Apple's quest to put us at ease with technology

LONDON: Ask designers which companies excel at design, and they'll probably say Apple. But if you ask Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design, how Apple does it, he seems almost apologetic. "It sounds unremarkable and even naïve, but it's our obsession with making really great products," he said. "It's at the heart of everything we do. I don't understand how you can exist as a company and not have it."

Sadly for the rest of us, most companies don't. Maybe they're desperate to placate investors by maximizing profitability at the expense of quality. Perhaps they're so insecure that they shun risks and make decisions by committee. Whatever the reason, most new products are badly designed, whether it's in terms of the way they work, how they look, or their impact on the environment.

This article is a great insight into what makes Apple so different.