There have been some warranted complaints about the new Apple TV, not the least of which is its user interface, which doesn’t exactly exude the sleek and sexy look that Apple has embodied for so many years. Well, according to someone who used to work on the Apple TV project, that’s because this interface was originally rejected by none other than Steve Jobs. And it’s leading to questions about where Apple may be heading without its visionary leader at the helm.
Former Apple engineer Michael Margolis has been spreading this message on Twitter, and apparently if anyone knew the inside story it would be him. According to his latest microblogging messages, he “implemented much of the AppleTV 2.0 UI years ago.” He said, “The new home page UI makes me cry.” He then goes on to say that “those new designs were tossed out 5 years ago because SJ [Steve Jobs] didn’t like them.” This is a cautionary sign of perhaps where Apple may be headed without its visionary leader.
Margolis is afraid of where this may lead. In the current state of Apple, he writes, “There is nobody to say ‘no’ to bad design.” That may be over-dramatizing things a bit, but it is true that Jobs was an incredibly hands-on CEO and regardless of anyone’s thoughts on Jobs or Apple as a whole, there’s no denying that the company’s products have come to be heralded for their sleek, appealing, user-friendly design. That’s not something you can teach. You need to have an innate eye for that, and the only man who had the true Apple eye was Steve Jobs.