“Jony Ive, Apple Inc.’s top designer, will give up day-to-day managerial duties in what the company said is a promotion to the newly created position of chief design officer,” Tim Higgins reports for Bloomberg.
“Ive, who’s been behind shaping the look and feel of Apple’s most important products, will still lead design efforts while focusing entirely on “current design projects, new ideas and future initiatives,” the Cupertino, California-based tech company said Monday in an e-mailed statement,” Higgins reports. “Ive’s two deputies will take on the managerial duties, beginning July 1, according to the company. Richard Howarth becomes vice president of industrial design and Alan Dye takes the role of vice president of interface design.”
Higgins reports, “‘The new Chief Design Officer title is a symbolic gesture recognizing his strategic importance to Apple’s future,’ Neil Cybart, an independent analyst and founder of the Above Avalon website covering Apple’s business, said Monday in an e-mail. ‘In many ways, Jony’s new role is the closest thing yet to the unofficial role that Steve Jobs held at Apple. With day-to-day managerial duties being handed off to capable team members, Jony now has more time to focus on the big picture, although history would suggest he will remain quite involved with the details.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is how Apple eases the pressure on Jony while addressing one of their most pressing problems since Steve Jobs was CEO: Succession. Jony Ive is the most important person at Apple. The addition of Marc Newson to Apple’s payroll, in whatever capacity, was one answer to the question. This is the next.
As we wrote yesterday:
The fact is that Apple without Jony Ive is worse off than Apple without Tim Cook. Tim Cook is easier to replace than Jony Ive.
Steve Jobs called Jonathan Ive his ‘spiritual partner’ at Apple. He told his biographer Walter Isaacson that Ive had ‘more operation power’ at Apple than anyone besides Jobs himself — that there’s no one at the company who can tell Ive what to do. That, Jobs said, is “the way I set it up.”
SteveJack: In effect, way back in 2003, I was right.
Related articles:
Jony Ive promoted to ‘Chief Design Officer’ – May 25, 2015
Jony Ive is the most powerful person at Apple – December 12, 2014
Jony Ive hasn’t been given too much power at Apple – because he’s always had it – February 5, 2013
Steve Jobs left design chief Jonathan Ive ‘more operational power’ than anyone else at Apple – October 21, 2011