Sir Jony Ive remembers the day in 1997 when he first met Laurene Powell Jobs, outside the house she shared with her late husband, Steve. “I’m standing there, holding a model of the iMac,” he recalls, pointing to a picture on his office wall of the colourful computer, one of several images in a timeline of game-changing Apple products.
Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple after a decade away from the company he co-founded. The relationship he formed with Ive was critical to its subsequent soaring success. “I was often at the house,” Ive says. “Certainly on the weekends,” says Powell Jobs, sitting across from him on a long table. Ive nods. “It feels to me like we grew up together,” he says. “We’ve gone through hard things and happy things?.?.?.?”
“?.?.?.?family and children and work,” says Powell Jobs.