Apple’s Jony Ive says smartwatch was design challenge

Wall Street Journal:

Ive told an audience at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Thursday night that designing the smartwatch posed more challenges than the iPhone because of societal expectations around a wristwatch. The wrist, he said, is an ideal place for “lightweight interactions” and “casual glancing,” but not for heavy reading.


“Even though Apple Watch does so many things, there are cultural, historical implications and expectations,” Ive said. “That’s why it’s been such a difficult and humbling program.”

It’s obvious Apple has thought long and hard about that last sentence and maybe that’s why the Apple Watch will be more successful (although, that’s damning with faint praise) than other company’s offerings.



2 thoughts on “Apple’s Jony Ive says smartwatch was design challenge”

  1. When Tim Cook gets tired of running Apple, I’d give short odds on it being Ives who replaces him.

  2. Seems to me working on the Watch might have kept Ive from seeing some of his fairly basic assumptions about iOS and OS X UI.

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