Hasta La Ideas

Of the torrent of articles and blog posts following Steve Jobs’ resignation announcement, I’ve found few worth reading, filled as they are with rampant speculation; but this Bloomberg article by Peter Burrows caught my eye. Although the somewhat sensationalist title “Jobs Departure Puts Product Pressure on Ive” is never really backed up with demonstrable facts, Burrows’ analysis of the situation does scratch my ID itch by pointing out that Apple’s uniquely high support for design is crucial to the company’s success.

Burrows sketches out the presumed work relationship had by Jobs and Ive, gets opinions from former Apple design head Robert Brunner, and points out that “While industrial design is seen as cost to be minimized at many companies, Ive has latitude to specify features that require his team and Apple’s hardware engineers to create new production techniques…Ive is known to travel to Asia for weeks, studying intricacies of metal-bending equipment.”

I won’t cite some of the more spectacular claims made in the article for fear of flame-fanning, but overall the article’s certainly worth a read.

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