【教书匠阿伦-外刊精读】苹果灵魂设计师乔尼·艾夫及他的时代

作者: 教书匠阿伦 | 来源:发表于2019-07-02 16:06 被阅读2次

Sir Jony Ive, the Briton who over two decades helped turn Apple into the world's most valuable company, is leaving to set up his own venture. Mr Ive, designer of the Mac, iPod and iPhone, leaves later this year to start a creative business called LoveFrom, with Apple as its first client. "This just seems like a natural and gentle time to make this change," he said. Apple boss Tim Cook said his "role in Apple's revival cannot be overstated”. But the departure comes at a time of wider change at the tech giant. Retail chief Angela Ahrendts left in April and investors have been worried about falling iPhone sales.

乔尼·艾夫（Jony Ive）这个20多年来帮助苹果公司成为全球市值最高的英国人即将离开，创办自己的公司。作为Mac，iPod和iPhone的设计师，乔尼·艾夫将于今年晚些时候离开苹果成立一家独立的设计公司LoveFrom，届时苹果将成为该公司的第一个客户。艾夫表示 “现在似乎是做出这个改变的一个自然的时间。”苹果老板蒂姆·库克也表示“乔尼·艾夫在苹果复兴中的作用不容小觑 ”。但是，乔尼·艾夫此次离职正值这个技术巨头进行广泛的变革之际。于4月离职的投资者、零售业务主管安吉拉·阿伦茨（Angela Ahrendts）一直担心iPhone的销售下滑。

Mr Ive, knighted by the Queen in 2012, will not have an immediate successor. Since 2012, he has overseen design for both hardware and software at Apple, roles that had previously been separate. Apple said on Thursday the roles would again be split, with design team leaders Evans Hankey taking over as vice president of industrial design and Alan Dye becoming vice president of human interface design.

乔尼·艾夫于2012年被英国女王封为爵士，目前还没有直接的继任者。并且自2012年以来，他一直负责苹果的硬件和软件设计，在此之前这两个职位是分开的。苹果公司于周四表示，这两个职位将再次分离，设计团队负责人Evans Hankey将接任工业设计副总裁，Alan Dye将成为人机界面设计副总裁。

After the death of Steve Jobs, there was speculation that Jony Ive might one day move into the chief executive's office. That always seemed unlikely- instead he remained the firm's design guru, the often parodied voice of those iconic Apple product videos while Tim Cook drove the mighty profit machine ever onwards. In recent years, it has been harder to detect the Ive magic - while the Airpods look set to become another classic, the $999 stand for a Mac Pro monitor stand seemed to symbolise a company taking its fans for granted. But the man who started his career by designing toilets and toothbrushes and ended up giving us the most profitable product in history, the iPhone, is assured of his place in history.

自史蒂夫·乔布斯去世，就有人猜测有朝一日乔尼·艾夫可能会入主首席执行官办公室。这一猜测似乎不太可能 - 相反，在蒂姆·库克开始推动强大的利润机器前进时，他仍然是公司的首席设计师，仍然经常为苹果标志性产品视频配音。近年来，尽管Airpods看起来将成为另一个经典之作，人们却越来越难以发现艾夫的魔力，售价999美元的Mac Pro显示器支架似乎也表明了苹果公司将其粉丝视为理所当然的现象。但是，这位通过设计厕所和牙刷开启职业生涯并最终为我们提供历史上最赚钱的产品 – iPhone的乔尼·艾夫，确保了他在历史上的地位。

本新闻解读首发于2019年6月30日，选自：BBC News

原文链接：https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48795057

作者：BBC News

文本难度：★★★★☆

话题难度：★★★★☆

乔尼·艾夫（Jony Ive）

1967年出生于伦敦，是一位工业设计师，英国爵士。乔尼·艾夫是苹果的传奇设计师，他于1992年加入苹果，自1996年以来一直领导Apple的设计团队。他于2015年开始担任苹果的首席设计官，他曾参与设计了iPod，iMac，iPhone，iPad等众多苹果产品。乔布斯曾经将艾夫视为“在苹果公司的精神伙伴”，在苹果内部，艾夫曾经拥有仅次于乔布斯的影响力，不只是苹果，对于设计界，乃至于整个世界，乔尼·艾夫都是一个时代的标志人物。