Should he stay or should he go?
Rumours are circulating that Jonathan Ive, the man behind the iconic design of Apple's iPad, iPod and iPhone is thinking about throwing in the towel.
According to a report in The Sunday Times [via The Guardian] Ive, who is senior VP of industrial design at the firm, could be in a position to cash in £25m in Apple shares, doing rather nicely from a 3 year golden handcuff deal.
Apparently he wants to spend more time in the UK and send his son to school here, but the Apple board has not supported his relocation, with a family friend reportedly claiming: "they have told him in no uncertain terms that if he headed back to England he would not be able to sustain his position with them".
The story is very speculative and seemingly based upon a sliver of information gleaned from a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which sketches a picture of the shares deal and commentators are incredibly aware of the potential disaster looming if Ike does decide to call it a day at the firm, with CEO Steve Jobs on medical leave.
The newspaper reckons Ive is the second most well known and charismatic employee after Jobs and he has been tipped to eventually be in contention to take over the Apple crown, although speculating too much seems tasteless.
Apparently there was no talk at Apple's annual meeting that Ike's current position might be in doubt, or equally that the now acting chief exec, Tim Cook, might not one day step into Jobs' shoes. But it seems safe to speculate that Apple is rather desperate not to lose Ive any time soon!
According to The Telegraph, the 44 year old who usually stays out if the lime light reports to Jobs himself and has led the Apple design team that has arguably helped make the firm dominate the tablet and music market, since 1996, so there could be a bit of a vacuum if he suddenly jumps ship.
He has helped make the Apple brand the recognisable ‘pretty' and desirable one it is today. Apparently one of his mottos is ‘sorry, no beige' and he started his career designing toilets.
