Comments on: Profile: Apple’s Jonathan Ive http://www.badlanguage.net/profile-apples-jonathan-ive Writing, marketing and technology Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:56:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Are you Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg? - Bad Language http://www.badlanguage.net/profile-apples-jonathan-ive/comment-page-1#comment-769217 Are you Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg? - Bad Language Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:51:21 +0000 http://www.badlanguage.net/profile-apples-jonathan-ive#comment-769217 [...] Jobs obsessively tinkered and polished Apple’s products (and his yacht, apparently). Jonathan Ive said that Apple doesn’t do focus groups. As Jobs once remarked, before Henry Ford, if you asked [...] [...] Jobs obsessively tinkered and polished Apple’s products (and his yacht, apparently). Jonathan Ive said that Apple doesn’t do focus groups. As Jobs once remarked, before Henry Ford, if you asked [...]

]]> By: dysfunctor http://www.badlanguage.net/profile-apples-jonathan-ive/comment-page-1#comment-608378 dysfunctor Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:30:51 +0000 http://www.badlanguage.net/profile-apples-jonathan-ive#comment-608378 Fascinating. Thanks. I'll grab this opportunity to share my own thoughts on Ive's work. Some have pointed out the similarity of the iPod to early portable transistor radios, or the second-generation iMac to the Anglepoise lamp. Does this make him a plagiarist? When I first saw the magnetic power plug on the MacBook, I was as impressed as you. Then I went to Japan, and saw exactly the same design (but scaled up) on all the hot water urns. Magnetic plugs were everywhere! It's the same solution to the same problem, but in a slightly different context. Not such a big deal, right? But if it was so obvious, why did the guys at Sony or Toshiba overlook it? They must be kicking themselves now! I think Picasso had it right: "Good artists borrow. Great artists steal!" Fascinating. Thanks. I’ll grab this opportunity to share my own thoughts on Ive’s work.

Some have pointed out the similarity of the iPod to early portable transistor radios, or the second-generation iMac to the Anglepoise lamp. Does this make him a plagiarist?

When I first saw the magnetic power plug on the MacBook, I was as impressed as you. Then I went to Japan, and saw exactly the same design (but scaled up) on all the hot water urns. Magnetic plugs were everywhere! It’s the same solution to the same problem, but in a slightly different context. Not such a big deal, right? But if it was so obvious, why did the guys at Sony or Toshiba overlook it? They must be kicking themselves now!

I think Picasso had it right: “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal!”

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