It isn't that Apple designer guru Jony Ive doesn't like a smartphone that can run for days. Well, maybe he doesn't, given Apple doesn't make a smartphone that runs for days without charging. Heck, Apple doesn't make a smartphone that lasts one full day without charging.
It's more that Ivy doesn't like smartphones that weigh down a pocket. That's why he's not into designing an iPhone to carry a heftier battery, which would then would give users more than six hours between charges. A heavier battery obviously would make life easier for iPhone consumers.
Making life easier for iPhone users isn't Ivy's focus. The focus is making a device that consumers want to use.
That means thin and light apparently for Ive, who runs Apple's Industrial Design and Human Interface groups. A thin and light iPhone is much more important than having a phone ready for more than, say, four or six hours. Or, as Apple claims with its iPhone 6, a battery that can now last up to 12 hours. That claim is still a very debatable point.
What's not in debate, apparently given an interview Ivy gave regarding designing Apple products, is that a bigger battery would make the iPhone heavier and that wouldn't be "compelling," says Ivy.
He claims the reason consumers love and adore the iPhone, essentially the reason they use it, is because it's so light and thin.
The iPhone battery perspective comes on the day Apple is debuting its long-awaited Watch, its first-ever wearable and a device many industry watchers believe will drive smartwatches and mobile healthcare-focused wearables into mainstream adoption.
In regard to the Watch design, it's still in process says Ivy. The Watch is reportedly due to arrive in market in April. It's likely a safe bet that the Watch won't have a hefty battery.
"Even now, when the design of the Apple Watch is incredibly mature and has gone through thousands and thousands of hours of evaluation and testing, we're still working and improving," he said. "You are trying to keep everything fluid for as long as possible because everything is so interconnected. The best products are those where you have optimized each attribute while being very conscious of other parts of the product's performance."
Yup, what Ivy is saying is Apple isn't sweating out how to design Watch to keep a charge likely any longer than what the iPhone can do charge wise.
So for now, and in the near future at least, iPhone users will have to keep grabbing up accessories such as battery charging cases, powering down every chance possible, keeping the display dimly lit and shutting down apps the moment they're not needed or in use to keep the battery chugging along.
But hey, as Ivy apparently believes, that is a small price to pay to have a light and thin smartphone in the pocket.
