Jony Ive Thinks The Moto Maker Is A Cop Out For Hardware Designers

Motorola’s Moto Maker is an interesting idea as it basically allows users to customize their Motorola handsets. Granted the customizations aren’t exactly what you would call extensive and they are for the most part rather superficial in nature, but it’s a new way of purchasing handsets that helps make them feel more personal.

However it seems that not everyone is a fan of the feature, and one of those critics is none other than Apple’s Jony Ive. Recently the New Yorker did a profile on Ive and during the interview, Ive was quoted as saying, “Their value proposition was, ‘Make it whatever you want. You can choose whatever color you want,’. I believe that’s abdicating your responsibility as a designer.” While Ive did not point fingers, it is very obviously Motorola.

Unsurprisingly Motorola did not take too kindly to these comments and the company’s COO Rick Osterloh fired back with shots of his own, claiming that he believes that Apple’s “outrageous prices” aren’t the way of the future. He added, “Our belief is that the end user should be directly involved in the process of designing products. We believe the future is in offering similar experiences and great consumer choice at accessible prices.”

In any case design really does boil down to personal preference – after all there were those who criticized Samsung’s choice of plastic for their phones, but yet there were just as many, if not more, who had no qualms with it, but what do you guys think?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Moto Maker, Motorola