Jonathan Ive “could be defined by his devotion to detail. When Apple boss Steve Jobs asked him in the late Nineties to create colourful, cheap cathode-ray-tube computers – what would become the first iMac – Ive spent hours in a sweet factory to get inspiration for the colours that would tell the world this wasn’t just a machine for work: it was for fun, too,” Rob Waugh reports for The Mail Online.
“And so it has been for nearly 14 years – the time Ive has been Apple’s star designer, a fact little known and less publicised in his native Britain due to the obsessive culture of secrecy at Apple,” Waugh reports. “(His laboratory remains sealed off even from the rest of Apple’s leafy corporate ‘campus’ in San Francisco.) The impact of the 44-year-old, Essex-born, Staffordshire-raised graduate of Newcastle Polytechnic has been incalculable.”
Waugh reports, “He is worth hundreds of millions of pounds to the company, which is itself currently valued at a staggering £200 billion. The last decade has belonged to him: his designs for the Californian company have revolutionised everything from music and television to mobile phones and hand-held computers.”
“Today, with Jobs on an extended leave of absence and Apple’s debt to Ive so immense, speculation has mounted Ive could even replace him as CEO. Those with any knowledge of the tech industry, however, know that current acting CEO Tim Cook, the business genius who streamlined Apple’s supply chain, is a far more likely bet were Jobs to step down,” Waugh reports. “Speculation that Ive would leave Apple to return to the UK is also false, says a former colleague: ‘I’m not sure there is any truth he wants to come back. My last conversations with him were that he was planning to sell his house in the UK.’”
Read more in the full article here.
[Attribution: 9 to 5 Mac. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn W.” for the heads up.]
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RUMOR: Apple design chief Jony Ive ‘at loggerheads’ with Apple over desire to spend more time in England – February 28, 2011
Apple design chief Jonathan Ive: Materials matter – June 30, 2010
What happens when Steve Jobs dies?August 20, 2003
“I’ve” been waiting to here this news….. Haha!!
“I’ve” been waiting to hear this news….. Haha!!
I see in his future a bigger paycheck!
Interesting article, though a bit over-the-top on Ives’ importance to Apple, as important as it is. Ives is part of a core team–Jobs, Cook, Forestall, Johnson, etc–and each one plays a key role to Apple’s success. But then, you have to forgive The Mail’s British flag-waving patriotism in cheering on one of their own (they have every right to).
The reader comments are also interesting, with many bring out The Mail’s highlighting Ive’s education of being “only” a polytechnic (and not a university), something foreign to the US. It brings out the continuing British classism (in spite of it being “socialist”, as the Teabaggers would have it). If Jobs were British, the British press would constantly remind people he has “only” a high school education!
There’s also a crappy little artice in today’s Mail about some anti gay app being given four stars out of five by Apple. I don’t think they understand the customer ratings system and often come ever as being anti Apple
So how pissed does Jony get when his iPhone/iPad keeps on changing “Ive” into “I’ve”? His two masterpieces can’t even get his name right!
In all seriousness, the article says he’s worth millions of dollars…..BS. He’s worth tens of billions to the company. His designs ARE the company.
Actually, all of Johnny Ive’s team’s designs ultimately have to be approved by SJ. Don’t believe that it’s not true…
Steve is fanatical about Apple’s product design and packaging; he always has been. Even when working with Woz.
I always find it interesting when people refer to members of the Tea Party as Teabaggers. Liberals are the only ones that seem to know so much about tea-bagging.
The rumor was that Ive wanted his kids to have a UK education. Well I hope the following is rumor, too:
http://www.birminghamsciencecity.co.uk/news/time-to-turn-on-the-tardis/
Then again, it may not be rumor because Macs come with a Time Machine, and Ive may have learned how to do it back home.
““And so it has been for nearly 14 years – the time Ive has been Apple’s star designer, a fact little known and less publicised in his native Britain due to the obsessive culture of secrecy at Apple,” ”
The little known fact has nothing to do with Apple’s secrecy. It has everything to do with the English ignoring things American.
Not everything in one department of an American computer company is of interest to the rest of the world.
As others have mentioned, Mr. Ive is part of a “magic” team. One that is doing great things for Apple, Inc. But as a shareholder and enthusiast, teams usually don’t hold together forever.
All I expect is there is a succession plan in place to continue the company’s ethos, innovation and products.
Apple has a campus in San Francisco? Cupertino is closer to San Jose, in Silicon Valley. It’s like confusing London with Northampton.
Can any of this article be taken seriously?
Outside of America, anything between Sacramento and all the way down to Santa Cruz is called San Francisco. When a country is so vast, this is just a speck on the map.
OK, fair enough. But as a reporter, wouldn’t you just say “near San Francisco?”
Sorry, but I lived in San Francisco. It just seems sloppy.
If I were the reporter, I would probably say “near San Jose”, but that’s just me. Let’s not forget, it IS the Mail, after all…
Well it it IS the Mail- a rag for right-wingers who don’t understand long words.
Here is the UK Guardian article that started all this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1367481/Apples-Jonathan-Ive-How-did-British-polytechnic-graduate-design-genius.html
The Mail, not the Guardian.
My bad. Sorry.
Jobs didn’t ask him to make an iMac… Ive showed him the iMac concept upon his return.
There you go, British designers are the best in the world.