If you want to hear a really great, revealing and insightful tribute to Steve Jobs, tune into the Celebrating Steve video Apple posted earlier and go to the 48.30 mark.
Here Apple’s long-time head designer Jony Ive starts talking about his “best and most loyal friend.”
Ive’s tribute to Steve is by turns funny, touching and insightful. Unlike a lot of the negative stuff we’ve heard about Steve over the last few weeks, Jony describes Steve’s passion and enthusiasm, his sense of humor, and his great joy in doing things right.
I’d love to post the video here, but it’s streaming only for the moment. Here’s a snippet of what he said:
Now while hopefully the work appeared inevitable. Appeared simple, and easy, it really cost. It cost us all, didn’t it?
But you know what? It cost him most. He cared the most. He worried the most deeply.
He continues:
… He constantly questioned, ‘Is this good enough? Is this right?’
And despite all his successes, all his achievements, he never presumed, he never assumed, that we would get there in the end. And when the ideas didn’t come, and when the prototypes failed, it was with great intent, with faith, he decided to believe we would eventually make something great.
But the joy of getting there. I loved his enthusiasm. His simple delight. Often, I think, mixed with some simple relief. Yeah, we got there, we got there in the end and it was good. You can see his smile can’t you? The celebration of making something great for everybody.
Enjoying the defeat of cynicism. The rejection of reason. The rejection of being told 100 times, ‘You can’t do that.’
So his I think, was a victory for beauty, for purity. And as he would say, ‘For giving a damn.’
He was my closest and my most loyal friend.
We worked together for nearly 15 years — and he still laughed at the way I said ‘aluminium.’
For the past 2 weeks, I think we’ve all been struggling to find ways to say goodbye.
This morning, I simply want to end by saying ‘thank you Steve.’
Thank you for your remarkable vision which has united and inspired this remarkable group of people.
Tor all that we have learned from you and for all that we will continue to learn from each other, ‘thank you Steve.’
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
40 responses to “Wow! Jony Ive’s Tribute To His “Best Friend” Steve Jobs Is Truly Great”
Love when Jonny narrated about the hotel. “Hey Jonny this hotel sucks let’s go” hahaha!
Thank you Jonny
Very nice sentiments
is there a video ?
Jony should be the one to present Apple’s New Products.
Tim Cook is a bit Creepy.
I think his speech is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
Makes me wanna drop everything I do and do the thing I believe in the most…. Apple !
I agree about Johnny, Tim isn’t so much creepy though as lacking the fundamental charisma we have come to expect in Apple’s addresses. In any other business Tim would be a really fine front man but Steve set the bar insanely high and it’s an extremely tall order to fill. Johnny is the natural fit to fill Steve’s on stage role. He’s got the charisma, he’s warm and human and I think being English, his accent and style of talking is down to earth and welcoming. The humour in his address, came across as completely and utterly genuine which, at times like these, is a great foil to the sobriety of the situation. After watching the full celebration I’m not sure how they all kept their shit together, Tim almost cracked at the beginning, the ‘Coach’ had a hard time too but they all did Apple and Steve proud.
As an Englishman, I can assure you that Jonny Ive’s warmth and humanity do not come from the land mass he happens to have been born on. I’ll introduce you to many Englishmen who are utter tw@ts, but with a good Welsh name like Gareth Edwards, maybe you know that already. :-)
Indeed I do, I agree, there’s a lot wrong with our mud bank (I’m British – half Welsh – half Geordie – I apologise for my sins!), what I’m sayin’ though, is his inflection and accent, I feel, added a real sense of solidity and realness to what was being said. I think that because a lot of stuff we see on TV/Video/Film is americanised it sometimes means it can wash over us, maybe it’s because I’m a Brit, maybe it’s because I think sometimes a British accent (take your pick from that bag!) has the right timbre and musicality to drive a feeling home in an understated way.
What ever the reason though I really found myself listening very closely to his eulogy and found it very enjoyable.
Having watched the whole 80-minute event, I was most moved by what Jony had to say. What a guy. Real humility. A truly gifted communicator. I’m not surprised that Steve rated him to very highly.
I have to admit that after going over the whole event, Jonys sentiments really brought home what nobody else has done in the last few weeks. Just brilliant.
Yes, look for it at the bottom of the apple homepage.
Awesome! I feel this in my core, we all understand the sentiments.
Great. Thanks.
An amazing musical tribute that makes music with Steve Jobs’s voice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
I have to say I’m not convinced that the accent’s the thing. Let’s face it, if he was a Brummie, he’d sound as thick as two short planks. Let alone if he came from the Fens! Jonny Ive always struck me as someone who wants to be heading away from the limelight at 110 per, not heading into it.
Seeing someone being real and unaffected is a rarity these days. What a special person. +1 Jony Ive.
Having watched the entire great historical filmed event, you can skip Al Gore’s mumblings, unless you want to fall asleep. Everything else is memorable.
I suppose if your not surrounded by perfection in all aspects of your life, how can you apply and learn from it. Even staying at a Hotel was obviously a constant learning experience, in which he sort perfection and ideas. Jonny Ive nailed it, as regard what to say at such an Event.
Otherwise it appears overly controlled, I think it would have been fun/humorous to have a camera shot towards the crowd when Coldplay were on stage, showing everone holding up their iphones recording the event, and then a shot from the back – showing all the displays – to show how embedded the iphone is in today’s culture.
It was obvious the mainsteam employees had all been prepped on how to act, and filming the event on your iphone was a no-no.
So much for thinking outside the box, corporate control has already taken over from the single vision.
Quite obviously you did not grasp the significance of what he said about the scientific proof that Apple products stimulate the same area of the brain that love does, not the section connected to addiction. Very significant and poignant, indeed.