Apple spends almost as much time naming products as it does designing them, and things are "weird" in the post-Jobs era as the company struggles to keep from "losing its edge."
That is the collective insight of three big-name Appelista -- design chief Jony Ive, chairman Art Levinson, and co-founder Steve Wozniak -- who have been unusually loquacious when asked about Apple's culture and current state in recent days. Their frank discussions stand in stark contrast to the drum-tight control Steve Jobs held over Apple and public statements about Apple, its creative process, and its future were few and far between. But this is the Tim Cook era, and we're getting more frequent glimpses of life within the Cupertino campus.
First up was Ive, who appeared on the BBC program Blue Peter last week to receive the show's most prestigious award. In a segment cut from the official clip, Ive discussed the depth of thought Apple puts into naming its products to avoid consumer preconceptions, using a lunchbox as an example.
"If we’re thinking of [a] lunchbox, we’d be really careful about not having the word ‘box’ already give you [a] bunch of ideas that could be quite narrow," Ive says. "You think of a box being a square, and like a cube. And so we’re quite careful with the words we use, because those can determine the path that you go down."
This makes it a bit more clear why Apple ended up going with "iPad" for its tablet rather than something riffing on "tablet" or "slate." Other than the originally much-laughed-at similarity with feminine hygiene products of the same name, a "pad," has a far less defined purpose than a tablet or a slate.
No less interesting was Apple chairman Art Levinson's appearance Tuesday afternoon at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, where he shared his thoughts on what it's like at Apple, post-Jobs: "Weird."
"I'm still not to the point where I walk into that board room and don't miss Steve," he told an audience comprised largely of university students. "He was a one of a kind guy.... The Steve Jobs that was in the public eye was not, for the most part, the Steve Jobs that I knew."
Levinson also revealed that Apple presents new products to the board six to 18 months before their public release. Depending on how early on they're shown, sometimes board members' opinions and expertise is taken into account, but they're largely hands-off. "The board is not there to define product specs," says Levinson. They're just there to hire and fire the CEO, and act as a resource.
Interesting, but the most insightful opinions came, as they often do, from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, currently the chief scientist at Fusion-io Inc. The House that Steve built is still amazingly successful, but losing its edge as its competitors offer increasingly competitive products. That's left Apple to rely upon its "appeal as a premium brand" because its product features no longer outshine those of competitors.
“We used to have these ads, I’m a Mac and I’m a PC, and the Mac was always the cool guy,” Woz told Bloomberg today. “And ouch, it’s painful, because we kind of are losing that.”
Certainly competitors like Samsung and Nokia are pushing smartphones with whiz-bang features like NFC and wireless charging. And according to some studies, Apple is losing its cool factor among teenagers. Investors too continue to be lukewarm to Apple's charm in spite of the company's stellar profits and sales figures. Whether Apple and its products are hip is a matter of taste (and honestly, I don't know if teenagers or Woz should be the ones defining what "cool" is). But while products like the iPhone and iPad may not seem as slick and shiny as the day they were announced, clearly, they're successful enough in other respects for consumers to keep holding onto and keep purchasing.
However, Woz is pretty excited by rumors of an Apple smartwatch. He's been wearing an iPod nano wristwatch for the past few years.
