Jonny Ive looking to return to the UK. Could be forced out of Apple. | Hacker News Reader

Jonny Ive looking to return to the UK. Could be forced out of Apple.

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24 pointsssclafani22 comments

If this were even close to true (and it seems like one of those tabloid source type things), Apple would probably build a design bureau in the UK and setup a lot of telepresence equipment. Ive is a tad bit too valuable to lose at this junction over something as minor as geography.

J Ive manages and coaches a team of industrial designers and their collaboration with engineers. You cant be very effective, no matter how good you are, when you are on the other side of the world - someone would surely step up and take his place.

Also, Jobs has shaped Apple culture to put crucial importance on industrial design and is very hands on with the decisions. This influence coming from the top, serves Apple well no matter who is the VP of iD is... as long as Steve is around.

I disagree with your assertion that you can't be very effective if you're not co-located. 37 Signals (for one) proves this wrong daily. I agree that co-location is preferable, but if you divide the work in a sane fashion, and you work with excellent people, geographically distributed teams aren't a showstopper. This would be true x20 for Ives.

37 Signals (for one) proves this wrong daily

37 Signals doesn't design iPhones. Physical objects are not websites.

I understand, but it's not obvious to me that that really makes a difference.

The Times isn't as great as it used to be, but it's nowhere near being a tabloid.

In recent years, it seems like even mainstream newspapers with decent editorial review have a tabloid-like mania with Apple. I don't know why, but it seems like Beetles or Lewis & Martin type hysteria affects the newsroom.

I didn't pay for access, but the linked article points to a URL for The Sunday Times. Last I checked this is a sister publication to The Times. Not sure how the editorial standards compare.

It's been a year or two since I've read the Sunday Times (it's so huge I ended up spending a week reading it) but my experience with it has been very good, just as good if not better than the daily edition.

but then their products wouldn't say "Designed in California" anymore.

Jobs and now Ive? I seriously hope Cook is not alone in maintaining Apple at the forefront. Jobs understands the customer the best, Ive knows how to design the best, and Cook can deliver that solution most efficiently in such a complex ecosystem. Without the triumvirate, Apple will have a tough time outmatching the competition, product to product.

I highly doubt Ive is just going to walk away with Apple thinking they don't need him.

An enormous failing if these 3 are islands unto themselves with no cultivation of successors. In all this time have they really been the visionaries with no bright stars beneath them? I find it hard to fathom that they haven't imbued the same leadership and attitudes within their support structure.

Successors? People have been prescribing for years now that Jobs is Apple. Only recently have people understood it is Jobs plus two. The successor to Jobs is Cook (pretty likely). So they have thought about succession on that end.

Obviously, Apple does have other people to take the main positions but they haven't been in the spotlight yet enough for us to take notice of them.

Exactly. Lack of celebrity doesn't imply lack of talent. In Apple's case, they wouldn't want to make celebrities of anyone they had in mind to succeed their execs, in order to prevent poaching.

The Sunday Times' article here seems to relate more to the fact he's about to get on their rich list ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Times_Rich_List ). From their (paywall'd) article: 'Jonathan “Jonny” Ive [...] is set to reap an £18m windfall from Apple, the world’s second-largest company.' 'The windfall will take his personal fortune to more than £80m, propelling him into The Sunday Times Rich List. Not bad for a man who once designed lavatories'

The relevant bits to him leaving: '[Ive] wants to spend more time at a £2.5m Georgian manor house he has bought in Somerset and commute to Apple headquarters in Silicon Valley. He already has homes in San Francisco and Hawaii.'

'Friends say he is at loggerheads with the Apple board, who insist he stays in the US, especially when he may need to take over from Steve Jobs, 56, Apple’s perfectionist founder, who has taken medical leave of absence.' Sounds a little speculative, that.

'A friend of the family in Somerset, who asked not to be named, said: “Unfortunately he is just too valuable to Apple and they told him in no uncertain terms that if he headed back to England he would not be able to sustain his position with them."' Right. So an anonymous friend of the family? I get the feeling that information is being vastly distorted here.

I hope this isn't true, but at the risk of sounding like a massive cynic (which I'm not), It wouldn't be the end of the world. Ive is great because Apple allow him to be great. Design is important to Apple, and there's no shortage of very talented Product Designers who would thrive there. There's probably a ton who already work at Apple more than qualified to fill his shoes.

"Forced out of Apple" sounds a bit harsh as the article claims that Ive wants to move back to UK.

Incidentally, if he was a programmer, it would probably be no trouble allowing him to relocate to another office in another country.

I guess programmers are even harder to hire than genius industrial designers?

"Unfortunately he is just too valuable to Apple and they told him in no uncertain terms that if he headed back to England he would not be able to sustain his position with them ... It's a shame. We hardly ever see anyone at the house."

That's absurd on its face. If he's too valuable to Apple (which he is), then why would he not be able to sustain his position with them?

Who could replace him?

Dieter Rams is still alive.

Dieter Rams is 78 and long retired. He also lives in Germany, and may not be especially willing to relocate.

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