Jony Ive Talks Apple Design Thinking, Relationship With Steve Jobs, More In New Interview

Apple’s design head Jony Ive has given a rare television interview, with Charlie Rose once again being chosen as the man to ask the questions after a similar interview was carried out last year.

The 35-minute Q&A, during which Ive covers all things from what he feels his role is within Apple to his relationship with the late Steve Jobs, can be streamed online for free.

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During the interview, Ive raised the point that Apple’s design teams are focussed on making the best products they can rather than making money for Apple, and assuming you take Ive at face value, that’s an interesting claim to make.

We’re very clear about the hierarchies here. Our job isn’t to make money for Apple. Our job is to make the best products that we can. We trust if they are good and we trust if we are competent and we do our jobs in trying to describe them and we are competent in making them, they will be attractive and bought. They will be bought in volume and we will make money.

This isn’t the first time that an Apple executive, and in particular Jony Ive, has made the claim that Apple’s first aim is to produce quality products rather than to fill the company’s bank account with dollars. As Ive points out, being a success at the former will inevitably take care of the latter, but having that fact pointed out by one of Apple’s most recognizable heads still makes for interesting viewing.

The full 35-minute video is well worth a watch for anyone with a passing interest in Apple, but those particularly interested in Jony Ive and how Apple designs the products we use every day will, in particular, be particularly interested.

You can watch the interview over at Hulu, though that’ll require Flash on OS X and Windows. We’ve embedded a low-res YouTube version below as an alternative.

(Video via: Pete Sandidge [YouTube])

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