Charlie Rose and a camera crew from 60 Minutes have gained access to Apple Inc.’s secret design studio in Cupertino, California. There Rose will interview the company’s chief design officer Sir Jonathan “Jony” Ive. He’s known as the design mastermind behind everything from the iPod, iPhone and iPad to the Apple Watch. The 48-year-old and his team of around 19 rarely speak in public about their work so the tour of the studio is unusual. To give some perspective on the efficiency of the Apple operation: Samsung has about 1000 designers working in 34 research centers around the world. (Note: Samsung makes more products than Apple — and also builds some of the components found in iPhones and iPads).
[Jony Ive, Apple’s Most Valuable Employee, Is Changing Jobs]
Rose will also interview Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts who will give Rose a sneak peek at what Apple stores will look like in the future. (Spoiler alert: minimalism is still in.) But it’s Apple’s CEO Tim Cook who has to field the hard questions regarding taxes and manufacturing in China. One question Rose doesn’t ask is how much does Jony Ive get paid. Since 2009, Apple has guarded Ive’s salary. Even after Ive was promoted in May from SVP to Chief Design Officer, the publicly-traded company has kept Ive’s salary number under wraps. Eric Jackson, Managing Director at Ader Investment Management, believes the promotion “was done entirely to continue to shield Jony Ive’s compensation from disclosure to the SEC and therefore from the public.” Rose’s interviews with the Apple executives will air on 60 Minutes on December 20 at 7:30pm on CBS.
