Apple: Jonathan Ive quitting for the UK?

February 28, 2011 9:25 am

Categories: Gadgets News Tags: Apple, ipad 2, iPhone 5, Jonathan ive, jonny ive

Apple could have real trouble on its hands: Jonathan Ive, Apple’s design supremo, is rumoured to be planning a move to the UK and Apple’s board is apparently not happy. The Sunday Times carried the rumour this weekend reporting that a friend of the family had spilled the beans. Ive and his wife are said to be planning a move to England to raise their children and send them to British schools.

While Ive wants to stay on at Apple, the report suggest the Apple board isn’t happy and that he’d not be allowed to remain as Apple’s Senior Vice-President of Industrial Design if he commuted from the UK to California. Ive has $30m of Apple stock options ready to cash so he’d cope if he had to leave Apple but could it? Will the future beyond iPad 2 and iPhone 5 look bright without Ive? Let us know in the comments.

Out TBC | £NA | Apple (via The Sunday Times [paywall] )

Be Sociable, Share!

PS

It's obvious. Jonathan Ive misses the chips. And the baked beans.
Coleisgone

Surely with $30m of Apple stock they'd happily open a chippy in his back garden. Seriously though with all the technology Apple have at their disposal working from the UK shouldnt be that much of a hinderance.
Top Fry

oops!
If it's true, Ive is in a very strong position; if Apple let him go, and the brand evolves in a new direction, they run the risk of people looking back and calling the Ive period a golden era.
He must be one of the most sought after designers around.
Also, I doubt money is an issue for him any more, so perhaps they will give him what he wants; working for Apple gives him an international stage, albeit at the expense of the conformity of the brand, but leaving could be a great stepping off point and exciting new possibilities for him.

Apple always face the risk of losing some of it's freshness; their brand has an established look and style, but you can only rehash something for so long, and you need to continually introduce fresh ideas. Be interesting to see how it gets resolved.
Robert Cumming

Sooner or later everyone moves on. The graveyards are full of people who were indispensable, as they say…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Greg-Dixon/625935120 Greg Dixon

Forcing you staff to work on one premises is a pretty backwards way of thinking, what happened to “cloud working” or are Apple not eating theor own dog food these days? Next thing we'll learn is that they use PC's to design everything

bensillis

I don't know -with Apple's level fo secrecy and the very physical requirement for someone to oversee industrial design (it's about feel as well as looks), I can see there being an impasse here.

wiztwas

If he does leave Apple will he have left at the peak?

iPhones and iPads are no longer in the dominant position they once were.

Where will he go and what wonders will he do for whom?
John smith

This is old news. Ever since the iPhone 4, Jonathan Ive was giving apple all the wrong signals, I mean on one hand he was working and on the other he wasn't.
Scaramouche

Apple will not run the risk of losing Jonny Ive, especially with Steve Jobs position with the company in such doubt. He can easily run his department from England, after all the very products Apple market, wax lyrical on how international they are and how they have made the world smaller. Jonny Ive could have planted the rumour himself knowing his value to the company and reminding them of it when the company needs all the value it can get now the CEO is all but out.
miket

I completely understand why he wants to educate his children in the UK. Pack your bags! Apple needs to fill its empty basket with some new fresh fruit anyway.
Sir Marky

With the serious cuts riviling the 1930s to schools, infrastructure, services and hospitals about to kick in, why on Earth would you plan to come back when those who can are looking to move?

Apple: Jonathan Ive quitting for the UK?

Hot chat, right here!