jony ive

It shouldn't be a surprise to learn that Apple suffers from political infighting, fiefdoms, and dysfunctional relationships. What company doesn't, especially a large company full of big egos, with money to burn? And so we learned from various reports this week that CEO Tim Cook made a calculated decision to remove divisive software head Scott Forstall and hand over some of his responsibilities to hardware design guru Jony Ive. 

It also shouldn't be a surprise that Ive's power base is expanding. He already had the most powerful voice among Apple executives, if you believe what … Read more

Tim Cook came prepared to dazzle the crowd of Apple employees, friends and journalists covering the iPad, iMac and Macbook product unveilings. Dressed in Apple casual, a long-sleeved, blue-grey polo shirt and dark slacks, Cook stalked the stage at the California Theater in San Jose and seemed to find a more animated voice for his remarks than at past events he hosted.

He gave special vocal emphasis to words like "billion," "amazing," "cool," "phenomenal," "absolutely incredible,"  and "thin," one of the major product themes of the day. … Read more

Jony Ive has put to rest rumors of an imminent departure from Apple with the purchase of a $17 million house in San Francisco.

Apple's senior vice president of industrial design purchased a six-bedroom, eight-and-half-bath house on one of the city's most exclusive blocks in the Gold Coast neighborhood, people familiar with the deal tell The Wall Street Journal.

The house, which was built in 1927 and features views of the San Francisco Bay, appears to be a property that went on the market in February for $25 million. The official MLS for the property has been pulled … Read more

According to Apple's design guru, competitors are too busy trying to do something different instead of trying to solve basic problems.

In a rare interview published by the London Evening Standard today, Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design, chatted about how the company goes about the design process, and what he believes competitors fail to grasp when going out on a limb with new products.

"Most of our competitors are [interested] in doing something different, or want to appear new - I think those are completely the wrong goals," Ive told the outlet. &… Read more

Apple's tight control of the supply chain has been one of its competitive strengths. And that control should get even tighter next year as the company plans to double its current level of spending.

With a treasure chest of more than $80 billion in cash and investments, Apple is looking to spend a whopping $7.1 billion on supply chain expenditures in 2012 and another $2.4 billion in prepayments to major suppliers, according to a profile by BusinessWeek.

Citing interviews with former Apple employees, executives from suppliers, and management experts, BusinessWeek revealed how Apple has spent big bucks … Read more

Jonathan "Jony" Ive, Apple's chief industrial designer, counted Steve Jobs among his closest friends but bristled when the man took credit for the ideas of others--especially his own.

In his new biography of Jobs, author Walter Isaacson portrayed Ive as an artist with a "sensitive temperament" who, like other colleagues, got upset when Jobs took too much credit for ideas he hadn't originated. Ive was especially wounded because he held personal feelings for and a true friendship with Jobs.

"He [Jobs] will go through a process of looking at my ideas and say, '… Read more