At the end of June, the decision of Jony Ive, Apple's most important designer, to leave the company in the coming months, with the aim of setting up a new independent design studio, was much commented on. Ive will maintain a collaboration with Apple and it has long been known that his commitment to the company has diminished, but his departure will still have consequences for one of the richest technology companies in the world, which has become so thanks to the numerous insights of Ive. The transition to a different management of product design will be delicate for Apple, but it could also be an opportunity to resume innovating, thanks to a different approach and the contribution of new forces.
The difficult task of coordinating the design of new products will be up to Jeff Williams, a long-time Apple executive, who, however, has no design skills comparable to those of Ive, one of the most important and relevant industrial design designers of recent decades. With its essential lines and the use of materials such as aluminum and glass, Ive has made Apple's products unmistakable, starting with MacBooks and iPhones. His style has in fact influenced a large part of the industry, with numerous other companies that over the years have imitated, if not copied, his choices.
Williams is 56 years old, has been with Apple since 1998 and for just under four years he has been chief operating officer of the company, one of the most important positions after that of CEO held by Tim Cook. With Ive's departure, Williams will assume control of the divisions that design hardware and software for Apple products. For the first time, the essential sectors for the success of the company will be controlled by a manager, an expert in logistics and programming, and not by a real designer.
In a short profile published by Wall Street Journal, and based on interviews with former colleagues, Williams is described as an executive who is very interested in the look and functionality of products, starting with the Apple Watch. In recent years it has been Williams who has led the evolution from a luxury product, which could have been repulsive for some, to a smartwatch with numerous features for measuring one's sports activities. Williams has often talked to Ive, dealing with products more than Cook, a very experienced manager in business management, but much less attentive to the details and subtleties of product design.
Williams could therefore compensate for some shortcomings of Cook, but still remains a good performer more than an inventor like Ive or with the insights that Steve Jobs had, the co-founder of Apple who died in 2011 and replaced by Cook. A former colleague explained this clearly to the WSJ: ” see where we are, not where to go from here to years to come. ”
As usual, Apple hasn't released much information about Williams-related plans, but has changed his bio on the site anyway, changing the text regarding his work for Apple Watch. The new version has a richer wording than the previous one, in which it is said that: “Jeff led the development of the Apple Watch in close collaboration with the design team.”
Williams is a graduate in mechanical engineering and before joining Apple he had worked at IBM, at a time when there was tougher competition between the two companies. He was given increasing assignments in the field of project supervision, especially after the exit from the company of Tony Fadell, one of the main creators of the iPod, in 2008. At the time, Jobs decided to add him to his closest group of work, in which there was also Ive at the helm of the development of the iPhone 4, which would have led to a radical design change compared to previous models.
Jobs's choice left several designers perplexed Apple, doubting that a logistics expert from IBM could be a viable replacement for Fadell. The new iPhone 4 used a glass panel on the back of the phone for the first time, requiring some tweaking to make sure the device still dissipates heat adequately, without the risk of it overheating. Williams intervened at a meeting on this issue, showing particular interest and asking if there was a risk of affecting the performance of the new phone; he took a prototype to check it and see if it was comfortable to hold. This attention surprised several designers, not used to having managers with that kind of sensitivity.
In the last year, Apple has seen a noticeable slowdown in sales of iPhones, partly expected and less alarming than how has been reported by the media. The company still needs to introduce new products and further differentiate its offer, reducing dependence on iPhones, which make up a large part of the turnover. Cook is working to increase revenues from services such as Apple Music, iCloud, the App Store and the service with exclusive movies and TV series that will be available starting this fall. Williams will be able to devote himself to physical products with greater continuity, working with a group of designers who have learned a lot from the years spent with Jony Ive.
In recent years Ive had reduced his collaboration with Apple and, according to the most critics, he no longer had great intuitions for new products or for radically changing the design of existing ones. Its release could open up new opportunities to experience more radical changes, even though Cook has shown over the years that he doesn't want to take too many risks and is betting on what has always worked best since the first iPhones were introduced over a decade ago. .
