WEBVTT - Jony Ive and the Transformation of Apple 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.160 Be there and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.880 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:20.439 and how the tech are You? So? On Monday, I 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:26.520 published an episode about Johnny I've's journey to Apple and I've, 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.520 if you don't know, is a designer famous for his 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.680 influence at Apple. He had a hand in the look 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:37.640 and aesthetic at the company for twenty years, and recently 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:39.720 he and Apple have cut ties. So we're going to 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:42.960 continue his story in this episode. But this is really 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:46.360 not just an episode about Johnny I've and his influence. 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:50.879 It's really an episode that's about Apple in its transition 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.760 from a company that was in serious trouble to one 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:59.680 that became a tastemaker. Like this is the period in 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:06.399 which Apple itself underwent a massive transformation. So while I 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.200 is going to take a crucial part of that story, 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:12.400 it's going to require us to talk about some other 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:16.039 stuff too. Now where we left off, I was in 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.360 a really delicate position. He had recently been promoted to 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:24.200 Apple's director of Industrial Design. This was just five years 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.600 after he had joined Apple. He joined Apple as a designer, 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.400 the ninth member of the design team. Five years later, 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:37.160 the outgoing director of industrial design recommended I've for the job. 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.039 So this was a really remarkable journey. I mean, that's 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.480 a short amount of time to go from entering in 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.200 as a basic member of a team to becoming the 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.240 leader of that team. I've came into Apple in the 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.440 early nineties, which was a period where co founder Steve 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.960 Jobs was effectively banished from Apple. I talked about that 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.080 in the last episode, and you know, Jobs at or 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.080 he had been pushed to the side. In the mid eighties, 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.640 he left Apple and founded a different computer company called 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:11.600 Next Big End, Little E, Big X, Big T. This 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:16.040 company would end up designing computers meant for the educational sector, 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:20.840 at least primarily, but the computers were really expensive and 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.120 they had a fairly limited suite of software. Because you know, 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:28.640 software developers aren't likely to dedicate the time and resources 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:31.640 to make stuff for a platform that doesn't have a 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.200 very large install base. It just doesn't make sense. You're 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:36.919 never going to make back the investment you made in 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.480 order to make the thing in the first place. So 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.040 it would just make more sense as a developer to 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.280 create software for computers that a lot of people use, 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.440 instead of an upstart company that's trying to muscle its 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.600 way into a pre existing market. And over at Apple, 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.240 things had become pretty rocky, in no small part due 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.400 to the chaos going on with the team that was 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:02.200 responsible for building the next generation of the Macintosh operating system. 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.840 That whole project had ballooned out of control with feature 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:10.360 creep and internal struggles within the team, and so the 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:16.840 then CEO Gil Emilio moved to acquire the Next Computer Company, 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.919 and the idea was that while Next wasn't getting much 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:24.160 traction in the market, it's operating system was really good 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:26.640 and it could serve as the next generation of the 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.960 mac operating system, and the internal build of the next 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.600 mac os at Apple could be set aside for the 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:38.840 time being. Maybe it could be rescued and fixed. But 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:42.360 Emilio felt that in the state that it was in 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:46.360 within Apple, it just wasn't going to be ready for 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.640 the market, so he decided to acquire Next and use 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:54.200 that operating system instead. So Apple acquires Next, and then 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.600 Steve Jobs came back to Apple, initially as an advisor, 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:02.160 but within short order he became the interim CEO. And 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:07.880 then eventually the permanent CEO, and Jobs was not happy. Actually, 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:10.360 if you read up on various stories of Apple's history, 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:15.320 there are a lot of tales about Jobs not being happy, 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:17.400 and part of that was the fact that Jobs, as 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:21.080 standards were at the tippy tippy top, and when products 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:25.360 failed to meet his standards, he got mad. Jobs had 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:29.760 come back to Apple and hated what he saw. Apple 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:34.240 was producing so many different models of Macintosh computers because 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:38.120 the previous leaders thought the way to address the issues 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:42.640 Apple had was to expand the product line by making 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.320 a ton of different Macintosh models. But it got to 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.400 the point where the company's own sales team had trouble 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:53.039 explaining why one model would be more suitable for a 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.120 specific customer over any other model. If your sales team 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.400 can't say, oh, based upon your needs, this what you 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:04.200 should get, then you know you're in trouble. So the 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:09.760 message was buddled, the products were confusing, and Jobs was enraged, 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:14.799 and he wasn't shy about voicing his opinions. Now, i've 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.880 as the head of industrial design, was really concerned for 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.200 his team. Jobs was particularly angry about the direction of 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.640 Apple's design team. He said that he felt the quote 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:29.320 unquote sex had been taken out of the products that 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.279 they no longer had the appearance of something people wanted 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.520 to interact with, and word got around that Jobs was 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:38.839 planning on looking outside Apple to find someone in design 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:43.000 to come in and realign the company and to lead 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.760 that team, meaning I would be out of a job. 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.240 So I've talked with his team, and they even discussed 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.880 the possibility of creating their own design firm if the 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.359 whole department should find itself sacked. But I've advised his 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.880 colleagues to wait and see what Jobs would do, and 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.120 the team created a kind of showcase within the design department. 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:06.719 So I've knew it was just a matter of time 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.320 before Jobs would make his way to the design department 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.520 and see exactly how things had gone totally wrong, at 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:17.080 least in Jobs's mind. And I've wanted to showcase the 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.480 work his team had created with designs that the company 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.560 had not accepted. These are these were ideas that no 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.919 one else in Apple had approved, So they put on 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.000 display a lot of the more radical designs that had 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.719 failed to find their way through Apple's bureaucratic process. And 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.560 sure enough, when Jobs did come down and take a 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.000 look at the design department. He was impressed by what 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.040 he saw. The things that he was looking at from 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.880 the team, they weren't at all representative of the actual 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:52.000 products the Jobs had found so boring and uninspired. According 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.159 to Trip Michael, the author of After Steve, a book 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:59.159 that I used extensively in my research here, Jobs turned 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.720 to I've and essentially he said, you haven't been very effective, 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.279 have you. I am paraphrasing because Jobs could use a 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:10.760 lot of what uh Mr Spock would call colorful metaphors 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:15.600 in his language. What Jobs meant was that I've and 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:20.559 his team were astounding designers. They were creating amazing work, 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.960 but they weren't adept at getting that work accepted by 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.640 leadership at Apple. And that's, you know, a big component 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.160 of being a department head. It's not enough to be 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.480 an effective manager. A leader has to have vision and 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:37.080 a way to communicate that vision to others and get 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.640 buy in to get them to support that vision. So 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:42.679 a leader has to be able to convince other people 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.840 to try new things, or at the very least come 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.840 to the table and negotiate a way forward. I've was 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:53.360 unquestionably a great designer, but it might have been that 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.000 he was not yet a great leader, at least in 0:07:56.040 --> 0:08:00.160 that sense. But then Jobs also felt that the previous 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:04.320 regime at Apple was rife within competence, and so while 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:06.480 Jobs gave I've a little bit of a hard time, 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:09.520 it was clear that he placed almost all the blame 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:14.160 on Apple's previous leadership, that the company had become so 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.600 weighed down by people afraid to take risks, or more 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:21.520 interested in competing directly against the ensconced PC market rather 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:26.440 than creating a compelling alternative, that they were incapable of 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:30.240 listening to I've and his team, and so really the 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:32.640 fault was on them more than it was on i've. 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.520 And the good news was that Jobs saw this and 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.120 felt that the design team was doing great work, that 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.320 they were brilliant and innovative. So Jobs knew that the 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:44.640 department was the right group of people to make his 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.760 vision of what Apple could be into a reality, and 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.880 this began the working relationship that would develop into a 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.800 fierce friendship between Jobs and I've. And it also meant 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.920 Jobs would end his search for a new head of design, 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.079 so i was safe in his job. Jobs and I've 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:07.960 bonded over a shared fascination with the form of products, 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.760 and and by form, I really actually mean a bunch 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:15.120 of different things, not just the physical shape, although that 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.120 is a huge part of it. I've was actually really 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.320 obsessed with materials. He would carefully go through each and 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.880 every sample of various materials to determine what was right 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:30.960 for any given project. He had in his mind specific 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:35.720 effects that the materials should pull off, whether it was 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.959 a shiny metal surface or a very smooth curve of 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:44.679 glass or a pebbled leather cover. And Jobs was very 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.600 much the same way. So the two spent ages talking 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:51.120 about different materials and what was possible with each one, 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:55.000 or what limitations existed with them, and how to find 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:59.360 a solution to meet those limitations or you know, in 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.040 most cases is with I've, if he found fault in 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.439 a material, he was far more likely to just reject 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:08.000 the material outright and find something better that met his expectations, 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.000 even if it meant scouring the entire world to find 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:14.559 what he wanted. And Jobs wasted no time. Once he 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.640 returned to the leadership role, he gave the Newton program 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.640 the Acts in n I talked about the Apple Newton 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.400 in the last episode that was a little less than 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:27.520 six years after the Apple Newton had debuted, and that 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.200 was an attempt to create a new product line, but 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:36.440 because of some real limitations with the hardware and more 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.440 more over, the software, it did not work. It was 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:44.080 a failure. But Steve Jobs didn't just acts products. He 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:48.920 acted entire layers of management. Jobs essentially laid off the 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.680 general managers overseeing the various business units within Apple. In fact, 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.960 he did that in a single day, like it was 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:01.280 an armageddon, where he laid off, you know, legions of 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:05.480 general managers, and that probably contributed to some people at 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:09.560 Apple using the phrase getting jobs as a way of 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:14.200 saying you got fired. Apple had created silos of departments, 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.640 so little feudal states, each with its own leader that 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:21.079 was largely cut off from the other departments, and Jobs 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.760 knocked those silos down. He essentially reorganized the entire company 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:29.240 into a more cohesive and collaborative operation. Now the teams 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.240 would still have leaders, you know, like I've was leader 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.480 of the designers for industrial design, and these would be 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:39.280 people who had deep expertise in whatever field it was 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.440 that they were representing. So they were people who could 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.520 manage others, but they also knew how to do the 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:48.520 stuff that the team was doing. You know that the 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.160 team they were managing was doing. Jobs said, One really 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.760 big mistake that he and Wozniak made way back in 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:57.920 the seventies was to bring in people who are really 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.960 adept at business, but they didn't know how computers worked, 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.720 and that that disconnect led to all sorts of trouble 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:11.280 down the line. And then Jobs gave I've a critical assignment. 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.440 Jobs knew that the company needed to launch a product 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.240 that would put it back in the minds of consumers. 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.440 They needed to capture the rebellious and innovative spirit of 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:24.640 the company in its early days. Jobs also saw how 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:30.440 the Internet was playing an increasingly important role in well everything, 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.000 and so he wanted Apple to create a desktop computer 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.400 with the express purpose of being a machine that would 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.600 work well with the Internet. Jobs also wanted to ditch 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.080 some traditional features found on most personal computers of the day. 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.920 For example, he didn't want this new computer to have 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.520 a floppy disk drive, something that was standard on other 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:55.840 machines at the time. He also wanted to ditch serial boards, which, 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:59.000 if you're not familiar, were used as a communication interface 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:02.200 with computers. They could connect with other peripherals right and 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.880 send information to and receive information from those peripherals. Jobs 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.880 instead wanted to incorporate USB technology in this new Apple computer, 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:16.720 and he also gave Ive's team one other directive. He 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:21.599 wanted the design for this computer to be quote joyful 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.880 end quote, and I've and his team would take on 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.920 that challenge. We're gonna take a quick break. When we 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:32.920 come back, we'll talk more about this project and how 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:35.960 it really helped turn things around for Apple. But first 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:47.320 these messages. So Johnny I've and his team got this 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.040 assignment from Steve Jobs, and they got to work. Uh, 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.760 they had the parameters and then pretty much a blank 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:56.640 canvas that they could use where they could create the 0:13:56.679 --> 0:14:02.000 next generation of consumer Macintosh computers. It would be called 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:05.400 the iMac. And yeah, this was the beginning of Apple 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:09.000 using that lower case I in front of its various 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.800 product names. The iMac would be the first of those 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.080 those products, the first major one anyway. So the team 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:19.040 led by Johnny I've decided that the computer should be 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:23.359 innovative but not threatening. So I needed to look futuristic, 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:27.640 but it also needed to look accessible. It couldn't be 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.640 something where you're like, oh, that looks cool, but I 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:33.120 don't want to touch it. So one big point of 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:37.800 inspiration was the cartoon The Jetsons. You know, Meet George 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.120 Jetson and so on. Well, the Jetsons lived in a 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:45.360 world that was simultaneously futuristic and also anchored in the 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:49.480 aesthetic of the nineteen fifties. While the iMac wouldn't look 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.240 like it came straight out of the nineteen fifties, they 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:57.040 did have elements of the familiar along with the novel. Now, 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:01.320 the original iMac was not a flat screen computer like 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.520 later models would turn into. It was an all in 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.920 one computer that looked like a very colorful CRT monitor. 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.320 Before the iMac, the team had created a laptop prototype 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.400 that had translucent plastic built into the body of the computer, 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.520 and I've decided he wanted to incorporate that element into 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:26.160 the iMac design. I've presented his ideas to Jobs, and 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:29.400 Jobs rejected a lot of them, but one that Jobs 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:32.960 really liked was a sketch that I've showed him, and 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.600 I've described it as a computer that looks as though 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.000 it was about to jump off the desk and go 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:43.840 do something, and that really resonated with Jobs. So I've 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.720 returned to his team with Jobs as input, and they 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.480 refined that design. They began to move more in that 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.160 specific direction, and they created a model. The Jobs like 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.600 so much they would actually take that to other departments 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:58.840 in order to show it off to them. The team 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.520 chose a polycr abinate shell for the computer for a 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.360 couple of reasons. One, it's a very strong material, so 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.680 it's it's resilient, but also it can hold a tinted 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:15.160 color really effectively. It doesn't fade over time, at least 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.720 not rapidly, so so it would hold whatever color you 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.600 wanted to give it. And as for those colors, they 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:25.920 initially created computer shells that were either orange or purple, 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.280 or a bluish greenish color that would end up being 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:34.200 called Bondie blue. The process to make the shells was expensive, 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:38.280 both because of needing to make the polycarbonate translucent, and 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.560 also the process itself was sort of a customized one. 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.840 They couldn't rely on existing manufacturing processes. It all had 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:50.280 to be built from scratch in order to mass manufacture these. Now, 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:53.480 this meant that it would cost Apple sixty dollars per 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.160 unit per per computer case, just the case, not the internals, 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.680 and that was much more expensive than typical computer case was. However, 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.040 I was very happy to find out that Steve Jobs 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:10.920 wasn't really concerned about manufacturing costs because Steve Jobs saw 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.000 the need to bring customers back to Apple as well 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:17.280 as to attract new customers to the company, and he 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:19.639 thought it was going to be shortsighted to worry about 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.560 production costs and that this was really going to be 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:27.280 a swing for the fences kind of product. A we 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:30.320 need a home run, so we're gonna swing as hard 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.240 as we can. So because the case was translucent, I've 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.200 and his team worked with other departments to figure out 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.760 how the circuitry layout that would be in the computer 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:45.000 underneath would be visible and attractive. They wanted it to 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:49.120 look sophisticated and not messy, So this was another consideration 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.359 that really set Apple apart. It would also be the 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.320 foundation for the types of computer rigs that are are 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.320 very popular today. There are a lot of computer cases 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.800 out there that have trend his parent glass panels so 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.400 that you can see the interior right. You can see 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:07.280 the the fans and the various components, many of them 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.040 decked out with L E. D s and that's the 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.600 kind of rig that gamers prefer these days, and I 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:16.800 feel that we can thank Apple in particular, and specifically 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:20.080 Johnny I've and his team for setting us down that 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.840 kind of pathway. I feel like the iMac was sort 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:28.119 of an early example of that aesthetic that extends all 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.680 the way down to today. Obviously, the shapes are very 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.200 different today than the iMac was, but there are those 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:38.000 those elements I feel that have carried through. When it 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:42.760 came time to unveil the iMac, things nearly went pear shaped. 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.280 One of the components the Jobs really wanted in this 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:50.879 computer's design was a c D slot so that users 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.520 could just insert a compact disc into the slot. It 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.280 would go into the computer and then they could, you know, 0:18:56.400 --> 0:19:00.080 load information from the c D. So he wanted it 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.119 to be a little slit in the computer and to 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.880 be as unobtrusive as possible. But when it came time 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.600 to actually unveil the design and Jobs looked at the 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:12.440 prototype that he was going to show off. He saw 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:16.280 that the iMac had a c D tray that would 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:19.000 extend out from the computer. You would put the CD 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.000 into the tray and then retract the c D tray 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:29.240 back into the computer and he was furious. But when 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.679 he was lashing out super angry that the thing he 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.879 wanted wasn't part of the iMac, he was told the 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.560 problem was the technology he wanted in the computer didn't 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.879 exist yet. No one had built a working version of 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:46.439 what he was envisioning, and that, you know, that was 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:50.480 the issue. Johnny. I've actually stepped up to talk Steve 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.920 Jobs down, Johnny. I've said, you know what you're thinking 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:56.800 of right now, that's the next one of these, that's 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.119 the next iMac. We can't do it yet, but ex 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:04.679 generation we will. However, we have to ship this version. 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.960 And remarkably, Johnny Ives approach really worked. It calmed down 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:13.399 Steve Jobs and he went on to rehearse what the 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.760 presentation that would unveil the iMac would become. And you 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.280 can actually watch that presentation online. This was done way 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.439 back in so if you do find a copy of 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:27.439 it that there are copies on YouTube. The video quality 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.679 is pretty bad, but it is late nineties and you 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.680 can watch as Jobs calls the iMac quote the excitement 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.919 of the Internet, the simplicity of Macintosh end quote. Jobs 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:44.480 then goes on to essentially slam the competition, saying that 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:48.240 consumer computers that are on the market are all slow 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:52.840 and ugly, that they have lousy displays, and if they 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.480 have any networking capability in them at all, it's pretty limited. 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:58.280 So he was really trying to set up how the 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:02.160 iMac would contrast with what he was claiming to be 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.400 the status quo. And the technical specs on the iMac were, 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:08.720 you know, they were impressive for the time, but you 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:11.920 would laugh at them now because Jobs talks about having 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.760 a ton of memory in this computer, which was thirty 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:17.960 two whole megabytes worth, and that the processor ran it 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:21.399 up blistering two three mega hurts. That processor was the 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:25.000 G three power PC processor, by the way, that's why 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:29.000 this computer is sometimes referred to as the iMac G three, 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:32.679 because that was the processor that powered it. But he 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.360 really wanted to focus on the impact of industrial design 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:39.879 of the computer, and that's really what we want to 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:41.560 talk about. Two. We don't want to I'm not going 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:43.800 to run down all the technical specs because that's not 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:46.760 really what these episodes are about. We're talking about the 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:51.159 aesthetic of Apple. So when Jobs revealed the iMac, the 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:54.400 crowd could only see the front of the machine. Initially 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.040 they could just see the face of the iMac right, 0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:00.600 it looked like a sleek, rounded computer, so instead of 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:05.040 sharp corners, that had rounded corners. And while they could 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:09.880 only see one face of the computer initially, they went 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.520 ahead and went banana. And then Jobs brought in a 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:17.640 camera that could you know, the camera operators could circle 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:22.280 the iMac and the feed was sent live to movie 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:25.880 screens that were in the presentation hall, so everyone could 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:29.440 see the translucent plastic along the sides and the back 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:33.320 of the computer. Um and Jobs showed off how the 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:35.959 iMac had a handle as well in the back, like 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:39.760 along the top, and that was a design factor that 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:42.480 Johnny I've had suggested because he thought it looked cool. 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:46.359 It wasn't practical. People weren't going to be carrying around 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:50.679 their iMac computers everywhere, but it was something that just 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:54.119 made it look like you wanted to get your hands 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.520 on it. That was the whole point of it. So 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:01.640 this was not a practical component added into the design. 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:04.000 It was one at least not practical in the sense 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:06.679 of physically practical. It was practical in the sense of 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:10.040 marketing because it was another thing that made you want 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:13.680 to pick one of these things up and purchase it. Right. 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.760 So Jobs agreed to that design change, even though it 0:23:17.800 --> 0:23:19.720 meant that the production costs of the case of the 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:22.760 computer would be even higher because it would require a 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:27.000 special approach to make this handle that's incorporated into the 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:30.520 case itself. Jobs would end up saying it looks like 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:34.280 it came from another planet, a good planet, one that 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:39.000 has better designers, which huge accolades for Johnny. I've right 0:23:39.080 --> 0:23:43.200 saying that Johnny Ivan his team were better than all 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:47.040 the other designers on Earth. Now, the IMAX solved a 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:50.200 ton of issues. For one thing, the all in one 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:53.399 design meant that Apple could actually ship an iMac in 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:57.199 a single box that contained the computer, the keyboard, and 0:23:57.240 --> 0:24:00.520 the mouse. More on the mouse in the second there 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:03.320 were no components to connect apart from the keyboard and 0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:05.520 mouse to the computer, right, So you didn't have to 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:08.439 connect speakers to it, you didn't have to connect the 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:12.480 monitor to the tower. All of that was integrated. It 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:17.639 was one thing, So that really simplified the setup process Apple, 0:24:17.720 --> 0:24:20.200 and to make sure that the customer wouldn't need to 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:23.960 install any software or do anything complicated, they wanted it 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:26.520 to work out of the box. Like this was the 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:30.800 beginning of that idea of it just works, although that 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:33.639 wasn't how Steve Jobs described it yet he would later 0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:36.840 describe Apple products as it just works. That would become 0:24:37.440 --> 0:24:39.919