Rumors (and they are just rumors, people) about Apple design chief spin out of control, as people continue to focus on the wrong things
Posted in: UncategorizedYesterday the UK’s Sunday Times released a rumor-loaded, for-pay article speculating on Jonathan Ive’s future with Apple, and in a sad sign of our times, suggestions have been taken as fact and it’s set off the veritable media shitstorm. Everything in the article should be taken with a grain of salt, as virtually nothing in it has been substantiated or corroborated.
The tabloid-style article claims Ive has expressed an interest in commuting to Cupertino from the UK. It then goes on to claim that according to “a friend of the family” Apple’s board is denying the request. It’s further filled with vaguely-worded allegations that Ive is “set to” do this and “about to” do that, which has in turn led to panicky headlines like “Ive rumoured to be leaving Apple” and “Apple Rumored To Be At Brink of Losing Design Guru” by blogs picking up the story, even though no one has suggested he will be leaving Apple, and the original claims have not been corroborated.
Because the article is for-pay, many of the blog pick-ups we’ve seen of this “news” have not actually read it first-hand, as we have; if they had, they would have hopefully sussed out the gossipy tabloid tone of the piece. We’re writing this not to add fuel to the fire, but in hopes of being the sole voice pointing out that all of this is tabloid rumor.
If anything, our naive hope would be that this would inspire designers into discussions about what Ive has contributed to the field of industrial design, spark businesspeople into asking themselves what type of support environment fostered his creativity, and ask ourselves how we can try to create future design excellence by learning from a moment in time that may, or may not, be over.
We realize this is statistically unpopular, but we believe that Ive’s personal desires (and financial situation, as the original article goes into) are actually none of anybody’s business, like Steve Jobs’ personal health. If you respect the deep contribution either of these two have made to product design, oughtn’t you just leave them alone rather than probe into their personal lives?
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