Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, has won another award. This award is from Cooper-Hewitt, who gives out the National Desgin Awards. Ive’s specific award is for Product Design, unsurprisingly, but I don’t think it’s too long before we see him in the “Lifetime Achievement” section.
May 2007: Monthly Archive
Big email error over at Apple — someone sent an email from Apple saying the iPhone and Leopard would be 3-4 months late. Engadget posted it, and Apple lost a lot of money. More here.
Paul McCartney says an online distribution deal for the Beatles back catalog and several solo albums is “virtually settled.” Bonus: sweet Abbey Road Lego pic in the link.
&tThird party apps are being “considered.” I’ve been pretty confident that we’ll see 3rd party apps on the iPhone, and I’ll continue to be confident. I more or less expect them to be signed (meaning that they’ll have to be purchase through the iTunes store and wrapped with DRM or some such — I’d be happy to be wrong about this) but I think we’ll see 3rd party apps. Maybe not immediately on launch, but we’ll see it.
Steve is said to be “wrestling with the issue,” which basically means that he knows it’s the right thing to do for the iPhone platform but likely isn’t excited about giving up control. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
According to a study done at Michigan State, iPods caused interference and malfunction to pacemakers when held 2 inches from patients’ chests (no other devices were tested; only iPods). iPods have been vulnerable to interference before.
Beleaguered Motorola CEO Ed Zander is probably tired of iPhone questions. Admittedly, how do you compete with something that doesn’t exist but has all of the mindshare? It has to be frustrating that the company, once on top of the world with the RAZR, is now floundering a tad. Still, I’d bet Jobs was equally frustrated by the ROKR.
MacDailyNews posts a vitriolic take on analyst figures regarding the iPhone as well as competing handset manufacturers. Executive summary? RIM will last longer than most but will eventually succumb.
According to a story in Computerworld [via Macworld], Mac market share has doubled in recent years, taking most if its ground directly from Microsoft. Mac now has a little over 6% of the market.
Analysts from UBS met with executives at Apple to talk about earnings, stocks, units shipped, and the like. Its relevance? Apple’s confidence in being able to ship enough units to meet iPhone demand. I hate product launches that use artificial scarcity to drive up demand, so I’m glad to see that this isn’t supposed to be one.
MIT’s Technology Review has a great article on the history of design principles at Apple. It goes in depth as to why Apple is so focused in on it.
Apple without design focus:
And, Norman adds, the consultative process could take a toll on the product line as a whole. Look, he says, at the 70-odd Performa models Apple churned out between 1992 and 1997–models that varied only in hard-drive size, in whether they had modems, or in whether they were sold directly or through a retailer.
And Apple with design focus:
One direct result of that sharpened focus is Apple’s unique ability to create simple products. Though the idea of a simple high-tech device seems counterintuitive (why not offer more functionality if you can?), it’s worked for Apple.
“The hardest part of design, especially consumer electronics,” says Norman, “is keeping features out.” Simplicity, he says, is in itself a product differentiator, and pursuing it can lead to innovation.
Rolston agrees. “The most fundamental thing about Apple that’s interesting to me,” he says, “is that they’re just as smart about what they don’t do. Great products can be made more beautiful by omitting things.”
I’m a big believer in the idea that simplicity is a part of good design. My understanding of design isn’t vaunted or anything, but I know what I like. I don’t want a phone that looks like my remote.
