Tribute written by U2's Bono

Apple's lead designer, Sir Jonathan Ive, is one of the featured people in a newly-published Time 100 list for 2013. The tribute paragraph is written by U2 frontman Bono. "Jony Ive is himself classic Apple. Brushed steel, polished glass hardware, complicated software honed to simplicity. His genius is not just his ability to see what others cannot but also how he applies it. To watch him with his workmates in the holy of holies, Apple’s design lab, or on a night out is to observe a very rare esprit de corps. They love their boss, and he loves them," the text begins.

Bono claims that Ive and his team are motivated by "greatness" over profit, and long-term opportunities over short-term ones. "Jony’s values happen to add value — emotional and financial. It takes a unique alchemy of form and function for millions of people to feel so passionately about the robot in their pocket," he concludes.

Ive is now perhaps the creative center of Apple. His work was once limited mostly to hardware design, but he has since taken over the direction of software as well in the wake of the departure of iOS head Scott Forstall. Ive and Forstall reportedly had a rancorous business relationship; with the latter gone, it's widely believed that Ive will deviate from the skeuomorphic designs Forstall preferred.

by MacNN Staff