Apple Design Process Remains the Same Without Steve Jobs

The loss of Steve Jobs last October was unquestionably a major loss not only for Apple, but for the world. Without his leadership and guidance, many assumed that Apple would suffer in a variety of ways; most importantly in the design and development process. Jobs was a visionary who contributed to the construction of Apple hardware and software in numerous ways, and without him there were those who expected the company to flounder. However, the head of Apple’s design department recently told The Telegraph that even without Jobs, the design process has remained pretty much the same.

Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of industrial design at Apple, told the paper that the company is “developing products in exactly the same way that we were two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago. It’s not that there are a few of us working in the same way: there is a large group of us working in the same way.” Steve Jobs may have been an extremely important figure for Apple, and a significant icon for the company, but there has always been a significant team behind his achievements. That team may not have always gotten the attention they deserve; now, without Jobs’ shadow looming over them, we can finally see how Apple does without its figurehead.

Ive argues in his interview that Apple’s ability to innovate, though inspired by Jobs, didn’t cease when he left the company. It lives on, he claims, in the creative power of the Apple design team. “We have been rather addicted to learning as a group of people and trying to solve very difficult problems as a team,” he says, “And we get enormous satisfaction from doing that.” The upcoming release of the iPhone 5 is a mixed bag for Apple – whilst it supposedly features many design elements implemented by Jobs before his death, it also gives his creative team a chance to show what they can do without him at their head.

This post was put together in conjunction with phones4u. You can find iPhones and a wide range of other phones can be found over at phones4u.