Shubham Agarwal for Digital Trends:
In June, Jony Ive announced he’s parting ways with Apple to form an independent firm. Many wondered what an Apple without Steve Jobs’ closest confidant and the company’s iconic head of design will look like. Six months and a string of launches later… It’s a company that’s much less obsessed with its products’ aesthetics and not hesitant to prioritize essentials for users over ostentatious features.
In an attempt to build thinner devices, Apple has taken a series of missteps in the past few years upsetting longtime customers. Its 2016 revamp of the MacBook Pro is the epitome of the heights Apple was prepared to go to push its designs — no matter how flawed they were.
Following Ive’s departure announcement, however, Apple has fortunately started to recover in fits and starts. The first sign surfaced when the company introduced the iPhone 11 series… Instead of slimming down, Apple made its latest iPhone bulkier to accommodate a larger battery… Last week, Apple also backtracked on its Butterfly keyboard design. The latest 16-inch MacBook Pro has pretty much the same keyboard and scissor switches from the 2015 MacBook Pro… The new MacBook Pro is also thicker and heavier to make more room for better thermals and a longer-lasting battery.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, Jony Ive helped turn Apple into what it is today. Yes, by the end of his time at Apple, he got a little weird and seemed more than a little bored/distracted, but his myriad contributions to Apple over many years cannot be overstated!
That said, as usual, we told ya so long ago:
The law of diminishing returns can also be applied to industrial design. Apple’s eternal quest for thinness eventually runs into issues such as bulging camera assemblies, battery capacity, strength (breakability), etc. – is Apple’s quest for thinness now bordering on the quixotic?
So, is it “you can never be too thin” or is it “thin enough is thin enough?” — MacDailyNews, December 21, 2015
What’d be wrong with slightly thicker iPhone with more battery life and a flush camera assembly? — MacDailyNews, December 21, 2015
Hey, Jony: Enough with the thin.
Everything is thin enough. Sometimes too thin. Thinner isn’t the answer to everything, nor is thinness intrinsic to good design. We’d gladly take a bit more robustness and battery life over more unnecessary thinness, thanks. – MacDailyNews, June 25, 2018
If Apple made an iPhone model that was the smartphone equivalent of the Panasonic Toughbook — thick, heavy, full of battery, and virtually indestructible — they’d never be able to make enough of them. — MacDailyNews, November 2, 2018