Jony Ive Designs First Hardware Product Since Apple Exit—It’s A $60K Turntable

Image via Linn

First came the iPod and its click wheel, then the turntable.

The first tech gadget that Sir Jony Ive is known to have worked on since leaving his post as Apple’s long-time design chief is here, following his stints designing logos for King Charles III and Comic Relief’s new red nose. It’s a special, 50th-anniversary edition of the Sondek LP12 by British home audio brand Linn, which the designer expresses he’s a fan of.

Image via Linn

Conceived with teammates at his creative firm LoveFrom, Ive’s LP12-50 turntable with Linn is priced at US$60,000, with only 250 numbered units available in the world. The exclusive piece honors the original’s overall silhouette but rounds it off with some quintessential touches, like the curved corners that have now become an Apple mainstay.

Image via Linn

Besides a natural wood finish, there’s also this Apple-y white variant.

Image via Linn

Remarkably, the record player was designed free of charge. Ive tells Fast Company that “a substantial percentage” of LoveFrom’s projects are done pro bono for the love of it, and he’d owned and admired enough Linn products to know he wanted to be involved somehow. 

In fact, it was the designer who reached out to collaborate, much to the latter’s disbelief (they thought the email was spam).

Music has always been special to Ive, as evidenced by his design of the first iPod and the others that followed, AirPods, and more. With the Linn LP12-50, he believes he’s “gone the full circle.” As Michael Scott would say, oh how the turntables!

Image via Linn

Hailing the project as “life-affirming and so joyful to work on,” Ive says his team is glad to “have been able to play a small part in celebrating 50 years of an icon.”

[via MacRumors and Fast Company, images via Linn]