Few Apple employees capture the imagination quite like Sir Jony Ive. British in a distinctly James Bond kinda way, Ive is the man that not only designs all of the hardware that comes out of Cupertino, but following the ousting of Scott Forstall he now also oversees all of Apple's software design. The result is a 'love it or hate it' kinda thing - the hardware may be universally acclaimed but the same can't be said of the software.
Jony Ive is a pivotal member of Apple's executive team, and since the departure and subsequent passing of Steve Jobs, oversees most of the major hardware and software design changes that the company makes. The Englishman, like most of Apple's execs, rarely speaks publicly aside from a recorded clip at most of the keynotes, but in a rare tidbit, discussed the iPhone, the company's impending smartwatch, and how much it irks him to see rivals copying Apple.
If you ever wanted to make yourself feel inferior, then having a good think about what kinds of things you'd be able to buy if you were worth millions or even billions of dollars is a good way to do it. While we should probably just be happy for what we've got - new smartphones, tablets, games etc aren't things everyone has access to - there's no doubting that some people live in a completely different world to the rest of us.
Earlier in May this year, news circulated the internet that Los Angeles Lakers’ superstar, Kobe Bryant, spent a day in Apple’s Cupertino complex, meeting with different executives including Apple Inc.’s Senior Vice President of Design, Jony Ive. At that time, it was speculated that Apple brought him on for a possible partnership for testing the company’s latest fitness wearables. While we don’t really have confirmation around that still, in a recent interview with Bloomberg, Kobe confirmed the meeting with Ive and shed some light on how the discussion went.
In terms of tech product design, Apple's Jony Ive is arguably the most iconic. The somewhat enigmatic, cult figure of the Cupertino company has not only been responsible for some of the most memorable gadgets of our times, but was also the mastermind behind Apple's recent design overhaul of the iOS mobile operating system. If you cast your minds way back, you might remember the news that Sir Jony would be designing a one-off camera for Leica, and as first seen in November's Vanity Fair, the creation is just about ready.
Apple's Jony Ive was once described by the late Steve Jobs as the guy with "the most power" within the Cupertino company besides, of course, himself, and having been responsible for designing some of Apple's most iconic products throughout the years, it's little surprise he's garnered himself something of a cult following.
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