Why Everyone is Wrong About Jony Ive and Design at Apple (Feat. May-Li Khoe)
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
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There have been a lot of... questionable takes surrounding the news of Jony Ive leaving Apple, what caused it, how it happened, and what it means for Apple's design culture going forward.
Rather than perpetuate another one of my own, I decided to find someone super smart and super talented who was actually there. Who worked on prototyping and design at Apple going back to the days of Steve Jobs and the original iPhone, and who understands how and why the design culture works the way it does.
Then, set up an interview even if that person is away on her vacation in France, so she can share her experience and insight. Now, Skype did not cooperate at all, so apologies for the bad video but what she has to say is so terrific I simply have to share it with you no matter what. Thanks for your understanding.
Now, without any further ado, here's May-Li Khoe.
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No other UA-camr has approached this subject with such depth !
This channel has clearly differentiated itself from its start.
UA-camrs get paid to bash Apple so they don't care.
Apple Exposed your channel looks like an educated shit hole
Unbox Therapy would just say Apple = Bad lol
Gish this is a load of tosh. Everything good or bad or different Renie Ritchie can justify it or apologize for it or explain it away after a while it's just becomes boring and lacking objectivity. This channel is basically everything Apple does it great
It is very circular, no conclusions much speculation and individual reflection. There is an undertone to this, envy perhaps?
Jony’s biggest accomplishment is helping establish Apple’s design language
Not language - Culture. Mindset. Care.
Ramsesque
Doom and gloom sells more ads. Glad you prefer the intelligent take instead.
Framing that Skype call with an awful connection in the iPhone 3GS is so smart 🤣🤣🤣
iPhone 2007 - 2G! 😂
Rene Ritchie Shoot! I’m ashamed to call myself an Apple sheep now 🤣🤣🤣🤦🏻♂️
Oh yeah, I see the silver and black backplates now 🤦🏻♂️
In general I really respect your work. However, I found this video disappointing and had little to do with the report from the WSJ. Here are my issues.
1. While your guest was well spoken and clearly thinks well of Apple, she left the company in 2014. This is a year before his title change and before most of the events chronicled in the report.
2. It seemed like it was agreed upon before the interview that it was going to be a pro Apple take. You didn't ask her questions like "what kind of conflict where you witness too at Apple?" "How did Ive handle conflict?" Or even something as simple as "walk me through the design process."
It feels like you started off with the conclusion there were no issues with Ive's tenure and you went from there.
I would be more worried if there wasn't conflicts during the design process. Very creative people argue a lot with each other. Iron sharpens iron. McCartney and Lennon arguing over creative differences made the Beatles better not worse. If everything went as smooth as Cook and Apple wants you to believe, then Apple wouldn't be on top of tech world with design that everyone emulates.
Good feedback. But it has everything to do with the WSJ report. The WSJ report claimed that Apple is becoming an operations company. What she clarified in the video above is that operations and design are intricately linked. You can't have one without the other. She also didn't specifically say that here there were no conflicts and arguments. This is what's not related to the WSJ video.
@@tecialist I guess it depends on what your takeaways were from the article. What interested me was how it talked about what happened during Ive's tenure. Those are the things that I want to hear about. I like hearing how the sausage is made. This video gave me none of that.
As far as how Ive's departure will change the future, that doesn't interest me. Nobody really knows, certainly not someone who hasn't been with the company for 5yrs. I know Apple will be fine. I also know that whenever something goes wrong, people will blame the loss of Ive's. When something goes right, it will be Apple is better off without him.
My ultimate issue with this video and Rene's take is that he seems to want to ignore the fact that the creative process is often painful. It's not hard to think that Ive left because he wanted to work outside of a corporate structure and have the final say on decisions.
Karl SMA I absolutely agree that a truly creative process is ultimately painful. But that’s not the point of the interview here. The interview is meant to rebut the WSJ article.
Pro Tip: ask interviewees to record on QuickTime/iPhone camera parallel to your talk and send over the file afterwards
That’s what I always do. Unfortunately Skype wouldn’t let QuickTime record the camera, only the mic. It’s a complete ownership of the process. I think next time will do audio only and let her record the video part completely locally.
@@vector3578 You can bypass these kinds of weird problems by using two different devices (like the phone and the laptop)
May-Li is awesome, what a great idea for a video Rene!
This is such a great interview. As a Lean Six Sigma consultant, the way Apple runs its operations has always amazed me. Apple is the prime example of a culture that is inclusive across the entire organization, which is extremely rare. I think one of the many quotable sayings of this interview is (paraphrasing)“why isn’t anyone trying to copy how we do things”. I don’t think many organizations are willing to sacrifice good products for the development of greater ones. It’s tough work.
What is making this story worse is Jony not issuing a public statement of his own (please let me know if I’m wrong about this).
He could have just made a quick one-page about his decision and what the design team means moving forward.
The shock is that although Jony probably wasn’t interested in the managerial duties, Apple is his company. Just as much as anyone else, including Steve.
Not retiring there seems strange from the outside, which is why people may assume he was “mentally checked-out “ instead of being pumped to work on passion projects which it definitely feels like.
We got Apple’s official statement, Cook’s semi-calculated, secret/public email but nothing from Jony which saddens me only to the extent of wanting to hear his eloquent perspective... he can explain in such beauty.
The “why” from Jony would have lessened the blow.
Jony does not do anything in haste. I guess he will let us know when he feels it is the right time for him. Don't forget he still is working at Apple.
Even if he did say anything people would not believe it. Guy has a billion dollars worth of apple stock, even if he thought the company was a flaming pile now he wouldn’t say anything.
This still did not answer the question is there much of anything to design at Apple from the hardware side? iMac has languished. Mac min? Who cares? Apple is just not as interested in hardware.
The funny thing is Apple will be just fine. They have outgrown Jony and maybe even Jobs. Both of their legacies still live on but Apple is quite literally a trillion dollar company with the ability to hire ANYONE to come in and work on projects and move the company forward. If you’ve ever worked for a living you know that super stars come in and out of your company. It’s the nature of business. Life goes on. If anything Jony was becoming a hinderance and liability to the company’s product line. We don’t need thinner iPhones and laptops..we need machines that change the industry again.
Joshua Mueller
I completely agree, we don’t need ridiculously thin devices, I’d rather have my iPhone and iPad a few millimetres thicker and have a larger capacity battery.
Love the content. Please keep these coming. However a critique on the editing. I find the visual & audio contrast between the two speakers to be a little jarring and the back and forth takes me out of the conversation. Same with the Gruber interview. A suggestion: do a split screen and leave both audio tracks live the whole time. This will make it feel a lot smoother and more like a conversation.
Right now, it kind of feels like the guest is responding to written questions, and then you came around on the back end and recorded the questions with video and edited it all together.
Just my .02.
It's all recorded live at the same time. I've thought about split screen but it seems inconsiderate to the guest who may not know/feel like being watched when they're not talking? Maybe a mix of both? TV seems to do that well.
@@vector3578 That's a good idea. It may be because I've seen so many "hangouts on air" interviews on youtube. It may also be because the quality of your video / audio are so much better as well. Anyway, appreciate the content and you listening to my thoughts.
That fake laugh is more obnoxious than a million eight year old girls singing "Tomorrow" from Annie in chorus.
If you want Jony Ive stories, read the mainstream papers and mags. They have all the drama, great POV and great writing -- his failings and successes, conflicts with other Apple higherups, etc. This video is a fanboy and fangirl interview. If you're a designer, you'll know what they're talking about in the first minute. If you want to learn about design, look elsewhere.
Podcast interviewers can learn a lot from this interview, especially how important it is for the other person to record their audio locally.... I really appreciate the effort, Rene!
Whilst Johnny Ive has come out with some great designs he's also responsible for the following:
Trashcan Mac Pro
Cheese Grater Mac Pro
No significant iMac redesign since 2009
Apple Pencil charging from iPad
's lightening port
Anti-Ergonomic Magic Mouse
Lightening charging port on 2nd gen Magic Mouse preventing it being used.
Removal of headphone jack
The Notch
3 Generations of failing butterfly keyboards
Antenna-gate
No iPhone redesign between 2014 to 2017 (6 to 8)
Single USB-C Macbook
Bendy iPad Pro
Failing displays on MacBook Pros.
WedlakeProductions
The Apple Pencil 1 charging from the lightning port was a massive fo par, how that go past prototype I’ll never know, you can’t tell me there couldn’t have been an alternative method at that time. However despite using my gen 3 iPad every day at work which involves stuffing it in my back pack and travelling on the tube, my iPad has refused to bend. Perhaps I have a faulty iPad?
So Skype, not FaceTime?
Ive has done so much, he has nothing to prove. He could literally go anywhere and be like “ yeah I designed the iPad”
I wish I could recall who, but the last bit you were speaking on, couldn't be more true. The quote was, as best as I can remember it as "The first sign of a smart leader is someone who is not afraid to be the dumbest person in the room. The second sign is someone who is willing to admit it, and let the people they hired do what they're paid to do."
you have Tech youtubers, then you have Rene, there is a difference, a big difference. Thank you sir.
say what? Wow, you must be fun at parties...
Love these discussions about the culture at Apple!
Same!
Hjörtur Hilmarsson this guy toots his own op ed as fact!
Your commentary and insight in the market is essential in understanding tech.
@Rene Ritchie - Just curious, your friend that went to work with Apple with the great educational idea, how did that turn out?
Can't say, unfortunately. But they're super happy.
I like you Rene, but sometimes I don't know whether you are an Apple journalist or an Apple fan. There seems to be a very thin line between the two, and sometimes I get the feeling that you're not reporting as well as you could because you have an emotional attachment with the brand. It's weird, sorry. Love all the content though, but as an Apple fan myself, and a very critical one, I wish the "Apple Way" could use a little less praise. The good things are good, but we must push these brands to fix their problems and be less pretentious.
Exactly my thought. He is a very intelligent guy with a lot of in depth knowledge. But sometimes the fanboy in him gets the better of him. Sometimes hard criticism is very much warranted to make the company and their products better.
18:33 Totally off topic, but the Buddhist would definitely NOT say "enlightenment through suffering." You're probably thinking of the Sramanic traditions found in early Indian sects which the Buddha originally tried to follow but ultimately rejected in favor of his "Middle Way."
Your lack of breath when you're about to finish a sentence worries me
Big fan but my only gripe with this interview is that you conducted it like a podcast where you weren’t trying to dig deeper and get to know more about how it was like at Apple, but rather just giving your own opinion. Apologies for coming off as rude.
For what it's worth, I had the very same impression.
Riccardo Mori
I don’t do impressions I leave that to the comedians 🤣
Great interview Rene. But it doesn’t dispute the rumors that the relationship between Apple and Jony corroded over time.
Fact: no one leaves a place they know they are making the most impact of their lifetime. People don’t quit jobs; they quit their managers or people and processes around them.
Jony probably left because he felt boxed.
The problem with a lot of these "facts" is that the conclusions people draw from them are no longer "facts". For example, there are "facts" that show Jony slowly pulling away over time. Does that mean Tim and Jony had a 5-year plan for him to go? Or does it mean they both tried a lot of different things over 5 years but ultimately none of it worked for them? My *guess* is that, after Steve died, the work was never the same for Jony, and like I said in the first video, he'd done pretty much everything he could do at Apple over his career. He had no worlds left to conquer and so much stress it was making him ill. So, this lets him stay involved as much as he and Tim ultimately want, but also removes all the overhead and lets him try new and interesting things he could never do at Apple, like furniture perhaps. I know everyone loves drama, but thems not "facts" :)
Clearly this channel is going to be big.I can't wait to see this channel with a million subscribers
the research and diligence are amazing. she's so chill, she sounds amazing
?
Where did you find those Apple videos? It’d be interesting to go back and watch some of them.
The short version is that people are ignorant (surprise) about how anything is made and how a product makes it to market.
Fascinating in depth interview.
Why, for your skype call (the quality aside) are you filming your phone showing the call vs just showing the output? And why is the call being made on what looks like an iPhone 3GS?
I like your content, but I liked your podcasts more. This channel is a bit too over the top for me. Everybody and everything is just super duper amazing and great!!!!
I try not to waste your time with the crap stuff.
It really makes me laugh when someone posts negative criticism and what they dislike about a channel. It’s a bit like watching a tv program you don’t like, there is always the option not to watch it if you find it that annoying. Just my 2 cents.
Did the butterfly keyboard problem and iPad bending issue inflict any impulse to Jony Ive leave? I wouldnt surprise if so
Thank you for talking to May Li and getting a real insider’s view. There are too many random people with little actual insight or knowledge commenting and influencing the average person. Well done, Rene!
Thank you!
Coming to realize I'm tuning in less and less to other Apple review/dicussion channels. Rene simply has the best content from a reasoned, intellectual and modus operandi delivery.
I don't even like apple, but I'm here.
Why can’t the rest of UA-cam tech channels be this good? You’re my fav Rene! Seriously I’m always impressed by your reporting and takes. Btw I like the FaceTime call on the old iPhone!
Thank you! The video quality wasn't great so it was a fun way to mask it.
Rene Ritchie oh, what a clever touch!
Should have used FaceTime 😂😂
This was really interesting I love how your channel always takes a different approach from all the others!
Appreciated!
If Tim Cook doesn’t want assumptions to be made about why Jony is leaving then he needs to tell the truth about what led to this sudden decision. Innovation and design are just important as profits. They are just licking their chops at Samsung.
It wasn't sudden.
This video is clearly not leaned to neutral. Rene seems to have some agenda as always. He is talking as if he is 100% sure what’s going inside in apple.
Manish E
Just wondering why you watch this channel if you don’t like the content?
Literally before I even opened the video or saw it I knew Rene would be defending Apple no matter what.
he's a fat prick lmao Apple isn't everything but to him it's the best 😂
Great video, great interview! IMHO I believe you should think about naming the video to reflect her as being interviewed. Just my 2 cents. 😊
The WSJ reported on the real reason for the split. jony was angry at Tim Cook’s disinterest in Design and innovation and shifting emphasis to operations. Jony became more and more disconnected and finally said enough was enough. This departure is not good for apple or consumers of Apple products. This could the beginning of the end for apple despite their current valuation.
What makes you think that reason was real?
You selling your stock, pay you half price
Too much fake laughter...
I used to take developers on the road to meet customers, because they had no idea how customers were using our solutions.
Frankly, I don't think Apple's device shells or casings (bodies,, if you prefer) are "machined," rather they are either cast or stamped aluminum, and it's also possible that they're 3D printed, these days. This idea that a thin aluminum outer shell is carved or milled from a block of aluminum is just nonsense. This is 2019, not 1932.
How do we know how big of a hit apple watch has been, I didn't think they posted numbers anymore?
Because there's a whole industry built around figuring it out ;)
Nice interview with May-Li Khoe. She has a great conversational style and I love the insight. Hope you have her on as a regular now and again.
Rene
I like the fact that you are so knowledgable about Apple products and most other things Apple related and can impart that knowledge to the viewer without bamboozling us with ott techno jargon and gibberish just to pad out the video. You clearly do a lot of research into things like iOS updates etc before you post a video which is by and large more detailed and in depth than other UA-cam reviews. I can’t really comment on some of the views of some people that accuse you of impartiality towards Apple, as I don’t know what’s going on inside your head but as far as I can see you tell it as it is, perhaps I’m just missing something. Besides what is wrong with liking Apple products, it’s no different to people liking Samsung products or Android os rather than Apple iOS. We are all entitled to our preferences so long as it’s not blind admiration and refusal to accepyt when a particular manufacturer makes a duff device or a dumb feature like Apple Pencil 1 stuck out the end of the lightning port just waiting to be snapped off.
Perhaps you can explain to me why my iPad Pro 3rd gen hasn’t bent, is my iPad faulty?🤣
“Other people ship products that we would have cut.”
That is the best way to describe Apple.
Kristian Clarke Whether it should have been cut or not is up for debate, but regardless, I didn’t mean that every product of Apple is good enough to ship. For example, Apple Maps should have been delayed.
Ronaldo and Messi are the best footballers, but they still make mistakes.
How can you work at Apple and say, “no one would complain that she’s a hard-ass if she were a guy”? Wasn’t Steve Jobs notorious for being called a hard-ass?
Hit that ah-lu-MI-nium bell gizmo!
The girl's frozen face is SUPER FUNNY... LOL
Seems like a straight business decision to me. JI was not going to make CEO anytime soon so he may as well run his own firm and charge Apple on his terms instead of taking orders from people he doesn't always agree with. what's to discuss?
$1000+ (and rising) price tag is a 'non-obscene price', no way, not at all... 4:10
I’m kinda like Rene Ritchie, all my friends have awesome jobs and I just sit and talk about how successful they are.
insightful, and I see that Skype really did not cooperate lool
Rene: *spills tea
Gays: *stan
It was great to finally hear a true source, and what better source than the one who knows all the process because it's her job unlike the WSJ article.
Johnny is not apple... Apple should survive just fine without Ives at the helm. Besides it's about time he rode into the sunset.
facetime?
I create UA-cam accounts just
to see what people post
w/out having to subscribe to anyone
Link to May-Li's site is not correct. Delete the 's'ecure in https...
I wish Apple made a proper pro laptop instead of the too thin toys they make now.
Amazing interview!! Thank you and thanks to May-Li for this conversation!
Hey Rene!
I’m a big fan of your videos, podcasts and content in general, your thoughts are so great and help to give me a better insight into every topic you talk about. Thanks for that! I would love to get more podcasts of you, I have to travel a lot and podcasts are my connection to the world around me. Maybe you could upload something like ideas or thoughts you didn’t mention in those videos. It would be great to listen to them.
Thanks for your time and keep up the great work!
I'm working on something. Stay tuned! :)
Teamwork is good, but still, it can’t help. When Steve was there, every new product was awesome and now it is more like - it's ok. The same could happen after Johnny has left the company. Apple was always a couple of steps forward in comparison with other IT-Companies. But now they are nearly the same like others.
Buttonless iPod shuffle. Fatty iPod nano. G4 Cube. iPod Hi-Fi. MobileMe...😂
Worst frame to freeze on :D couldn’t you put a nice pic or smt instead?
I didn't free on it. It keeps moving in Final Cut Pro X. Not sure what happened on export/upload ::(
Three wise men have left the building
What a brilliant interview and discussion! Its’ great to get some real insights and depth from knowlegable people who really know the business, Apple history, and the design world. Steve Jobs, certainly a genious, build a magnificant organization when he matured. Tesla’s Elon Musk, another genius, could use some of the design and organizational skills that made Apple such a success.
Use Zoom in place of Skype. Next time you will not have to apologies..
Rene, another great take pal. Thanks for taking the time to quell the Chicken little, sky is falling, opinion pieces, with sound, well sourced, journalism. Happy Canada Day!
Happy Canada Day!
Rene ---- Wonderful comment about Evans Hankey: "She makes shit go!"
That's what I keep hearing!
Fantastic interview. Dealing in FACTS. Ms.May-Li Khoe very smart, knowledgeable, and a joy to listen to. Great insights. Always professional this channel,
Worst guest appearance... not even a good photo for the woman displayed on the old iphone
Yay, I am the exactly 1000th person to like. Oh Skype, but why... I think the Galaxy Fold is a case in point on how tricky, design and engineering is. As I think in the Fold's case it must have been the issue of marketing saying we got to be the first no matter what. Most of the people who are very vocal on the Jony Ive leaving thing are just going for click bait economics
Butterflies? Hello?
Another great and thought provoking video, Rene! Thank You!
Skype? Why not FaceTime?
This woman was awesome as a bit of real insight. 21 people apparently weren't prepared for the truth :P But I agree, should advertise her name. As a protessional with a lot of experience, I'm sure she'd appreciate the tagback too.
Also, if you are afraid to fail, you will never be able to succeed. Edison had thousands of failures before he got the first working lightbulb, etc.
Should have been that way to begin with. Thanks for the catch. Fixed!
...again, wonderful spin. This is a very big deal.
May-Li is tremendous.
Jody Karr That WSJ article was a tremendous amount of spin, way more than this UA-cam video ever was.
but if one leader don't think enough, the company will go a wrong way. See a recent iPhone 11. The ugliest one in the industry
Best piece on Johnny Ive even though there wasn’t much about him directly.
Don't use skype. Use zoom.
That was seriously one of the best, most informative and enlightening Interview/Video I’ve seen in a while. Thanks you!
Thanks for watching!
Especially names like trash can and cheese grater it's time for some new faces at Apple
"Why Everyone is Wrong About" and are you right? didnt think so....
Rene. Love your videos. Great subject. Your channel is so relevant and different from all others in field. Thank you.
Love the restraint and due diligence here. Shame it doesn't apply to stories when it concerns Facebook or Google 😂
Facebook and Google have some wonderful people and attributes, but the privacy scandals have just been hammering them lately. My biggest gripe with both would disappear if they just came out and said "Privacy is important but we believe that if you're willing to give some up, we can make it worth your while." Adults can make choices but they need good information to base them on.
Rene Ritchie This is like me asking Apple to not sugarcoat iPhones as value propositions. Why doesn't Apple say "We rip you off up front so you never have to worry about us ripping you off later". You think products would sell if Google positioned lack of privacy as a key selling point, just because they posit that alongside gains? Humans don't work that way. When Apple opposes the "right to repair" bill, what do they say? "we won't allow for it to happen in light of user security and safety" While it's been proven that they want to control the end to end chain and maintain profitability. They don't go about saying "We don't want to dip out bottom line so we're going to create constrained supply for alternative service outlets". That argument is invalid.
Again I'm not shitting on Apple here. I'm an absolute fanboy. But I don't think what Google brings to the table is bad. While restraint and due diligence is great, a common standard must be applied. Not because we have an inherent bias. And "recently" showing bad behavior should not equate to cynical outlook on all future products.
@@PramodRamnath I am sorry but this comment is so full of ignorance. Every company has to make profits. Apple's most loyal customers don't pay the premium for Apple products just because they fanboys, but because they like the user experience. If you think Apple rips you off, great. Don't buy it. That's the free market capitalism for you. That Apple products are "overpriced" is not an objective fact. But Google's privacy violations are real.
tecialist I buy Apple products all the time. Point here was to show the same level of restraint to other companies as well. I was refuting Rene's point about Google somehow not owning up to a fact they're intruding on user privacy at the customers expense.
well... conjecture, gossip, and hearsay aren't only for kardashians. #sideeye
Thanks for providing the insight! You may read it in all caps also. ;)
ha!
My big hope is that this change will bring forth a new era at Apple, that has a better balance between design and functionality. While I still love my Apple products, I have not loved the recent design centric moves to the exclusion of everything else. Primarily, I am really hoping that they will shed this ridiculous obsession with thinness to the point of loosing battery life or functionality like ports. Great product design to me has to strive for a design as gorgeous as possible, but with a sensible amount of functionality.
I don’t usually comment like this, but I have to say that your content is good but way too long videos. Just can’t invest the time... have you thought about serving TLDW versions or something?
What length of time is best for you?
Rene Ritchie I would say 10 min is the ABSOLUTE max each for topics where there is kind of ”ten points to make about something”. In this era there just is so much stuff that eats up your time. 🙂 Thanks for ”listening” and keep up the good work!
And no one thought about FaceTime ?
Real artists ship.
Indeed!
Wow all this talk about material and strength. I'd like to talk with whoever did the material selection for the latest iPad pros and the iPhone 6.
Right, I love that the new iPad Pros are so thin, but man, I'd sacrifice some thinness for it to not be bendy. Magnesium maybe? Isn't that what the Surfaces use?
Really? Couldn't just simply restart the chat? It's not LIVE.
You also don't want to waste your guests' time. Eventually you just gotta work with what you have to get the interview you need.
DaShnizify jeez you people absorbing free content are so damn entitled. I’m sure they tried restarting the call, restarting the call doesn’t magically erect a cell tower beside the recipient. I’d understand this amount of frustration if you paid for the content, thing is you didn’t. Also audio is crystal clear, what more could you ask for!? The level of entitlement here is unreal
thank you Rene for bringing some reality to this f'ed up world we live in.
With the availability of unlimited resources to Apple employees, it is not about design but about project management and leadership. With the resources available, Apple was supposed to do more. Most newer designs are evolutionary but not revolutionary.
I think that's a misconception. Or rather, "revolutionary design" is a myth and a distraction. Apple's strategy has always been to package technologies in a way that creates immense mainstream appeal, and then iterate on them steadily, often alternating between internal and external iteration, steadily over time. New designs aren't any more or less revolutionary than older ones.
Rene Ritchie agree