Apple’s Jony Ive Revealed That The iPhone X Was In Development For 5 Years
The iPhone X has been refined to the point of perfection in the eyes of Apple, but it took a lot of failures to get there, according to its lead designer.
Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive revealed that the new iPhone was in development for half a decade—all the way back in 2012. “That technology is something we’ve been working on for five years, and we had prototypes that were this big” said Ive about the TrueDepth camera’s Face ID and Animoji features in the 10th anniversary iPhone.
“We have a lot more big ideas and we are already working on them […] Rather than one ending of the iPhone, it is rather a new chapter and the beginning of its development.”
Ive described the grueling development process to get to a finished device. “For 99% of the time, it didn't work for us,” he recalled. “For the vast majority of the development cycle, all we had were things that failed. By definition, it was if they didn't fail halfway through then we'd be done.”
“What we always wanted to do is tackle the essence of integrating what we considered different parts. Looking at the iPhone X from that perspective, I think that it took many years and finally we were able to achieve it.”
Ive also spoke about the importance of Face ID, saying that having a device which recognizes you – and when you are paying attention to the phone – is more important than it might seem. He says that a key design goal is to focus on the function and have the form be almost invisible to the user. Replacing Touch ID with Face ID is one step toward the goal of removing conscious interaction with a device.
“If you try to do a good job, there is always pressure. I understand that what is expected is a change, but what we are trying to keep in mind is always to do the best job, as much as possible. Given the years taken to develop the iPhone X, it was a truly wonderful coincidence.”
But Ive also called the development process of making a new device "extraordinary," and said it's the part he enjoys more than the actual product.
“What I will remember most fondly will be not the products, but it will be the process,” he said when asked if he admires people all over the world using the iPhone when he's out in public. “I tend to be so completely pre-occupied with what we're working on at the moment.”
Let us hope that the iPhone X will be the 10th anniversary smash hit that Ive and his design team at Apple are hoping for.
[via Fortune, opening image via YouTube]
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