Speaking at the British Embassy’s Creative Summit, Apple design chief Jony Ive spoke about design, market research, and the company’s main focus, offering several insights into Apple’s philosophy, as well as into his own beliefs and ideas.
Wired UK reports:
Apple’s goal is not to make money, but to make good products, said Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of industrial design at Apple, speaking at the British Embassy’s Creative Summit.
“We are really pleased with our revenues but our goal isn’t to make money. It sounds a little flippant, but it’s the truth. Our goal and what makes us excited is to make great products. If we are successful people will like them and if we are operationally competent, we will make money,” he said.
Ive also addressed the topic of market research, explaining why Apple does not engage in market research, stating that “We don’t do market research. It will guarantee mediocrity and will only work out whether you are going to offend anyone.”
Jony Ive shared a lot of these ideas in common with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who looked to Ive as a close friend and mentor. Ive’s quotes are nothing new, but they do reiterate ideas that have been at Apple’s core from the very beginning – that design is crucial, that it’s important to make the best products possible, and so forth.
I also particularly enjoyed Ive’s thoughts on design itself:
I refute that design is important. Design is a prerequisite. Good design — innovation — is really hard. We say no to a lot of things that we want to do and are intrigued by so that we only work on a manageable amount of products and can invest an incredible amount of care on each of them.
I highly recommend checking out the entire article over at Wired UK. It’s definitely worth a read. Further insights can be found over at The Telegraph.
