Apple products have been more functional since Jony Ive left

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‘Ive is the man of beautiful but impractical’

Even in the Ive era, Apple did things that weren't very aesthetically pleasing. Everyone remembers the pictures of the Magic Mouse, which has to be charged upside down. Or the Apple Pencil, which protruded like a spear from the Lightning port. Still, Jony Ive is generally associated with products that were beautiful, but not always practical. The MacBook became so incredibly thin that the keyboard broke continuously. And the 12-inch MacBook only got one USB-C port, because Apple felt that more connections were not necessary. Ive left Apple in 2019, and Apple has since turned around, claims Bloomberg's Alex Webb. Despite this, Apple owes a lot to Ive, who designed legendary products such as the iPhone, iPad, iPod and iMac.

The emphasis is now more on function rather than design. For example, the previous Siri Remote was impractical, because you couldn't feel the top and bottom by touch. Apple now has a Siri Remote with more buttons that has more functions. The 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros announced earlier this week are also a good example. They again have a series of useful ports, eliminating the need to carry around a dongle. The question is whether many people still need an HDMI or SD card slot every day. But at least it gives you the option to easily expand your storage, with, for example, a 1TB memory card that you keep in it all the time.

The return of MagSafe is also good. You no longer have to trip over the cable. The new MacBook Pros are slightly thicker and heavier than the previous generation, but you have more options as a professional.

According to Webb, the flat sides of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models are also a good example. The rounded screens of previous models broke quickly if dropped on the side. Apple should now listen more closely to customers, especially professionals such as musicians, filmmakers and architects, who have some money to spend but want everything to be right.

Whether this is all due to the departure of Ive remains to be seen. When Ive left in 2019, iPhones with flat sides had been in development for a long time and the redesigned Siri Remote will also have passed the prototype stage by then. But it's true that in recent years Ive has stepped back a bit and may not have been so deeply involved in day-to-day design decisions. In recent years, Ive is said to have been especially busy designing doorknobs and toilet bowls for the Apple Park headquarters. Apple itself has indicated that Ive was still involved in the design of the colorful 24-inch iMacs that appeared earlier this year.