Jony Ive is a very important name when it comes to Apple. The chief designer of the iPhone has put his nose into almost all of the brand's projects. Along with Steve Jobs, he was one of the strong men at Apple at the turn of the 2000s. As visionary and gifted for design as Jobs, Jony Ive had notably worked on the MacBooks.
When Tim Cook became CEO,after the departure of Steve Jobs in 2011, Jony Ive had proposed bringing together in the more or less near future the two ranges of MacBooks, the Air and the Pro. According to the recent testimony of journalist Walt Mossberg, Jony Ive planned to release a “MacBook” thin enough to have the characteristics of an “Air” but still powerful enough to benefit from the “Pro” categorization.
A hypothetical product
This perfect hybrid would have been the start of a new story for Apple with a central laptop range. Ultimately, almost 15 years later, things didn't really turn out that way. By going to the Apple website we quickly notice the nuance left by Apple between its “Air” and its “Pro”.
The devices do not have exactly the same design, if finesse, which has long been an element of distinction, has taken a back seat, this is not the case for performance which is still in favor of the “Pro” model.
Ive vs. Cook
WhileJony Ivewanted to bring together the two MacBook ranges into one, Tim Cook for his part wanted to preserve the legacy of Steve Jobs and maintain two products, for two very distinct uses. So the MacBook Pros still exist, they are intended only for professionals, for advanced use, while the MacBook Air meets a more general demand, notably students, which requires less raw power.
This idea of bringing together the two versions of MacBook had already been announced by Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Steve Jobs. In a 2019 interview he made a clear distinction between “business people” and “product people”. The latter are above all creators, capable of imagining a product to meet a need.
Business people, for their part, know perfectly how to manage a company, particularly in terms of accounting. Tim Cook is part of this category of person at Apple and according to the testimony of Walt Mossberg, he is the first to be aware of it.
