Jony Ive Interview With John Arlidge

John Arlidge scored a rare interview with Jony Ive for the (London) Sunday Times Magazine; Time has a U.S. reprint. There are several illuminating remarks from Ive; he may be publicity-shy, but when he talks, he thinks. He does not phone it in. There’s a great anecdote about what it was like traveling with Steve Jobs, but I’d be remiss not to quote the following:

If that were true, if Apple could no longer make stuff that shreds, not pushes, the envelope, would Ive give up? “Yes. I’d stop. I’d make things for myself, for my friends at home instead. The bar needs to be high.” But, he adds: “I don’t think that will happen. We are at the beginning of a remarkable time, when a remarkable number of products will be developed. When you think about technology and what it has enabled us to do so far, and what it will enable us to do in future, we’re not even close to any kind of limit. It’s still so, so new.”

Occam’s Razor suggests it’s no coincidence that a lengthy, rare interview with Jony Ive appears just before Haunted Empire hits shelves. This is Ive’s way of saying Kane’s book is nonsense. He knows what’s coming.

★ Tuesday, 18 March 2014