14 DAY TRIAL // As Apple and Samsung are actively battling it out in court over their smartphones’ designs, the Cupertino giant’s Chief Industrial Designer, Sir Jonathan Ive, reveals that Apple nearly axed the project altogether, had they not overcome some hurdles that you and I might consider minor at best.
Quoted by The Telegraph, Ive said, “We nearly shelved the phone because we thought there were fundamental problems that we can't solve. With the early prototypes, I held the phone to my ear and my ear [would] dial the number.”
He explained to the interviewers that they had to keep an eye out for “all sorts of ear-shapes and chin shapes, skin colour and hairdo...that was one of just many examples where we really thought, perhaps this isn’t going to work,” he noted.
However, as the newspaper notes, Apple not only solved all the problems that come with designing a high-end communications device, but they shipped roughly 250 million units since inception.
Ive provides insight on the mindset of Apple’s designers when it comes to sitting down to discuss a potential product, saying, “We have been, on a number of occasions, preparing for mass production and in a room and realised we are talking a little too loud about the virtues of something.”
“That to me is always the danger, if I'm trying to talk a little too loud about something and realising I'm trying to convince myself that something's good,” he said.
Ive also commented on Apple as an organization, and how their end goal is to make great products, not a cash pile, despite being the most valuable tech company out there at the moment.
“Our goal isn’t to make money,” he said. “Our goal absolutely at Apple is not to make money. This may sound a little flippant, but it’s the truth."
"Our goal and what gets us excited is to try to make great products. We trust that if we are successful people will like them, and if we are operationally competent we will make revenue, but we are very clear about our goal.”