Cook has accelerated a shift in strategy that has made the company better known for offering TV shows and a credit card than introducing the kind of revolutionary new devices that once defined it. Today, Apple boasts a market value of $2.57 trillion and a lineup of legacy products that have helped it preserve its perch as America’s largest public company. His exit would change forever the balance of power at the top of a company long defined by its product ingenuity, leaving it without one of its most creative thinkers and the driving force behind its last new device category. Ive would depart five years later, in 2019. Cook’s egalitarian structure, lamented the rise of operational leaders and struggled with a shift in the company’s focus from making devices to developing services.ĭisillusioned with Mr. Ive fumed about corporate bloat, chafed at Mr. He would tell colleagues that the debate over the event and the larger struggle over the watch’s marketing were among the first moments that he felt unsupported at Apple. But the designer would later recast it as a Pyrrhic victory. Cook’s approval seemed like a win for Mr. Former company executives estimated that an Ive departure would erase more than $50 billion from Apple’s market value, or as much as 10 percent. ![]() Cook feared that investors would sell shares if Mr. The designer’s value to the company was so great that Mr. Jobs called his “spiritual partner” - to lead product development. It had been nearly three years since Steve Jobs died at the age of 56, and as C.E.O., Mr. Cook rocked in his chair as the group discussed Mr. The marketers not only questioned the expense they also favored a more traditional product introduction, focused less on how the watch looked and more on what it could do, like tracking a workout or tapping a wrist with a text message. Cook’s leadership, Apple was increasing its scrutiny of every dollar it spent and debating many ideas Mr. The tent was critical to making the event as glamorous as a high-end fashion show.īut under Mr. He regarded a rave from Vogue as more important than any tech reviewer’s opinion. He believed the watch’s success hinged on persuading the world that it was a fashionable accessory. It was a microcosm of the challenges beginning to haunt Apple’s top designer. Few could comprehend the logistics of moving trees, much less the staggering cost. “They want $25 million,” a colleague said of the event’s price tag.Īpple marketers at the table were aghast. His extravagant vision wasn’t going over well. Ive recommended removing two dozen trees and erecting a lavish white tent. To bring cosmopolitan gloss to a suburban landscape of strip malls, Mr. The Apple Watch was slated to be introduced at a local community college auditorium near the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. Ive was pushing for a product reveal more audacious than any in the theatrical company’s history. Now, he was seated at a conference table with Tim Cook, the company’s chief executive, the two men embodying nearly 40 years of collaboration, with one designing and the other assembling the devices that turned a failing business into the world’s largest company. His love of pure, simple lines had already redrawn the world through such popular products as the iMac, iPod and iPhone. ![]() It was 2014, and Apple’s future, more than ever, seemed to hinge on Mr. After two years of development, thousands of engineering hours and countless days agonizing over the suppleness of leather and strength of gold for Apple’s bold new product, the company’s design chief, Jony Ive, was thrust into a high-stakes debate over the most primitive concern: a tent.
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