Jobs: don’t name that spaceship after me
Why Apple's new campus won't be named after the company's founder
Steve Jobs told Tim Cook he didn’t want the company to name its new ‘Spaceship’ campus after him, according to a new interview with the Apple CEO. The Telegraph interview, conducted by devout Apple fan Stephen Fry, also reveals that British design guru Jony Ive has a new job within the company.
Fry was given a tour of the Apple Campus 2, which is currently under construction and set to open in 2017. During his poke around the building site, Fry suggested the doughnut-shaped building – nicknamed the Spaceship – should be named after Jobs, who died in 2011. “Oh, Steve made his views on that very clear,” said Cook, suggesting the infamously irritable Jobs wasn’t particularly keen on that idea.
Fry’s interview also revealed that the company’s British designer, Sir Jonathan Ive, is moving to a new role within the company. Ive will now assume the role of chief design officer, overseeing all aspects of the company’s image, from new products to the layout of Apple’s retail stores.
Fellow Brit Richard Howarth is to become Apple’s new head of industrial design, while Alan Dye will become head of user interface. Ive took charge of iOS for the first time when the company unveiled a major redesign for iOS 7, but now appears to be taking more of a back seat.
“I’m still in charge of both [Howarth and Dye],” Ive explained to Fry. “I am called chief design officer. Having Alan and Richard in place frees me up from some of the administrative and management work.”
Ive suggested Apple’s product design won’t be harmed with his new hands-off role. “Richard was lead on the iPhone from the start,” Ive added. “He saw it all the way through from prototypes to the first model we released. Alan has a genius for human interface design. So much of the Apple Watch’s operating system came from him.”
Ive, 48, was knighted in 2012 for services to design and enterprise. He’s been with the company since 1992, and has been instrumental in the design of products including the original iMac, iPod and iPhone.