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> Upon the departure of design chief Jony Ive in 2019, Apple's design team now reports directly to Williams. While design led the direction of Apple's products

> Upon the departure of design chief Jony Ive in 2019, Apple's design team now reports directly to Williams. While design led the direction of Apple's products under Steve Jobs, employees have noticed that operations is increasingly taking control over product development under Cook's leadership. One former engineer said that the best part of working at Apple was devising engineering solutions to meet the "insane requirements" of the design team, but that has apparently changed in recent years. My take on this is that change isn't necessarily bad. The shift away from design leadership at Apple may limit product innovation, but it has given us (back) MacBooks with usable keyboards and HDMI ports. We might lose something valuable as this shift continues, though. I think the true test will be whether Apple notices when that has happened and course-corrects, or if they continue into commodification and stagnation.

SilverBirch 4y ago
It's kind of important to realize though that they didn't have a choice. Apple had a magical thing going with Steve Jobs and Johnny Ive, they were/are generational talents, you can't find yourself in a situation where both of those people leave and say "Well, I guess let's just slot another generational talent into Johnny's old job". They need to get the organization to work with the people they have. If their innovation starts to decline it's not really helpful to say "go back to design led" because that might not be what works in the future.
etempleton 4y ago
It is a bad thing if they release products that don’t make sense. It is strange to me that Apple would consider releasing a product with such a low sales target. What is the point? People often ask what did Steve really do. Was he really that important to Apple, but Steve understood people and he was pragmatic. He understood if a real person would use something or not. A $3,000 AR headset that looks like ski googles is on the surface not a very practical device.
- otterley 4y ago
  > It is strange to me that Apple would consider releasing a product with such a low sales target. What is the point? Apple already has many examples of this, including Apple TV and iPod Hi-Fi (the latter of which I had totally forgotten about until now). I don't think the first generation of HomePods sold many units either. Even if the product is a flop the first time around, these experiments still often have value in that you can collect feedback from your customers.
  - etempleton 4y ago
    Both were cheaper Apple products that Apple described as hobbies, not a major product category or release. I would also say at this point Apple TV has sold quite a bit.

SilverBirch 4y ago

It's kind of important to realize though that they didn't have a choice. Apple had a magical thing going with Steve Jobs and Johnny Ive, they were/are generational talents, you can't find yourself in a situation where both of those people leave and say "Well, I guess let's just slot another generational talent into Johnny's old job". They need to get the organization to work with the people they have. If their innovation starts to decline it's not really helpful to say "go back to design led" because that might not be what works in the future.

etempleton 4y ago

It is a bad thing if they release products that don’t make sense. It is strange to me that Apple would consider releasing a product with such a low sales target. What is the point? People often ask what did Steve really do. Was he really that important to Apple, but Steve understood people and he was pragmatic. He understood if a real person would use something or not. A $3,000 AR headset that looks like ski googles is on the surface not a very practical device.

otterley 4y ago
> It is strange to me that Apple would consider releasing a product with such a low sales target. What is the point? Apple already has many examples of this, including Apple TV and iPod Hi-Fi (the latter of which I had totally forgotten about until now). I don't think the first generation of HomePods sold many units either. Even if the product is a flop the first time around, these experiments still often have value in that you can collect feedback from your customers.
- etempleton 4y ago
  Both were cheaper Apple products that Apple described as hobbies, not a major product category or release. I would also say at this point Apple TV has sold quite a bit.