Jonathan Ive: More Valuable to Apple than Steve Jobs?

by: Jason Schwarz September 24, 2008 | about stocks: AAPL / GOOG    

Jason Schwarz

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We've now had a chance to see the prototype G1 phone.  Google (GOOG) is hoping to carve out its own niche in the cellphone market in much the same way Apple (AAPL) has recently done.  Can we expect to see lines outside of T-Mobile stores when the phone goes on sale next month?  Highly unlikely.  Instead, Google's gPhone appears headed down the same path of irrelevancy as the Microsoft (MSFT) Zune.  According to Walt Mossberg, "The G1 won't win any beauty contests with its Apple rival.  It's stubby and chunky, nearly 30% thicker and almost 20% heavier that the iPhone."

I was prepared to delve into a detailed comparison between the gPhone and the iPhone but Mr. Mossberg's statement just put an end to any constructive debate that we might have had.  When you try and tell me how cool the copy and paste feature is or how excited you are about the MMS photo function I'll just have to give you the look.  The same look that I gave to Zune enthusiasts who told me how much better the large video screen was.  I don't think so.  It's on days like today, when someone comes out with a product like the gPhone that we remember just how dominant Apple has become.  Aren't new product releases supposed to be better than the existing ones?  Apple competitors are shamefully years behind and it's all because of one man, Jonathan Ive.

Senior VP of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive, is the most important man in the tech world.  He is more important to Apple than Steve Jobs. Have you seen what the Mac looked like before Ive came along?  Do you remember where Steve Jobs was before Ive took over the design team?  Jonathan Ive is the principal designer of the Mac, the iPod, and the iPhone.  Not Steve Jobs.  While Wall Street's busy watching Steve's weight we should be more concerned with Ive's eyesight.  Jonathan Ive is the real Moses here, Jobs is just Aaron.  In January the guy was rated the most influential Brit in America, ahead of Beckham.  Those in the know praise his work. Read the following reviews that Ive received for his iPhone design:

  • "He has an uncanny skill for imparting a device with simplicity, distinction, and inevitability.  He could probably design a better triangle, and when he was done you'd realize that three sides were one side too many." --James Lileks, Minneapolis Star Tribune
  • "The iPhone is something out of Tom Cruise's science-fiction film Minority Report, which is set in 2054."  --Paul Durman, The UK Times
  • "The iPhone is a typical piece of Ive design: an austere, abstract, platonic-looking form that somehow also manages to feel warm and organic and ergonomic." -- Lev Grossman, Time

Jonathan Ive should be the next CEO of Apple.  Apple's software is good, their end to end user experience is great, but the look and feel of their products is what set's them apart.  In the last few months, the world has quietly been experiencing a sea change.  The market share tidal wave of Apple is coming and it's not all riding on Steve Jobs's shoulders.

DISCLOSURE: LONG AAPL.

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This article has 39 comments:

  •  
    Sep 24 07:51 AM
    Good informative article. But the suggestion that Ives should be CEO is absolutely ludicrous. Who would replace HIM at his current job?
    He is doing exactly what he does best, as does Steve Jobs.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 08:16 AM
    The author confuses the company with its products. There are magnificently managed companies with unglamorous products and companies that are horribly managed (for a while, before they implode into ruin) with fantastic products.

    He fails to show that Ives has any talent whatsoever at running a business.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 08:43 AM
    You are such a cheerleader!

    "I was prepared to delve into a detailed comparison between the gPhone and the iPhone but Mr. Mossberg's statement just put an end to any constructive debate that we might have had."

    Right - God forbid you actually go out, do some research, and try to be objective. It's so much easier to put on your giant foam "Apple is #1" and short into your megaphone about how great Apple is.

    You say Mossberg said it was "stubby." Not sure what that means to you, but the G1's specs say it's a bit narrower and a bit longer than the iPhone, resulting in a slightly smaller form factor; 30% thicker means just over an eighth of an inch.

    Don't get me wrong, I think the G1 looks ghastly. But to dismiss it out of hand based on a single comment by a reviewer just shows how little credence should be given to your opinions.

    By the way, I'd GLADLY have my iPhone weigh an ounce more in exchange for 50% longer battery life.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 08:50 AM
    what happens if GOOG hires him away from AAPL?
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 08:58 AM
    the beautiful thing is that they complement each other
    Jobs and Ive are the best duo .. even better than sonny and cher :)
    True design sets apple products apart but it's the os that makes it more functional then anything else.
    Apple design team was always ahead of it's times
    I can name a few products that belong in the museum of modern art
    starting with the original Macintosh,the lisa, the e-mate, newton, quicktake camera, 20th anniversary Macintosh, performa , the Classic
    .. and more, all of these products where special and came before Ives

    a combiantion of good marketing, better OS and design and lets not forget a total lack of ideas from the other pc vendors/assemblers....

    lets face it they only exist and dominated the market because windows was the dominant OS , if Apple back then would have decided to use windows instead , they could have probably been the #1 PC vendor.

    But fortunately Jobs, the Woz and a few others at Apple went beyond building a profitable company they had a vision .
    They laid the basis, I don't see today's Apple being that much different than the original company that brought us the Lisa, the mouse and windows
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 09:05 AM
    "By the way, I'd GLADLY have my iPhone weigh an ounce more in exchange for 50% longer battery life."

    ?? the iPhone has a better battery life , only in stand by the G1 is a tiny bit better

    "the G1 Talk time is 406 via GSM.
    Standby time is 319 hours [GSM].

    The iPhone talk time is 5 hrs in 3G [GSM] or up to 10 hours in 2G.
    Standby time up to 300 hours."
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 09:06 AM
    the first number for the g1 is 406 minutes in GSM
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 09:25 AM
    A CEO's main job in a public company is optimal capital allocation, making the most money out of a capital base. A great design talent, while extremely valuable, does not portend success with capital allocation. Mr. Jobs has successfully opened new markets for Apple not once but three times not counting the computer line: ipod and itunes, Apple retail, and iphone. Few CEO's can create two new markets in their career, let alone three times. Most big companies get into new markets by acquisitions: see Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, HP, IBM. Apple is unique in this respect.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 09:32 AM
    don't agree on this, ives is talented but completely expendable
    the design directive flows from jobs and only jobs
    prior to ives say the macs of the 80's simply reflected design in the 80 allbeit done very elegantly

    gphone is great for iphone for all the healthy competetive reasons, their laissex faire open source platform will be a huge negative issue for them however
    the one company i really dont inderstand right now is rimm with a pe sky high compared to apple and google
    go figure
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 09:54 AM
    there are a LOT of very talented people at Apple and this article just highlights one of many. and there is no way that Apple and it's crew will let anyone better the iphone for long but the iphone will morph more fully into a handheld computer in the very near future and THAT will be pretty hard to beat by anyone since Apple has such a great OS.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 10:16 AM
    To digivision, who questioned my statement that "I'd GLADLY have my iPhone weigh an ounce more in exchange for 50% longer battery life":

    My comment was actually independent of a comparison with the google thingamajig. It continued to describe Jason the Cheerleader's analytical weakness, demonstrated by his conclusion that the google phone is inferior to the iPhone from one reviewer's sentence about the device's size and weight.

    However, since you brought it up, you're wrong, according to the manufacturers' claims.

    Talk time: GOOG - 350/406 minutes, AAPL - 300/600. Advantage GOOG, with the weighty assumption that 3G is the preferred and available network.

    Standby time: GOOG - 402/319 (curious), AAPL - up to 300. Advantage GOOG.

    It appears that the GOOG is MUCH more efficient. The G1 uses a 1150mAh lithium battery; the only thing I've found on the iPhone's battery size puts it at 1400 mAh.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 10:27 AM
    Just a quick fact check here guys - Jonathan Ive was at Apple 5 YEARS before Steve Jobs returned in 1997. Yup, he started at Apple in 1992. He actually worked on the 20th Anniversey Macintosh, QuickTake camera, etc, etc. It took Steve Jobs managerial skills and keen eye for a great product to turn Apple's Industrial Design Group into what it is today.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 10:32 AM
    bsdetector..
    I got the specs from another article.. perhaps not accurate?
    seekingalpha.com/artic...

    no matter how good a smart phone is, they all miss something huge ...
    the App store..

    just like with the ipod there are other players some better some worse but the value is not in the hardware alone
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 10:47 AM
    It is the environment that brings out the creativity in a person, put him in another company he may not be producing the kind of stuff he can at Apple.

    @atauber, goog do not produce any physical product, it is a cloud company and I don't think Ive is good at web designing or coding.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 11:07 AM
    I've thought of Ive as Apple's secret weapon for a long time. Every new phone, including the LG and the Google, looks like an iPhone made by a grade school art class.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 11:20 AM
    This newest iPhone "killer" is a complete JOKE. Here's what you're buying for your whopping $20 off the price of an 8GB iPhone 3G:

    1GB of onboard storage
    No standard 3.5mm headphone jack
    1GB/mo data limit over 3G
    Heavier, thicker form factor
    No Exchange compatibility
    T-Mobile's woefully inadequate 3G coverage

    Yeah, quite a deal. HTC sure didn't do Google any favors putting out this clunker for the debut of Android.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 11:57 AM
    The gPhone could very well go the way of the Amiga. Better in many respects than the Mac, yet clunky, cheap-looking, and toy-like.

    Of course, history says that Windows Mobile 7 will come along and destroy both. That's where my analogy breaks down...
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 12:04 PM
    "Jonathan Ive should be the next CEO of Apple."

    Jon would be the worst CEO for Apple. Jon is a designer, not a chief executive. Jon wouldn't want to waste his time managing people and operations, apart from his design teams. Taking Jon out of design would be the worst thing Apple could do.

    Apple would run better with Jon heading design and with me as CEO, and I've never run anything bigger than $50m.

    Jon loves what he does. i can't imagine he would ever leave Apple. He has the best designer's job in the world. I can't imagine he woulf ever give that up, even o run the shop. That wold just be o below his skill set.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 12:45 PM
    I don't think he really meant he should be a CEO, even though he said it. But with all the focus on Job's health it is very important to recogize other people in the company that make it a success. Apple is not a one man company no matter how many people say it is! Only the media makes it out to be that way. We don't see any facts in the article relating Ives to Apple's success(time wise), but I am assuming he must have come along right before the iPod?
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 12:46 PM
    Jobs and Ives are a good fit. Everyone knows Jobs is a good manager and a minimalist at heart. Ives knows how to make things look pleasing. But behind both are teams of dozens of people. All have the Apple spirit which ultimately comes down from Jobs.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 01:46 PM
    You are comparing apples and oranges here. If you want to talk about the design of the G1, then you are talking about HTC, not Google. Google doesn't design hardware thus making it a horrible counterpoint for why Ive is great. You had a better target with Microsoft and the Zune.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 01:46 PM
    He's got a bit of a point re: Ives as CEO in this regard- whenever Jobs injects himself into the design process, the result is usually a commercial dud.

    The Cube was Jobs' idea. Beautiful, but overpriced, and it sold like crap. He also was heavily involved in the first "new iMac" (the iLamp). It may have been ahead of its time, or perhaps its time will never come. In either case, it lasted for maybe a year before the current iMac design took over and sold well.

    Now it may be that Jobs' genius is in product focus, employee motivation, or just his famous Reality Distortion Field. And Ive is probably not a CEO. But it is undeniably true that Apple does better when Jobs doesn't dictate design.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 01:56 PM
    @TimWillis-do get a life. The App Store is a godsend for developers. If you think that your petition will put developers off the platform, just watch what happens over the next year. No one else has created such an opportunity for developers large and very very small to compete on a level playing field. If you build it, they will come. Apple did build it. AND THEY CAME AND WILL KEEP DOING SO. Any other entrants into Apps markets are simply also-rans.... no vision but great at copycatting. Huh. Petition indeed! What a joke.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 02:47 PM
    Yes, Google does not build the phone and will not be in that business, however they will probably not get the opportunity to put their platform on a phone as nice as an iPhone. They will get the opportunity to eat up precious bandwidth with their ads on iPhone/RIMM wannabes(yes giving RIMM props for once). As for me, as soon as my contract is up, I am getting an iPhone that is being protected from unnecessary applications and ads from Apple's scrutiny of 3rd part software, which I applaud. I HATE what ads have done to the internet! I get so frustrated with them sometimes that I disable Java, but then I got to YouTube.... DOH!! *wonders if Apple has a YouTube style site* Oh, and now RIMM is partaking in the annoying full page ads that you have to click "continue to page" to get to the link that I thought I was originally clicking on!! Please Apple, do not do these type of ads!! EVER!!
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 03:03 PM
    Comparing specs is nonsense. Anyone with half a brain knows that. Wait until real-world testing takes place.

    As for the nonsense about Ives being CEO, that's silly. Everyone knows that while Ives is chief designer, Steve is the Chief Arbiter of the design aesthetic to be followed, from the first Mac, to the last iPhone.

    The next CEO has to have vision and be charismatic. That's not Cook or Shiller or any of the other competent execs. It's Bertrand Serlet.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 03:20 PM
    I think that a lot of people (especially a lot of the strictly financial types) do not understand creative people.

    Creative people are totally driven by the desire to create that which is beautiful. (Also that which is expressive of deep emotions - but herein are arguments that are not relevant to this discussion as I prefer to limit creative folks in the "industrial design" community.) These people are not limited to graphic designers, or even product designers, but include many (perhaps most) programmers as well.

    Creative people are DRIVEN by the desire to create that which is beautiful - pleasing to the senses or pleasing in functionality. Their primary goal is quality.

    The question is: How does one develop a community of creative people that encourages this dedication, yet still maintains the need for a bottom line? THIS is the genius of Steve Jobs. Obsession with beauty and quality of user experience precedes financial considerations - BUT never eliminates those consideration. Apple Corp is Mr. Jobs' work of art.

    We have all been told "If you build a better mousetrap then the world will beat a path to your door." Well, Apple is the proof of that. Those who try to make light of Apple products as relying on immaterial "style" have totally missed the point. it is way deeper than that.

    Like I said, many people do not understand what motivates creative people, but they CRAVE their products.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 03:24 PM
    BTW - Even an accountant can be creative (not in the negative meaning!!!). This occurs when he or she has a passion both for the numbers themselves, and for a way to present their meaning a clear and elegant (and truthful) fashion.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 03:35 PM
    You have a understandably antiquated idea of design (most everyone does.) Its not Ives' industrial design skill that makes Apple products great any more than its is Jobs' skills as a CEO. There are LOTS of talented people at Apple doing LOTS of talented work. Some contribute more than others, but the secret sauce is not industrial design, but attention to the whole enchilada. Any one of the parts is replaceable to a lesser or greater extent.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 04:11 PM
    "Any other entrants into Apps markets are simply also-rans.... no vision but great at copycatting. Huh. Petition indeed! What a joke."

    Right, Windows Mobile had a 6-7 year head start, and what did they do: copy Windows (desktop) complete with Start menu. It took Apple to be innovative in this space, and now everyone is copying them.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 04:57 PM
    Wow, that's a shallow assessment of all the aesthetic details that go into the Mac experience .. It's OS X that straddles the iPhone and Mac ... an efficient, robust system with a elegant UI. All of the gestures that control the iPhone will spread across their product line ... Ive had nothing to do with the real hero of the Apple resurgence ... Perhaps you should consider using an Apple computer produced before Jobs return ... they worked about as well as they looked ... Regarding Apples control ... yea, sometimes they squash competition on their turf ... but part of the reason we love Apple is they make the whole widget ... When something goes wrong we call one company (or now go to a Genius) ... That's why we left MS - quality control: there's someone looking after the store ...
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 04:57 PM
    Wow, that's a shallow assessment of all the aesthetic details that go into the Mac experience .. It's OS X that straddles the iPhone and Mac ... an efficient, robust system with a elegant UI. All of the gestures that control the iPhone will spread across their product line ... Ive had nothing to do with the real hero of the Apple resurgence ... Perhaps you should consider using an Apple computer produced before Jobs return ... they worked about as well as they looked ... Regarding Apples control ... yea, sometimes they squash competition on their turf ... but part of the reason we love Apple is they make the whole widget ... When something goes wrong we call one company (or now go to a Genius) ... That's why we left MS - quality control: there's someone looking after the store ...
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 05:14 PM
    How many times does Steve Jobs reject Ive's designs and send him back to the drawing board before he says "that's it!. Now give me a dozen more sketches based on that design?"
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Sep 24 07:06 PM
    It is not Ives. Ives is only one person and he is not the sole designer of everything Apple.... Ives is talented but it is the culture of Apple that promotes high quality design outcomes (design meaning a whole bunch of things not just aesthetics). However, yes, Ives has made a difference.
    Reply | Link to Comment