You've probably heard of Jonathan Ive: darling of the technology and industrial design worlds, and El Jobso's handsome, mountain of a right hand man in product design since the CEO's second coming at Apple. You might also know him as the dude that birthed the iMac, titanium Power Book and MacBook (Pro), iPod, iPhone, and just about every decent-looking Apple product in the last decade. Well, he's also apparently the guy the most people seem to be pontificating -- whether officially or not -- as Jobs's successor, according to the Times. Of course, there's another obvious, prominent theory about why the ever tight-lipped Apple hasn't done as most publicly traded companies and made a formal contingency plan for succession of the CEO gig: Jobs is immortal. As if you didn't already know that. There can be only one!
posted Dec 8th 2007 9:13PM
Steve Jobs is a witch!
NOOOOOO!!!!!!! This was supposed to be me!!!!
Steve Jobs' sense of style with a British accent?
AAPL = $400.
I agree.. ha , if jobs were ever to resign or moved off ceo i was gonna sell off but this guy seems like he could qualify
As much as I loathe Jobs and apple, I admire the man for bringing apple back from the sh*tter.
I take it you are still mad that Apple lowered the price of the iPhone?
/sarcasm :P
Didn't Microsoft bring them back?
Microsoft helped to keep apple afloat so they couldnt be called a "monopoly" so to say. Apple did good when it first started, then jobs left and Apple went to hell. Steve Jobs came back and saved Apple.
Microsoft gave them money/brought shares as a part of a cross licensing deal to do with patent violations, I think Apple were ok financially at this time
Yeah, but Apple is really moving away from MS. I don't use a single MS product. Not only do I get along great, but I save a lot of money.
He is a sexy bitch
Nothing against gay people, but I still hope you're female :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOONhFutsrg You're welcome ;)
That intro news guy really fidgeted a lot. Made me nervous... calm down dude! Stop twitching.
I believe it was John Snow - and he's "a bit" of a legend in the U.K.
Thanks for the link Ireland. Haven't seen an interview with Ive before. Though why would the "bit of a legend" ask him a question about batteries?
I've never heard of Johnathan Ive. In fact, I clicked this post because I thought it was some kind of grammatical error.
How could an unknown name be a grammatical error?
@ ireland
I've. Ive. One is a last name, one is used when describing something you did.
I think he meant that he thought "Ive" was supposed to be "I've."
Er sorry, I'm a bit late.
LOL, my bad.
Black Shirt...
Jeans...
New Balanace...
Huh? Chottomate...
Jobs: "You dont want to buy an iPhone? Let me introduce you to Johnny "The iGoon" Ives. He'll change your mind."
He has the haircut down...
A technology company headed by a design dude? Seems like a bad choice in the long run.
Umm what do you think Jobs is?
Agreed, the guy is a shy one too.
What exactly do you think Steve Jobs' background is? I'll give you a hint: it's not technology.
Does Jon have a thin fetish like Jobs?
That alone as limited what the Mac can do and have for years.
But thin is awesome. There are many people would pay a premium for thin.
Yah and has cost laptop users REAL expansion by putting in the dinkier Express card and also cost them a DL DVD burner in their first gen MBP. Never mind the fact that such a thin system also leads to ventlation problems which I can guarantee you is part of the reason for Apple's various logic board recalls in the past. See 12" PowerBook as a prime example. A damn quarter of an inch ain't going to kill the ascetic of a laptop it will kill its functionality.
If there HAS to be one....
and I mean REALLY has to be a successor... that's not a bad choice.
as in REALLY REALLY has to be one.
He looks like a damn bodyguard.
Jobs: "Hey, John, go make sure bill gates doesn't wake up today, I'm having a press conference."
John: "Ok, Want me to make sure he doesnt wake up... EVER?"
Jobs: "nah, I need him tomorrow. We're goin fishing. He's the bait"
Jobs won't live forever ya know
If it came true, it just might be the most powerful position held by a designer since Adolf Hitler. hmm.
Umm.. how? Owning Apple is power?
Who said anything about ownership?
Besides if you did "own" Apple, yes that would be "considered" powerful.
Ireland, maybe Ellianth meant "owning" like how Bubba owns the new guy in the cell block in prison. LOL
Godwin's Law... Never fails.
Ummm, "handsome long-time mountain" of a man? What?
I thought it was "Johnathan, I've".
Still never heard of him until now.
he's completed step one to being steve jobs: engadget writes articles about him that sound more like they want to make out with him than to report on tech news.
u tickle me with ur funny truths
And pathetic sods like you with (obviously) a bit too much time on their hands hang out in threads like these wasting time complaining that others are wasting your time!
@roole, you realize that you are complaining about their complaints...
Your point being....?
Someone needs to tune their sense of irony.
I think we all know the reason why Ryan posted this tenuous 'story'; man-pecs. They've at least doubled in size since I last saw a picture of this guy.
When Apple and Microsoft finally face off in an epic gladiator match to the death, Ive looks like he could arm wrestle pretty well. Although, with the money Gates has, he's probably made himself into 90% robot that just *looks* like an average human nerd. Technology > Steroids. This is just an initial guess though.
He is the only man for the job. Apple's resurgence is 100% because of the design of the products. The operating system is amazing, and I'm sure that Jobs has some input into things he wants to put it, but so much of the OS landscape is doing what the other guys are doing (Linux or MS).
If you think it is all about the operating system, then look at most of the computers sold these days. If it was all about the operating system, MS wouldn't be the leader. The look and features of the hardware drives sales.
Hey Ryan Block, love the Highlander reference! Poignant, nerdy, and funny.
Ive's an AMAZING industrial designer, but he's no Steve Jobs. He's as much of a poser as J. Allard (both of their "before" pictures are hysterical... imagine Ive with a shock of unkempt brightly-colored red hair). It's just funny. One of Steve's hallmarks is the lack of importance he places on physical self-image, and that he cares more about the success of Apple than pretty much anything else.
Also, when you praise Jonathan Ive for the modern Mac design, let's not forget he's also responsible for the hand-slicing metal cases of the 8500, 9500, etc. It was Gil Amelio who told him to go nuts, and the eMate was born, giving rise to curvaceous designs with translucent colorful plastic.
Ive is a critical part of what makes Apple successful, but he's nothing without an autocratic leader like Steve driving him. Well, that, and his entourage of similarly-dressed sycophants following him around the Apple campus.
Sooooo, Ive has to cut Job's head off before he can head the company?
(oh come on! You didn't see that reference coming!)
Ok...my friend definitely thinks this guy bats for the other team...maybe Jobs team, but who knows.
Hey honestly I couldn't give two sh!ts (duh, my FRIENDS' orientation I could care less), but the successful design of Apple product lately???? would explain a lot.
Ive has a wife and twins! not gay, thank you
Sorry, but that means absolutely nothing. As my friend tells me, just look on Craigslist classifieds and you find a ton of married guys looking for "extracurricular" activities.
Again, I don't care, I just though it was funny how convinced my friend was.
ewwwww!! he has man-boobies
That's no man boobies, that's muscle!
Funny thing is I'd more easily imagine Scott Forstall or Tim Cook as the eventual successor, not Jonathan Ive. Also if Ron Johnson were younger, I'd put him on the short list too.
He's up to blue-grey T-Shirt level! I've never seen anyone get so high! Its only 15 more levels until black turtleneck!
hey
iPhone in Italy: look this in the center of the page!
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/italystore/
I doubt it. Ive is one of today's most proficient designers, but he never exhibited much of a salesman pose, at which SJ excels. Jobs can sell everything. My bet would rather be on Phil Schiller. It is pretty much perfect as it is though: Jobs, Ive & Schiller are like the Three Musketeers.
Exactly. People who say he's like Jobs aren't looking past his facial hair. Jobs is not a designer. He's a master marketer, business strategist, negotiator and design visionary. Ive is a product designer - I haven't even seen any evidence that he can make the leap to Apple's true core, the interaction design, let alone run all the other aspects of a $170 billion company.
Ive is gorgeous, and so is his work--I accidentally bumped into him getting sushi while visiting campus in Cupertino-however creepy, it made my day to come into contact with such a handsome and talented man, like shaking hands with a rockstar. He strikes me as very shy, though, so I wonder (if this is story is true) if Apple will have the same showmanship that Jobs has provided.
Part of that $15 billion cash reserve was supposed to be used to create a perfect clone of Steve Jobs. In the event of anything happening to Steve, the clone would be used to immediately take his place so as not to affect Apple's share price. This guy Ive is just a ruse to distract the media while the clone is being grown.
Any fool can realize that there can be only ONE. It will be years until Apple can replace Steve Jobs without having Apple's stock price drop. Steve Jobs is Apple. Apple without Steve Jobs is like making Kool-Aid without the powder.
Why the hell doesn't anyone shave at Apple? I wouldn't say this to his face, though. Might whip out his sword and cut my head off.
Wow, he's a sexy bitch. For some reason I always assumed he was old.
What's 'old'?
Like, in his 60s with grey hair. I had no reason to think this, it was just this mental picture that I had created.
I'm not so certain I agree with the speculation.
1. Mr. Ives is far too shy to be the flamboyant head of Apple that Steve Jobs is. I just can't see him taking the stage and yelling "Boom!"
2. Just because Ives is a good artist, it doesn't mean he's a good businessperson. We don't really know anything about his sense of business.
3. Look at those arms! He obviously works out! Can he really be trusted with physique like that? :)
So you're outing Steve Jobs?
泰晤士=Times？？
No way. He's the most quiet guy I've ever met. I saw him speak in Pasadena a couple of years ago and it was tough to hear him even with the microphone. He'll stick with what he's best at: design. Jobs isn't going anywhere for a while...