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- Ten years ago, Steve Jobs and Jony Ive were the two most important people working at Apple.
- Neither person is there now — Jobs died in 2011, and Ive announced his departure from the company in June.
- We’re looking back at the relationship between Jobs and Ive, who were the most dynamic duo in consumer technology for roughly a decade.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Apple’s visionary cofounder, Steve Jobs, and the company’s design guru, Jony Ive, weren’t just coworkers — or even just friends.
Many accounts from family, fellow Apple employees, and Jobs’ own biographer Walter Isaacson, describe the two as soul mates.
Jobs told Isaacson:
"If I had a spiritual partner at Apple, it’s Jony. Jony and I think up most of the products together and then pull others in and say, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ He gets the picture as well as the most infinitesimal details about each product. And he understands that Apple is a product company. He’s not just a designer. That’s why he works directly for me. He has more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me."
For years, Jobs and Ive created hit products together, including the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. But with Apple’s announcement on June 27 that Ive will be leaving the company to start his own design firm, this means neither Jobs nor Ive will be at the company for the first time in over two decades.
What this means for Apple’s future is uncertain. But for now, we thought it would be fun to look back at the relationship between the legendary duo, and delve into why Jobs and Ive became such a dominant force in the world of consumer technology. Most of these anecdotes come from Walter Isaacson’s biography, "Steve Jobs," which is definitely worth reading if you haven’t already.
Jony Ive, who grew up on the northeast edge of London in a town called Chingford, said he had an epiphany while designing on a Macintosh as a student at Newcastle Polytechnic. "I discovered the Mac and felt I had a connection with the people who were making this product. I suddenly understood what a company was, or was supposed to be."
Business Insider India
Source: "Steve Jobs," by Walter Isaacson
After college, Ive started a design company in London called Tangerine, which won a consulting contract with Apple. In 1992, when Ive was around 25 years old, Apple offered him a job in the company’s design department.
By 1996, Ive was the head of Apple’s design group. But Ive said he wasn’t happy around that time, since Apple and its CEO were focused more on maximizing profits rather than perfecting product designs.
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See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
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- How Apple’s next major iPhone update will turn your phone into a much better health tracker
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Source: Business Insider – dsmith@businessinsider.com (Dave Smith)