“As a relative newcomer to Apple devices, first using the telephone, then the tablet and finally – in preparation for meeting senior vice president of design Jonathan Ive (‘Jony’ to you and me, Sir Jonathan to the Queen) – getting to grips with the computer itself, I have been most struck by the way in which its products link up,” Nick Foulkes reports for The Financial Times’ How To Spend It. “Web pages consulted on the computer appear on the telephone; telephone calls can be answered on the computer; emails are commenced on one machine and completed on another. Hardware and software seem designed together in such a way that one cannot quite tell where the machine ends and the operating system begins. As a commercial strategy it is undeniably brilliant, quickly enveloping users in a world they do not want to leave. But it is the clairvoyant ingenuity of it all that makes me marvel.”
“Towards the end of last year Apple became the first public company ever valued at $700bn,” Foulkes reports. “In great part, that valuation rests on the shoulders of a 48-year-old Englishman. Yet as he lopes towards me down the corridor, in his comfortable suede shoes, bright-blue trousers and baggy, long-sleeved yellow top, his kindly features creased up in a welcoming grin, those broad shoulders seem remarkably unbowed. Ive is arguably the most influential designer in the world, and yet he does that slightly disingenuous self-effacement thing characteristic of confident people who say they are just part of a team. There is a gentleness about him. He talks quietly and articulately in an accent unaffected by two decades in America. Even when he describes those who copy Apple as little better than thieves, it is with a smile and softness of tone that suggests he would far rather the unpleasant subject had never been brought up.”
Tons more – including why Apple Watch’s battery is the size and capacity it is – in the full article (recommended) – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Soon the rest of the world will come to realize the level of care that Jony and team have invested in Apple Watch and, yet again, the naysayers will either feel silly or they’ll start inventing all manner of incorrect reasons to explain why people are snapping up Apple Watches the world over.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
“In great part, that valuation rests on the shoulders of a 48-year-old Englishman”
Bullshit
Most of us couldn’t give a shit about Ive’s stylings. OS X and the derivative of it- iOS are where the value is. Where Ive has touched software he has fucked it up with his skinny fonts and flat icons a la Windows 8.
Speak for yourself.
There is a reason Apple is allowing Ive to be front and center. Nothing Apple does, especially PR wise is an accident.
What chance of Jony Ive actually appearing live on stage on Monday. The audience would go wild! To say it would give the Watch a huge boost is an understatement. Go Jony go.
it’s a pleasure watching I’ve stepping out from behind the curtain. I now understand why he and Jobs were so close.
Good article. The battery mentioned is the iPhone battery and the balance required between weight and capacity.
Personally, I prefer the weight, thickness, size and balance in the hand of the original iPhone rather than the bigger, broader, thinner iPhone 6. To the point that a iPhone6 ‘Minus’ (or nano) that was fatter, heavier, smaller – but with loads of power for days of use, would be my preference.
I also wonder about the performance hit when in combination with the watch its using the GPS to track metre by metre the route of a jog or run. I’m currently using an app called MapMyRun on an iphone and it cuts through the battery life like a knife through butter because its using the same iPhone elements as the watch presumeably will do.
Maybe the next iPhone will end up adding more battery capacity – either by tech change or thickness.