Apple's product design seems to be becoming more and more "contradictory". Both the scale of the product line and the technology adopted by the product are becoming more complex. Apple is no longer the apple that "beat the world with one product". This is unusual. Back in the Steve Jobs era, apple always advocated a simple and understandable way to meet the needs of users. In the face of problems, apple is more willing to provide a "standard answer" than multiple "feasible solutions".
Author / Jesse
Editor / Jing Yu
This purpose, namely "designing different products in the same way", is known as the "grand unified theory" of Apple products. Around 2015, apple disclosed the existence of such a "theory".
But this theory has gone bankrupt, and the recently published book after Steve provides some new inside information. The protagonist of the story is the former Apple chief design officer, Johnny ive.
Ive brought a wonderful ideal into a dead end, and finally lost in the tide of the times.
Interactive "grand unification"
Many children use windows When computer users first contact the Mac, one of the most unaccustomed interactions is the MAC mouse.
Different from the logic of turning the page down when the mouse wheel rolls down on windows, the default "page turning direction" of MAC is to roll the finger up and turn the page down.
This logic originated in 2008. At that time, the first generation iPhone had just achieved great success. Inside apple, we are convinced that the "multi touch" technology on the iPhone represents the future of interaction and should also be used on the Mac.
In 2008, Apple launched the first MAC equipped with a "multi touch" touchpad, the MacBook Air. The next year, Apple released the first mouse that supports multi touch, magic mouse.
On the new touchpad and mouse, apple uses the same interactive logic as the iPhone: "page turning in the natural direction", that is, two fingers slide up and the page turns down, just like turning a piece of paper. You can also zoom images and web pages with two fingers just like you can with iPhone.
This is apple. If it thinks that a certain function point and a certain interaction mode are better, it should use it in all products and do not hesitate to break the user's habits.
Similar subversion is nothing new in Apple's decades of development history.
Steve Jobs is a computer designer who attaches great importance to "interaction". He has no technical background, can't write code, and doesn't know much about engineering. But he knows that if you want this machine called "computer" to enter the homes of ordinary people, what you need to solve most is the problem of "interaction".
Jobs believes that the multi touch of iPhone is the "third interactive revolution" ｜ Getty Images
Jobs believed that design defined experience. Therefore, when introducing the iPhone, he stressed that the "multi touch" of the iPhone is the third interactive revolution brought to the world by apple. The first two are the "mouse" on the Macintosh and iPod Click wheel on the.
After jobs died in 2011, Tim Cook took over as CEO, but the power of product interaction design fell to the then chief designer, Johnny ive.
Ive has been working closely with jobs since the 1990s to define the design of Apple products. After jobs' death, Ive still firmly implemented the development roadmap set before. One of the core things, in short, is to promote the successful interaction design and product features on the iPhone to the whole apple product line.
This idea is also supported by Phil Schiller. As a senior vice president in charge of marketing, Schiller believes that the product concepts including "multi touch" and "retinal screen" have been highly recognized by users because of the iPhone, which can better reflect the product advantages of MAC.
Therefore, from 2008 to 2015, apple not only released the touch pad and mouse supporting "multi touch", but also transformed the remote control of Apple TV with the same logic, and launched MacBook and [IMAC] equipped with "retinal screen"( https://apple.pvxt.net/c/1251234/435400/7639?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.apple.com%2Fcn%2Fmac%2F ) 5K、iPad Air……
Jony ive completed jobs' unfinished business and extended the interactive logic of iPhone with "multi touch" as the core to the whole apple product line, realizing "great unity" to a considerable extent.
There's only one question left for ive: and then?
The future of touch
As the most radical "innovator" in Silicon Valley, jobs is almost paranoid in his love for new technology. At the same time, he has an unusually persistent product experience and perfectionism in everything.
Jobs has repeatedly expressed the need to look to the future instead of indulging in what has been achieved.
Obviously, Jony ive remembered Jobs's teachings. After completing the "promotion of touch", he immediately began to think: what is the future of iPhone and "multi touch"?
Soon, he handed in an answer sheet.
In the fall of 2014, apple rented the flint center in Cupertino, California as the venue for the press conference. It was here that jobs released his most proud personal computer, the Macintosh, 30 years ago. Before the press conference, Apple executives, including cook himself, also rarely revealed to the outside world that Apple will bring "the best in history" and "really great" products.
On September 9, cook introduced this "redefine user expectations" product to the world: Apple watch.
Just from the way of release, you can feel how much Apple attaches importance to the apple Watch: rent the venue where the Macintosh was released 30 years ago; Use one more thing as an introduction; With the highest level of confidentiality, it was released half a year in advance to prevent any information from the supply chain and regulatory authorities... Cook even defined the apple watch as a "revolutionary breakthrough in the interactive interface" in the same way that jobs introduced the first iPhone.
"Pressure touch" is recognized by ive as the next generation of interaction mode of Apple ｜ apple
The so-called next-generation interaction mode is "force touch".
In Jony ive's description, "pressure touch" is equivalent to adding a new dimension - depth to the "multi touch" floating on the plane. Moreover, through the new "tactile engine", the way users receive information has also been expanded. They can not only hear and see, but also feel it.
With the new interaction mode, Ive will certainly promote it to the whole apple product line to achieve "great unity".
This time, Ive moves a lot faster. In 2015, apple first launched a new MacBook with a "pressure touchpad" for the first time. A vibration coil is built under the touch panel to detect the pressure and give vibration feedback, making users feel as if they "really pressed it down". Later, the same technology was extended to the independent touch pad of macbook pro and IMAC 5K.
In the fall, Apple launched a new iPhone 6S series, equipped with "tactile engine" and 3D touch. Ive brings the "third dimension" of touch control to Apple's top selling star product, the iPhone.
Ive is determined to promote pressure touch and is fast. However, the definition of what needs can be solved by pressure touch is relatively vague.
On the first generation Apple watch, you can press the call out menu and change the dial; On the iPhone, there are also heavy pressure icons, call out menus, and heavy pressure photos, emails and other contents for "Preview"... These are not killer application scenarios.
In the past, apple, or jobs, brought a new way of interaction in order to create a new product form and bring a new experience. Not to mention killer applications, the whole product is centered on new interactions. Even so, the Macintosh suffered a big failure in its early release. The touch interaction of the first generation iPhone is also considered to be far less efficient than the BlackBerry's physical full keyboard... It's always difficult to promote new things.
For Johnny ive, this time, he can only bet all his chips on the future. But soon, things began to deteriorate.
The cost of innovation
In 2016, Johnny ive launched the last all in bet on "touch interaction".
In the fall, Apple launched a new MacBook Pro. This time node is equally significant for Apple: it marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Apple's first notebook.
The biggest change in the new MacBook Pro is the touch bar. Describe the touch bar in one sentence: it puts the iPhone screen on the notebook, replacing the traditional physical function keys.
In fact, this idea is not new. After the touch-screen smartphone swept the world, some people have always said to bring the touch interaction mode to the computer. Major PC software and hardware manufacturers, including Lenovo and Microsoft, began to try before apple.
The first generation touch bar design on MacBook Pro doesn't even have ESC button apple
But Jony ive's touch bar still has its innovation, and even suggests a more "Crazy" future.
At that time, apple pushed three product innovations on the MAC: first, the "pressure touch" that can sense pressure and feedback through vibration; Second, the "butterfly keyboard" with shorter and thinner key range and more straightforward hand feedback; Third, developers can design their own touch bar interface.
It is not difficult to find that if these three designs continue to develop, they will eventually point to the future, which is a MacBook with "no physical keyboard, and the C side is also a whole screen". Many people believe that through pressure sensing and vibration feedback, Apple may really be able to simulate the feel of a physical keyboard on a screen.
Of course, the above are widely circulated speculation. We don't know what Jony ive thinks and what level the matter has been promoted and implemented within apple. After the MacBook Pro in 2016, Apple has never tried to subvert "interaction".
Looking back on this history, if ive's innovative interaction design is just "unsuccessful", maybe everything can be forgiven, and cook's management can give him more time.
The problem is that the cost of this series of innovations is really too high.
IPhone 6S uses 3D touch and the screen module becomes thicker, resulting in battery capacity being occupied; Touch bar replaces function keys, which makes some programmers who just need ESC keys very uncomfortable; Not to mention that in order to achieve what Ive wants, "almost perfect simplicity and lightness", the new MacBook removes the fan, the pro battery shrinks, and even most accessories All need adapters, and the whole MAC product line has fallen into a heat dissipation disaster... This series of criticism is overwhelming, and even apple can't completely ignore it.
Apple once launched a high priced Apple watch in pure gold
In addition to interaction, Jony ive also continues to explore the boundaries of industrial design and try various materials and processes. They have worked with CNC for more than ten years to make a complete piece of colored glass. They have used it together with CNC to explore a great product. Since Apple watch, Ive has focused on high-strength stainless steel and gold.
He insisted on making a pure gold watch with a price of up to 126800 yuan. Even if the price is so expensive, the profit of this watch is not as high as expected, because the gold used is much higher than the general gold intensity and higher cost - which Jony ive insisted on. These gold watches, of course, ended up on a large scale and cost apple a lot of money.
Another example is the stainless steel arc middle frame adopted from the iPhone X generation. This design has been used on Pro Series iPhones since then, driving the price of iPhones to rise until the iPhone 12 series is changed back to right angle.
It must be admitted that at the end of ive's career at Apple, the design made by ive has become more and more "form than content". In the summer of 2019, the last product designed by ive knife, Mac Pro (2019) and pro display XDR release. The display bracket with a price of 7799 yuan and the chassis roller with a price of 3000 yuan caused a boo.
In the boo, Jony Ive left apple.
New era of "great unification"
In 2015, when apple just released the new IMAC 5K, Phil Schiller, then Apple's core executive in charge of marketing, interviewed the media and talked about Apple's product design philosophy.
He said that all Apple products, from Apple watch to Mac, are actually "computers", but they have unique functions and forms. The ultimate goal of Apple watch is to take over part of what you were supposed to do on your iPhone, so that you can reduce the frequency of picking up your phone; The goal of the iPhone is to take over some of the things you have to do on the iPad, and then later, macbook, desktop mac... And so on.
This explains why Apple has always wanted to interpret everything in a complete "interactive way". They hope that when you use your iPhone, you can naturally use the whole family bucket in the same way. But whether it's a Mac, iPad, or watch, their shapes are different, and they shouldn't interact in the "same way".
Apple's increasingly complex product line ｜ apple
Today's Apple product line is becoming more and more complex, and many "sense of unity" are disappearing. For example, iPad Pro uses face ID, while air and mini are equipped with touch ID; There is face ID in the "bangs" of iPhone, but not in MacBook Pro; Another example is that the two monitors currently on sale by Apple can't be compatible with each other's brackets; And iPhone se 3, 5 years later, it has not been updated to the "full screen" design... The only Apple product that realizes unified compatibility may only be the screen wiping cloth.
But if you look at it from another angle, Apple products still maintain a certain degree of "great unity", or even a new "great unity". You can automatically connect and operate the iPad with the keyboard and mouse of the MAC; During fitness, the movement information of Apple watch can be put on Apple TV; Including airdrop, copy and paste across devices, playing sound and images across spaces
Apple no longer sticks to the design of a single product, but hopes to achieve smoother cross platform collaboration and provide a consistent service experience. This is mainly due to the unified self-developed chip of the whole platform.
Johny srouji's team in charge of chip development and Craig federighi's team in charge of software are redefining Apple's "family bucket experience".
Jony ive merits and demerits
After Steve recorded Apple's development and turbulent path after jobs' death, and also reviewed the history of Jony ive's "grand unification theory" gradually going bankrupt and finally being liquidated.
In the book, Jony ive is portrayed as a "God" with paranoid perfectionism and high voice within apple. Under his shadow, many voices of the hardware engineering team were not fully heard and adopted, resulting in product failure.
To some extent, this is Jobs's character. However, the strength of apple in jobs's hands is far less powerful than that in the past 10 years. As the founder who personally sent the company into the abyss and saved the company from bankruptcy, although jobs is paranoid and bold, he may know better than Ive where the "boundary" of innovation is.
In the post jobs era, Ive tried to design everything with a single logic. This idea is tantamount to carving a boat and seeking a sword. In the process of pursuing "perfection", he paid more price. For example, in order to enable the mouse to charge with lightning cable while maintaining the beautiful shape he wants, he can only design the charging port at the bottom, which is ridiculed.
The charging method of apple mouse has long been a millennium joke in the mouth of netizens com
Today, 3D touch and touch bar have long been historical terms, and the pressure touch on the watch has also been removed. The new products released in the past three years without the hand of Jony ive are generally cheaper and more pragmatic, and greatly improve the "practical functions" such as endurance, heat dissipation, interface richness and keyboard feel.
The effect is immediate. In the past two years, Apple's annual revenue has increased rapidly at the rate of 20-30%, and user feedback has also improved visibly. Moreover, cheaper products have made apple's overall profit margin soar, from 21-22% to 26.5%, an increase of about 25%.
Ive's expensive designs, in addition to driving up the price of products, don't make so much money.
After Steve was published, two voices began to clash fiercely. One believes that a series of design failures of Jony ive have greatly hurt the user experience and the interests of the company, and it is natural to leave the company; The other believes that the management led by cook, who only pursues interests, forced ive away and completely lost Apple's soul.
It's very complicated. For example, the book mentioned that Johnny Ive used cook's hand to fire Scott Forstall, the senior vice president in charge of software development. His successor, Craig federighi, has been reported to have a good relationship with Forstall. It's not difficult to associate that ive and federighi didn't fully cooperate in the next few years. Is this one of the reasons why Ive's design cannot be implemented at the software level? Who should be held responsible?
This period of history has a long span and contains too many personal factors. As an outsider, it is meaningless to make judgments based on some details.
On his deathbed in 2011, jobs told Cook: "in the face of problems, don't assume what I will do, do what you think is right." Based on the relationship between jobs and Ive, he probably entrusted some things to ive.
Looking back on the products released by apple in the past 10 years, it is not difficult to find that in the five years after jobs' death, Ive worked very hard and carried out his work in an orderly manner, completely unlike the "fishing every day" reported later.
So when we look back at this history, it's hard to say who did better than cook or ive. It can only be said that cook complied with this era, an era in which "it is difficult for a single product to change the world". He realized the entrustment of jobs and led apple to greater success in a "correct" way.
The era of ive stopped in the past when hardware innovation flourished and jobs took the helm for him.