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Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Office and one of the most popular Product Designers in the World, is quitting Apple to start his own firm LoveFrom. LoveFrom is touted to be an independent design company with Apple as one of it’s clients. Post the announcement; Apple shares had plunged 1.5% to $197.44 – a substantial $US9 billion drop in value. By the end of day, shares recovered to $199.74.
Jony Ive was one of the most important figures in Apple’s dramatic resurgence in the last 1990s. As we all know, Steve Jobs was re-hired by Apple in 1997 and the company went from strength to strength post that. Throughout the time, a couple of names have been credited with driving the huge success. One of them was Jony Ive, Steve Jobs’s right-hand and Spiritual Partner, who drove Apple to create minimalist, sleek and intuitive products like iPhone, iMac,
In August 2011, When Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple’s CEO, commentators and people said it was the end of an era. Wrong. It was the beginning of the end of a Golden era. Apple has changed, for sure. Apple’s priorities are changing. From focusing on building products with incredible hardware and intuitive software, Apple are looking at something different. While Apple’s push into services and subscriptions will be a high-profile bet for the company in the coming years, it’s not the only one. As far as we know, Apple is working on forthcoming new iPhones, a new Apple Watch, an Augmented Reality Device, the long rumoured self-driving Car. Though the apple devices that’ll release 3 years later will still have Ive’s fingerprints, how he will be a part of the future is unclear.
This whole thing of not being an employee and working as a client is confusing. As John Gruber puts it, You’re either at Apple or you’re out. It’s really hard to see Apple following commands of an ex-Employee who runs LoveFrom, a Third-Party collaborator with Apple. Apple’s products are known to be close-structured. So is Apple’s work culture. Apple has always worked with Third Parties on various things but have never considered Third parties over their own employees. How Jony Ive keeps working with the brand he helped built is unclear. Or maybe, Apple wants to distance itself with Ive but doesn’t want to embarrass their Chief Design offer. Just like Steve Wozniak.
