“What will happen to Apple now that Steve Jobs is dead?” It was the billion dollar question asked by Wall Street, Apple fans and Apple employees in 2011.
More than a decade after the death of an Apple co-founder, the Cupertino company is doing better than ever, but New York Times’ Tripp Mickle’s new book, After Steve, tells how Apple became a trillion-dollar company and lost its soul. . One of the reasons was the departure of Jony Quince from the company.
In an article published today in the paper, Mickle adapts part of his book and talks about Jony Quince’s final years with the company.
It was 2014, and the future of Apple depended more than ever on Mr. Ive. His love of clean, simple lines has already changed the world with popular products like the iMac, iPod and iPhone. Now he was sitting at the negotiating table with Tim Cook, the chief executive of the company (…). They both wanted another hit, but Mr. Ive insisted on a bolder product reveal than ever before in the theater company’s history.
Jony Ive saw the future of the Apple Watch as a luxury item. Not only did he want to build a $25 million luxury white tent to promote the first watch, but he “thought Vogue’s rave reviews were more important than any tech reviewer’s opinion.” According to Mickl, “The marquee was critical to making the event as glamorous as a high-end fashion show.”
Eventually, Apple CEO Tim Cook accepted Quince’s idea, although the designer later called it a “Pyrrhic victory.”
He told colleagues that the debate over the event and the larger fight over the watch’s marketing were among the first things he sensed a lack of support within Apple.
Over time, as we all know, the Apple Watch has evolved from a fashion product to a fitness product.
Posting Jobs: Jony Ive and Tim Cook Cook differ in their views
After the death of Steve Jobs, Tim Cook feared losing Jony Quince. Three years later, in 2014, “former company executives estimated that Quince’s departure would cut Apple’s market value by more than $50 billion, or as much as 10 percent,” which is why Cook decided to support Quince’s tent idea.
Elsewhere in the article, Tripp Mickle talks about how Jony Ive’s move to lead design made him “overwhelmed with a staff that stretched into the hundreds, multiples of the 20-person design team he led for years”:
In the midst of these changes, Mr. Jony Ive approached Mr. Cook and told him that he was tired and wanted to retire. Without Mr. Jobs, he took on most of the responsibility for product design and marketing. People close to Mr. Ive said he found it tedious to fight with colleagues over promotions and was overwhelmed by work with a staff that numbered in the hundreds, multiples of the 20-person design team he had led for many years. years.
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Mr. Cook feared that the departure of Mr. Jony Ive would force investors to sell shares. To avoid this, he and Mr. Ive agreed that the designer would step down from day-to-day management duties and work primarily on new products. He will work part time. The company awarded him the title of chief designer and promoted two of his deputies. Only a few people at Apple knew the truth: Mr. Ive was upset and burned out.
The story goes beyond this episode, talking about the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Jony Quince’s latest product with Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR, and how watching the movie “Yesterday” inspired him.
“Art needs proper space and support to grow,” he said, according to those in attendance that evening. “When you’re really big, it’s especially important.”
You can read the full New York Times article on Jony Ive’s departure here. Mikl’s colleague also reviewed his book, which you can read here.
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