Jonathan Ive the heir to Steve Jobs?

Posted by Dennis Sellers Dec 8, 2007 at 9:36am

Is Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design genius, the obvious heir to Steve Jobs’ title as Apple CEO if and when Jobs decides to call it quits. A Times Online article posits that this is a likely scenario.

“Mr Ive, known to colleagues as Jony, is already Apple’s senior vice-president of industrial design, credited widely with the development of every Apple product from the iMac to the iPhone,” the article—which describes Ive as a “40-year-old gym-toned, shaven-headed, Aston Martin-driving Brit, who lives in Twin Peaks, San Francisco,”—says. “Sales of Mr Ive’s iPhone in Europe are already set to reach half a million – way ahead of analysts’ forecasts. Meanwhile, the iMac, which Mr Ive first revealed nine years ago in Paris, explaining that he wanted it to look like a grapefruit, is continuing to convert more and more PC users to its anorexic design and simpler, less buggy operating system.”

However, there are pros and cons to Ive becoming Apple CEO (assuming he even wants the job, which is uncertain). Among the pros:

° His design genius is highly regarded. He has won, among many other honors, a CBE award in the UK.

° Jobs trusts him immensely.

° Ive is “the man who embodies what Apple is perhaps most famous for – design.”

° He shares his boss’s perfectionism.

Among the cons:

° Ive is considered to be publicity shy—something Jobs is obviously not.

° He lacks the charisma to become “Steve 2.0.”

° He once described himself at “technically inept.”

Still “of all the potential succession candidates, the Briton who once described himself as technically inept is by far the favourite,” says the Times Online.

Advanced Search

Article Information

Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This

Contributor

Recent Articles