Sir Jonathan Ive ... the top designer of the revolutionary Apple iPhone!

The revolutionary device of the century that combined technology and style effortlessly was almost scrapped as Apple top designer Sir Jonathan Ive admitted to almost shelving the iPhone.

Jonathan, the man behind the Apple’s iPhone designs, spoke at an Olympic-themed British Business Embassy event this week while telling fans how fundamental problems with the designs had almost shelved the iPhone. The product was almost cancelled after touchscreen problems raised doubt on the largest selling smartphone on the planet.

Jonathan admitted, “There were multiple times where we nearly shelved the phone because we thought there were fundamental problems that we can’t solve such as where I put the phone to my ear and my ear dials the number.” He also said that the company did not aim to make money but to produce revolutionary designs and great products for the masses.

The legendary designer said, “I refute that design is important. Design is a prerequisite. Good design – innovation – is really hard. Really great design is hard. Good is the enemy of great. Competent design is not too much of a stretch. But if you are trying to do something new, you have challenges on so many axes.”

Jonathan explains how a great design involves breaking the traditionally popular designs and how things in the mind indicate when the design is good but not great. Apple doesn’t want to spend money on research and instead concentrate on making great designs and even greater products.

Jonathan concludes “Making the best possible products that we can, that genuinely means saying no because we don’t believe it’s good enough.”

Related:

Apple’s ‘Genius’ Olympic ads annoy ‘everyone’
Apple iPhone 5 releases October, hints Verizon CFO
iPhone 5 with new processor and front camera confirmed