People's memories today stink.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge meeting British designer and the senior vice president of industrial... [+]
They were short-term before Twitter,
With all the focus on the drama of Scott Forstall's ouster at
Apple is a big team of people that make it special - stores, software, keeping the trains running on time with a proper supply chain. However, when you close your eyes and think about what makes Apple an iconic company, the chances are your first thought will be a Jony Ive design. The iPad, iPhone, iPod, and don't forget the color iMacs. They all blew us away with their new take on a commodity product that we thought we knew.
We forget just how revolutionary the iPod was at the time and how different it looked.
In case you forget, watch this 2001 video:
So now Scott Forstall is gone and his job has really been divvied up between Jony Ive for Human
It's more responsibility for all three men, but I'm most intrigued with what Ive will do with "Human Interface."
I could care less about the skeumorphism vs. minimalism religious debate that some are having over whether Apple should put green felt in the background of its Game Center app. I don't think most people do. But design and user experience certainly do matter.
It is the design aspects of Apple's products which stand out the most when we first think of the product line-up.
Of course everything has to work together: the chips have to run fast, the antennas have to work, etc. But design - and I think human interface as well - is the place where you have a religious moment with a product.
It's too bad Forstall couldn't play nice with the other execs at Apple. But, if Tim Cook had to make a choice between keeping Forstall or Ive (and others like the formerly retired Mansfield), he made the right call.
For Ive, the idea of taking on human interface, beyond hardware, must be incredibly exciting creatively. How can he create those same "a-ha" moments when people first touched the "Jesus phone" in 2007 when they press the button to talk to Siri today? How do you take someone's breath away when they check the weather?
I have no clue. But I remember that moment when I saw and held the iPod and iPhone for the first time. I remember the chills and feeling like I'd just been dropped into the future. I remember thinking how every other MP3 player and
iPod (Photo credit: strollers)
mobile phone seemed drab, boring and old by comparison.
I know that Ive will make the same mark on this extended experience of every new Apple product.
[Long AAPL]
