Apple’s Jony Ive: Responsibility doesn’t end when you ship a product

“It is one of those October days that thinks it is still early September, so I choose an outside table at London’s River Café with a view of Hammersmith Bridge,” Nicholas Foulkes reports for Financial Times. “Sir Jony Ive is a little late for lunch… It sets me wondering what Apple consumers would make of the designer’s wardrobe as he makes his way along the outside tables at an amiable amble. The 51-year-old is wearing a suit tailored by Caraceni of Milan in a lightweight pied-de-poule, a white linen shirt and his signature Clarks Wallabees. He over-apologises for being 10 minutes late.”
“He was already clearly a rising star when, in 1997, Steve Jobs returned to run and rescue the company he had founded,” Foulkes reports. “Jobs formed a close bond with Ive, calling him his creative partner. They ate lunch together most days; Jobs was always in and out of the design studio; they and their families took holidays together. Their partnership set the course for technology in the 21st century. Apple is now a company where designers rule.”
“Rather than let his scallops cool in the breeze, he silences an incoming call on his Series 4 watch — a product that was launched last month,” Foulkes reports. “It is a project dear to Ive, he has said, adding that the Series 4 watch ‘will be a more marked tipping point in understanding and adoption of the product…’ ‘If you genuinely have a concern for humanity, you will be preoccupied with trying to understand the implications, the consequences of creating something that hasn’t existed before. I think it’s part of the culture at Apple to believe that there is a responsibility that doesn’t end when you ship a product.’ As he speaks, his face rearranges itself into a troubled frown. ‘It keeps me awake.'”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, about that Apple Watch Nike+ and its actually quite broken Nike Run Club app around which that Watch model is ostensibly built?
Shouldn’t Apple take full responsibility for a product they sell? Or should Nike be blamed for failing to produce an app that works reliably?
We submit that since it is Apple is selling the Apple Watch Nike+, they should take responsibility for the (unsurprising) ineptitude of a footwear company’s iOS app and fix it so it works reliably. (Yes, we know you want us to use Workout, Apple, but that’s no excuse for selling an Apple+Nike-branded product in which the central Nike app is shit.)
P.S. We heartily recommend the Apple Watch Nike+ hardware, just do not use the Nike+ Run Club app as it will bork your runs even when you baby it and try to accommodate its old, longstanding bugs.
SEE ALSO:
Siri Shortcuts can’t even launch the Nike Run Club app, despite Apple selling Nike-branded Apple Watches for years – September 18, 2018