I think the problem that happened with Ive's designs is that he kept trying to out-do himself in the same direction. I've was important with regard to making really nice products that felt really good. Even a plastic iPhone 3G felt really solid compared to the creaky Android phones that would keep coming out years later, never mind an iPhone 4 with its amazing metal and glass feel.
However, Ive kept wanting to push things in the same direction. Apple made wonderful and thin MacBooks that were solid with unibody enclosures. I remember the thick, creaky, plastic PC laptops of 2008 and the MacBook Pros were just amazing in comparison. Later, Ive wanted to shave 0.25mm worth of keyboard space and we ended up with MacBooks that no one wanted.
I think labeling this as "the technocrats won" is way overstating the case. Ive's legacy is all around Apple's new products. It's in the Mac Studio which is a small and quiet machine made out of nice materials. It's just a tad more balanced with the practical implications of managing heat. Instead of trying to make the Mac Studio as small as humanly possible, they've made it small and nice. It isn't anything like the mini-towers that are typical. The new Apple Watch really pushes the display to the edge. It's amazing.
I think part of it was that Ive didn't have a lot of places to go. He'd won. Apple had moved over to his way of thinking almost entirely - with tiny exceptions like "I'd like a functional keyboard." The industry has moved over to his way of thinking a lot. Android phones aren't creaky plastic nearly as often - you can get ones with nice materials and build quality. Once everyone is won over to your way of thinking, where do you go?
In fact, I think a lot of people really like attention. For a long time, Ive got attention. He'd get positive attention from Apple fans who loved his nice designs and negative attention from those who would complain that the iMac didn't have a floppy drive or whatnot - but he was sure he was correct. Fast forward to 2016 and what was Ive really doing that would garner such attention? Apple's product line was all Ive'd. The industry had copied him in a lot of ways (even if they were potentially bad copies). In a way, he wasn't a thought-leader anymore because people had all accepted his thesis. If Newton were around today talking about gravity existing, we'd all be like "yea, we know...got anything new?"
As time went on Ive would either need to find some amazing new way of pushing things forward or his work would just be passé. Oh, another unibody MacBook Pro. Oh, another computer like the last one. He didn't have a battle to fight anymore.
Back in 2000-2010, he could be telling engineers "you need to make it this way because it's better" and most of the time he was right. Once he'd proven out the fact that he was right over that decade, everyone was on board because they saw the value. What would the next thing be that he was right about? Maybe there wasn't a next thing. Maybe they'd taken computers to the right level of design.
Apple's whole lineup is basically Ive's legacy - with a tiny bit of extra room for a decent keyboard or cooling.
However, Ive kept wanting to push things in the same direction. Apple made wonderful and thin MacBooks that were solid with unibody enclosures. I remember the thick, creaky, plastic PC laptops of 2008 and the MacBook Pros were just amazing in comparison. Later, Ive wanted to shave 0.25mm worth of keyboard space and we ended up with MacBooks that no one wanted.
I think labeling this as "the technocrats won" is way overstating the case. Ive's legacy is all around Apple's new products. It's in the Mac Studio which is a small and quiet machine made out of nice materials. It's just a tad more balanced with the practical implications of managing heat. Instead of trying to make the Mac Studio as small as humanly possible, they've made it small and nice. It isn't anything like the mini-towers that are typical. The new Apple Watch really pushes the display to the edge. It's amazing.
I think part of it was that Ive didn't have a lot of places to go. He'd won. Apple had moved over to his way of thinking almost entirely - with tiny exceptions like "I'd like a functional keyboard." The industry has moved over to his way of thinking a lot. Android phones aren't creaky plastic nearly as often - you can get ones with nice materials and build quality. Once everyone is won over to your way of thinking, where do you go?
In fact, I think a lot of people really like attention. For a long time, Ive got attention. He'd get positive attention from Apple fans who loved his nice designs and negative attention from those who would complain that the iMac didn't have a floppy drive or whatnot - but he was sure he was correct. Fast forward to 2016 and what was Ive really doing that would garner such attention? Apple's product line was all Ive'd. The industry had copied him in a lot of ways (even if they were potentially bad copies). In a way, he wasn't a thought-leader anymore because people had all accepted his thesis. If Newton were around today talking about gravity existing, we'd all be like "yea, we know...got anything new?"
As time went on Ive would either need to find some amazing new way of pushing things forward or his work would just be passé. Oh, another unibody MacBook Pro. Oh, another computer like the last one. He didn't have a battle to fight anymore.
Back in 2000-2010, he could be telling engineers "you need to make it this way because it's better" and most of the time he was right. Once he'd proven out the fact that he was right over that decade, everyone was on board because they saw the value. What would the next thing be that he was right about? Maybe there wasn't a next thing. Maybe they'd taken computers to the right level of design.
Apple's whole lineup is basically Ive's legacy - with a tiny bit of extra room for a decent keyboard or cooling.