Jony Ive, Apple's design chief, was thrust into a high-stakes debate over the strength of gold and leather in the company's new product after two years of development.
The future of Apple seemed to depend on Mr. Ive. His love of pure, simple lines has already redrawn the world through popular products such as the iMac, iPod and iPhone. He was sitting at a table with Tim Cook, the company's chief executive, and they had been collaborating for nearly 40 years. They both wanted another hit, but Mr. Ive was pushing for a product that was more audacious than any other in the company's history.
The Apple Watch was to be introduced at a local community college auditorium. Mr. Ive recommended removing two dozen trees and putting up a white tent in order to bring cosmopolitan gloss to the strip malls.
His vision was not going well.
A colleague said that the event's price tag was $25 million.
The marketers at the table were angry. The cost of moving trees was not comprehended by many.
It was a sign of the challenges that would befall Apple's top designer. He believed the watch's success was dependent on persuading the world that it was a fashionable accessory. He thought a rave from Vogue was more important than a tech reviewer's opinion. The tent was crucial to making the event as glamorous as a high-end fashion show.
Under Mr. Cook's leadership, Apple was debating many ideas and increasing its scrutiny of every dollar it spent. The marketers questioned the expense, but 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.
Mr. Cook was rocking in his chair as the group discussed Mr. Ive's idea. It had been nearly three years since Steve Jobs died, and Mr. Cook had looked at Mr. Ive. Mr. Cook worried that investors would sell their shares if Mr. Ive left the company. An Ive departure would wipe out more than $50 billion from Apple's market value, according to former company executives. Mr. Cook said they should just do it.
Mr. Cook's approval seemed to be a win for Mr. Ive. But the designer thought it was a Pyrrhic victory. The debate over the event and the larger struggle over the watch's marketing were some of the first moments that he felt supported at Apple.
His grievances would grow with time. In the wake of Mr. Jobs's death, Mr. Ive been upset about corporate bloat, Mr. Cook was upset about the rise of operational leaders and struggled with a shift in the company.
Mr. Ive would leave Apple in 2019. His exit would change the balance of power at the top of the company, leaving it without one of its most creative thinkers and the driving force behind its last new device category.
Apple has 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. In Mr. Ive's absence, Mr. 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.
The account of Mr. Ive's resignation was adapted from a book I wrote. The book is based on interviews with more than 200 people, including former and current employees of Apple, as well as with friends and former colleagues of Mr. Ive. Representatives from Apple and LoveFrom declined to comment on the article.
Mr. Cook called the news about Mr. Ive's frustration at Apple.
Mr. Ive said at the time that the design team was stronger, more vibrant and more talented than at any point in Apple's history.
In the summer of 1997 Apple employees were on edge as they entered the on-campus lecture room to hear Mr. Jobs assess their weaknesses. Mr. Jobs has been watching sales at the company he co-founded from the outside. The board turned to him for a rescue when he was flirting with bankruptcy. He stepped before a room that was sad.
He asked what was wrong with the place. There is no sex in them anymore.
Mr. Ive was sitting near the back of the room. The 30-year-old British man who joined Apple five years earlier hadn't realized that Mr. Jobs thought the design team was part of the company's problem.
In the wake of the meeting, Mr. Jobs wanted to replace Mr. Ive as the leader of the design team. He approached an Italian car designer and another computer designer, but his former partner on the original Macintosh urged him to keep the existing team.
Mr. Esslinger said you just need one hit.
Mr. Jobs asked Mr. Ive to design a network computer. Mr. Ive pulled together the entire design team to work on the project and prodded them to fulfill Mr. Jobs' request to make a computer that was joyful. The Jetsons was a TV cartoon that was futuristic but familiar.
The iMac had a handle that Mr. Ive thought would make it easier to understand. One of the designers surfed in the waters of Bondi Beach in Australia. The translucent shell cost three times as much as a standard case, but Mr. Jobs supported the expense because it was essential to the design, and he planned to sell customers on how revolutionary it looked.
The iMac was going to be unveiled in May 1998, but Mr. Jobs discovered a flaw in its components. He was expecting the computer to have a slot for a CD, but instead it had a tray. Employees present said he threatened to cancel the introduction. Mr. I found his boss backstage after Mr. Jobs finished cursing out his staff. The designer tried to calm him down.
Mr. Ive said, "You're thinking of the next iMac."
Mr. Jobs took a deep breath. The anger left his face.
The two men walked away together with the C.E.O.'s arm draped over his designer's shoulder.
The iMac was in high demand. Apple sold one of the computers every 15 seconds around the world, making it the fastest selling computer in history.
Mr. Ive's relationship with Mr. Jobs was solidified by the iMac's success. They found that each had a different design philosophy: Keep it simple. They balanced each other's personality. Mr. Ive was quiet, steady and patient. They ate lunch a lot and Mr. Jobs visited the studio a lot.
Their fast friendship contrasted with the evolution of Mr. Jobs and Mr. Cook. It took a push from colleagues who feared Hewlett-Packard might steal Mr. Cook. Half of the company's value came from Mr. Cook's ability to deliver on time. The skills needed to take the iPhone from 10 million units a year to 200 million would be critical.
Mr. Jobs considered Mr. Ive the company's second-most powerful executive. The design team was thrust to the forefront of Apple's product development process, ensuring it played a central role in the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Employees summarized the group's clout with a single phrase.
On October 5, 2011, a symphony of notifications rang across the Apple campus. Steven P. Jobs, Apple co-founder, died at the age of 56.
I sat in the garden outside of Mr. Jobs' home. The October sky was hazy and his shoes were too tight. He remembered the last words his boss and friend said to him, "I will miss our talks together."
Mr. Ive seemed to be lost in a wilderness of grief. He spoke quietly with a colleague in therapy sessions. He was taken out of his melancholy by the idea to make a wristwatch.
Wall Street and customers wondered if Apple could deliver a new product without Mr. Jobs. Mr. Ive rallied the company to use the watch. He wanted customers to feel like they could personalize it because it was the first Apple product that people would wear. He was a fan of leather and Silicone watchbands. The staff had fashion expertise.
Mr. Cook did not visit the studio during the process. He saw a camera that Mr. Ive helped design for a charity auction. Mr. Ive was glowing as he showed the designers the work on the camera for Mr. Cook. People watching across the studio would joke that they caught Mr. Cook's eyes straying from the charity camera to the nearby design tables that the company sold for tremendous profit. He only stayed a short time.
Apple employees gave Mr. I a standing ovation when he introduced the watch at the theater. He traveled to Paris for fashion week where he was celebrated. He seemed to have reached a new level in his career.
Mr. Ive seemed tired. When he assembled his team at the end of the year, designers and engineers said he praised them for exceeding expectations. He paused and exhaled.
He said that this has been one of the most challenging years he has had.
Praise for Apple's new device was brief. The Apple Watch was not able to match Wall Street's expectations. The company was expected to sell 40 million in the first year, but it sold less than half that. Mr. Cook expanded sales into major retailers after curtailing initial distribution. The marketing focus was shifted to fitness.
Mr. Ive told Mr. Cook that he wanted to step back from the business. Without Mr. Jobs, he had assumed responsibility for the product's design and marketing. People close to Mr. Ive said that he had become overwhelmed by managing a staff that stretched into the hundreds, multiples of the 20-person design team he ran for years, and that he had found it draining to fight with his colleagues over promotion.
Mr. Cook worried that Mr. Ive's departure would cause investors to sell their shares. To avoid that, he and Mr. Ive reached an agreement for the designer to give up his daily management responsibilities and work on new products. He worked part time. The company promoted two of his lieutenants and gave him the title of chief design officer. Only a few people inside Apple knew that Mr. Ive was angry.
The new arrangement freed Mr. Ive from his commute to the office. He shifted from near daily product reviews to an irregular schedule when weeks would pass without weighing in. He would come to the office unexpectedly, sometimes through the studio. Employees compared the moments that followed with old footage of the 1920s stock market crash with papers being thrown into the air and people rushing to prepare for his arrival.
Mr. Ive summoned the company's top software designers to San Francisco for a product review as anticipation mounts on Wall Street for a 10th-anniversary iPhone. A team of about 20 arrived at the city's exclusive social club, The Battery, and began spreading out design ideas in the club's penthouse. They needed Mr. Ive's approval for several features on the first iPhone.
They were waiting for Mr. Ive for nearly three hours. He didn't apologize when he arrived. He gave feedback after reviewing their prints. He left without making any decisions. Many wondered how their work came to this.
Mr. Cook began changing the company in his image. Mickey Drexler, the gifted marketer who built Gap and J. Crew, was replaced by James Bell. Mr. Ive was angry that one of the board's few right-brained leaders had been replaced by a left-brained executive.
The finance department began auditing outside contractors after Mr. Cook. At one point, the department rejected a legitimate billing submitted by Foster + Partners, the architecture firm working closely with Mr. Ive to complete the company's new $5 billion campus, Apple Park.
Mr. Cook began to broaden Apple's strategy into selling more services. Mr. Ive went outside to get some fresh air when a newcomer to Apple stepped before the company's top leaders. Apple's profit margins from sales of the three products declined while profit margins rose from sales of software and services like its iCloud storage, according to a slide Mr. Stern clicked on.
Some people in the audience were alarmed by the presentation. Ive and the company's business as a product maker would matter less and Mr. Cook's increasing emphasis on services would matter more.
Mr. Ive invited his design teams to a private screening of the movie in a San Francisco theater.
The film imagined a world in which a singer-songwriter awakens from an accident and discovers that he is the only person in the world who remembers the Beatles, setting up a two-hour exploration of the eternal conflict between art and commerce.
Mr. Ive spoke in front of the group. He was inspired by the film.
According to those present that evening, he said that art needs the proper space and support to grow.
The designers were told to clear their calendars for a meeting with Mr. Ive on June 27. He watched as the group assembled on the fourth floor of the company's new headquarters, which Mr. Cook had officially opened a month earlier. He told them that his time leading them had ended and that he had finished his most important project.
The faces before him were blank. People stared blankly at him. Others said they suppressed the internal alarm. This is happening!
Few knew the full extent of Mr. Ive's battles. Few were aware of his fight with Apple. He found it draining to fight over marketing the watch, a product that had increased sales over time and become core to the company's $38 billion business. Many people could recognize the tediousness of yearly updating the company's products.
Mr. Ive urged the team to keep Apple true to its identity. He told them that he would continue to work with them as a contracted consultant through an independent design firm he was starting called LoveFrom. He didn't say that Apple had agreed to a more than $100 million exit package, which was comparable to the golden parachutes other corporations had offered departing chief executives.
At the most recent product event, Mr. Cook started with less tangible Apple productions, an update on the company's broadcasting deal with Major League Baseball, and a celebration of the Apple TV+ movie.
In Mr. Ive's absence, the designers say that they collaborate more with colleagues in engineering and operations and face more cost pressures. The products are the same as when Mr. Ive left. The gods are no longer gods.
Tripp Mickle is a technology reporter at The New York Times and the author of the book "After Steve: How Apple became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul."
All Rights Reserved © 2024
