1. Steve Jobs’ product philosophy
Once Steve returned to Apple following his ousting in 1985, he looked at the countless products Apple had been producing and realized the products lacked a certain ‘sexiness’ amongst the grey consumer appliances. Consequently, he drew up a 4×4 grid with the following categories.
2. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
When Jony Ive joined Apple in 1992, he shared many of the same design principles as Steve Jobs. One is ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, which originated from the ‘Less but better’ philosophy of Dieter Rams. From this period onwards, philosophy was embodied in every Apple product, from the Mac to the iPod to the iPhone.
Removing the unnecessary was essential to creating beautiful, functional objects that brought joy and emotional connection to consumers worldwide.
3. Skeuomorphism was out. Simplicity was in.
What on earth is ‘Skeuomorphism’ you say? Well it’s the design concept of making items resemble their real-world counterpart. This was particularly noticeable in the early releases of the iPhone, where each app icon mimicked its real life match. Skeuomorphic apps included an old-fashioned compass with a wooden texture; a photo of a real plant to represent photos and a calendar that looked like a real wall calendar.
This concept of Skeuomorphism was integrated onto the iPhone by Apple engineer Scott Forstall. Once Forstall left in the mid 00’s, Ive took charge of the interface re-design, working with designers such as Alan Dye to strip back the interface to its simplest form. The metaphoric software which previously mis-matched with the minimalist hardware was revamped into clean, simple icons to better represent each function.
4. The Apple Watch
Ive and his design team extensively researched horology (the study of time) to ensure the Apple Watch would be a functional, wearable piece of technology. The below examples highlight the depth of research:
- The team studied how the British miniaturized the grandfather clocks into chronometers to help sailors at sea.
- They observed how clocks were transformed into ‘pocket watches’ to assist army troops during the war.
- They learnt from Horologists how wristwatches became fashion pieces following watchmaker Louis Cartier developing the iconic tank watch with roman numerals.
- Swiss watchmakers were studied to understand how complicated gears ticked off minutes.
5. Future sectors
Apple worked with consulting firm McKinsey & Company to review marketing analysis when analysing future avenues for growth. Apple already accounted for the majority of profits in the $500billion consumer electronics industry and needed to move into other sectors to avoid stagnation in growth and deliver reward for investors. Potential options included the $2 trillion auto industry or the $7 trillion health care industry…. Apple car rumours anyone?
6. A change in strategy
In recent years, Apple’s hardware profit margins were declining with their service profit margins rising. What Apple was well known for (its physical products) was stagnating with the costs of new components adding up whilst the sales of the products flattening. On the flip side, services such as iCloud subscriptions were increasing, with more and more people signing up to pay its monthly fees. Tim Cook knew something had to change.
7. Service products
Tim Cook understood that business growth would need to come from other revenue streams and not just physical products. He wanted people to pay subscription fees for movies they watched on the iPhone. He wanted Apple to become the processor of digital payments. He wanted Apple to sell access to magazines people read and not just be a screen that people read articles on.
In came the subscription services..
8. Jony Ive’s changing responsibilities
A long time ago, Ive was responsible for a close-knit 20 person design team, with Steve Jobs shielding him from the bureaucracy of management. 20 years later, Ive was responsible for a multi-department team of hundreds of people and endless meetings. His 60–80hour week duties led to pneumonia and a lack of time spent with his family. Conflicts with other departments such as marketing began to drain him which led to him working at Apple part time, allowing him to breathe again.
This part time position at Apple put strain on collaboration with his design team and other departments and in 2019, Ive decided to leave Apple for good, forming his own studio in the making.
