“The Daily Mail” (http://macte.ch/aoWSD) says there’s no truth to recent rumors that Apple design guru Jonathan Ive planned to leave Apple and return to his native Britain. And he moved to the States to work for Apple because of a clown, the article claims.
Per the “Daily Mail”: ” ‘We lost a great talent,’ saysClive Grinyer, who first hired Ive after he came to work with him on a placement from Newcastle Polytechnic ‘We virtually created our own consultancy, Tangerine, just so that we could employ Jony (as Ive prefers to be called). And if I had to put my finger on why and where we lost him it would have to have been one day at Ideal Standard in Hull.
” ‘Tangerine had a consultancy contract with the bathroom-fittings company to design a toilet. I was there when Jony made an excellent presentation to this guy who was wearing a red nose because it was Comic Relief day. This clown then decided to throw his weight around and pulled apart Jony’s design. It was ridiculous. Britain lost Jony Ive then and there.’
“Tangerine had also been hired to do some work for Apple, and Ive’s visits to California offered him an escape route.
” ‘One day Jonathan asked to stay out for some California sunshine, even though it was the winter over there. When he came back he had a smile on his face and I knew they had made him a job offer. He hasn’t got where he is because of his ego. They just realised he was completely in tune with Apple’s DNA. They work bloody hard. So does he. It is not about the hours. It’s the weeks and months that they work on projects.’ ”