as an opportunity for him to design more than just phones and tablets. He can get involved in anything he desires which at this point is probably more of a driver.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Jony’s been phoning it in for yeas now. To be fair, being asked to be innovative and then being given the almost identical item to work with for years on end must suck.

I’d heard Jony was moving back to London and Apple were giving him his own floor in their Glasshouse Street office.

 

[Minstadave]

lol

I think I agree. Apple isnt doing anything novel and everyone is churning out flagship devices now.

They don't have any real USP apart from their software these days. Theres better screens, better battery life, better cameras out there, notchless devices are widespread. SD card support is widely available and breaks the punishing fees for higher capacity devices.

Integration between iOS and Mac devices was the only thing I found hard to give up but the pricing of Apples devices was enough to push me to Android.

This year's iPhone will likely have a better camera and a faster CPU, I can't get excited enough to blow £1000 on one.

 

[NickK]

Jobs knew the design was something that differentiated. Apple will have some momentum on that but how do you keep someone creative interested - you given them a wider playing field, just as ives has done.

It allows ives to not get bored, allows the ideas to refresh and reduces costs. The down side is where is the innovator? The ives-jobs innovation came on the fact that an idea could be financed in the same meeting.

Ives-Musk would be interesting as musk has the same no-nonsense approach to getting precisely the desired outcome and ruthless focus on value add of people in the company (jobs reputation for firing people in the lift, musk reputation for stripping middle management).

 

[MartinPrince]

Jony’s been phoning it in for yeas now. To be fair, being asked to be innovative and then being given the almost identical item to work with for years on end must suck.

I would tend to agree. It's akin to writing a hit song and then changing a few chords here and there over the years.

No matter how much you're getting paid it's always nice to be your own boss answering to no one.

 

[mrochester]

I think I agree. Apple isnt doing anything novel and everyone is churning out flagship devices now.

They don't have any real USP apart from their software these days. Theres better screens, better battery life, better cameras out there, notchless devices are widespread. SD card support is widely available and breaks the punishing fees for higher capacity devices.

Integration between iOS and Mac devices was the only thing I found hard to give up but the pricing of Apples devices was enough to push me to Android.

This year's iPhone will likely have a better camera and a faster CPU, I can't get excited enough to blow £1000 on one.

Apple's software is precisely why I buy their devices. Their hardware has always been nice but not spectacularly better than anyone else's.

I've never understood why people define Apple by their hardware when it's their software that makes them so successful.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Apparently he hasn't been doing much at Apple since the launch of the Apple Watch.

Apple's software is precisely why I buy their devices. Their hardware has always been nice but not spectacularly better than anyone else's.

I've never understood why people define Apple by their hardware when it's their software that makes them so successful.

This...hardware is so similar these days, its actually pretty boring.

 

[mrochester]

Apparently he hasn't been doing much at Apple since the launch of the Apple Watch.



This...hardware is so similar these days, its actually pretty boring.

It was really apparent in 2007 when Apple released the iPhone that software was a LOT more important than hardware. I remember prior to 2007 buying phones based on how fast the processor was, how much RAM the phone had, how many megapixels the camera had etc. That was all swept away when Apple released the iPhone and we switched to software and ecosystem being the most important aspect.

 

[Siver74]

A loss, yes, and influential enough to cause a slight dip in Apple's stocks (1% but still billions of dollars). He's proof that good design matters. Still, his freedom from the company might be preferable as he would now be his own boss and have Apple as one of his clients.

 

[Hades]

If Apple need him then they can still contract him out via the company he is setting up. This just gives him freedom to work on other stuff too.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Do they actually need him? All companies should have succession plans in place for their top level executives.

Seeing as Ive has been at Apple for over a decade then surely his subordinates should be as good as him if not better when it comes to the day to day design work. I can’t imagine Ive gets involved with the day to day anymore and it’s more in the position of setting direction and final/contentious decision making.

 

[AndyCr15]

Apparently more people are more worried about the fact they wont replace him, more than the fact he's gone. There's quite a list of things that have hurt Apple recently that are being pinned on Ives (like their keyboard issues)

 

[uvarvu]

I thought the same thing regarding the keyboards, first get pencil etc so I'm glad he's gone. Hopefully the style over function thing that has developed over the years will end.

 

[james.miller]

It was really apparent in 2007 when Apple released the iPhone that software was a LOT more important than hardware. I remember prior to 2007 buying phones based on how fast the processor was, how much RAM the phone had, how many megapixels the camera had etc. That was all swept away when Apple released the iPhone and we switched to software and ecosystem being the most important aspect.

Hmm not for me. The OG iPhone had some glaring software omissions like copy/paste, video recording, MMS etc. No, for me it was having the first capacitive touchscreen on the market.

 

[willhub]

I fail to see what's so good about the boring iOS.

 

[Minstadave]

I fail to see what's so good about the boring iOS.

iOS does have some good points, the mac/iPad integration for me was the hardest thing about leaving. Apple support older devices well (when not caught slowing them down too).

The general uniformity of the OS and the apps is better than Android, and the App store is better overall.

I still managed to leave, but would have stayed if Apple priced its hardware more sensibly.