Apple stood for something and had a reason for being that wasn't just about making money.

The quest for simplicity has to pervade every part of the process. It really is fundamental.

Different and new is relatively easy. Doing something thats genuinely better is very hard.

There's an applied style of being minimal and simple, and then there's real simplicity. This looks simple, because it really is.

As consumers we are incredibly discerning, we sense where has been great care in the design, and when there is cynicism and greed.

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.

Apple was very close to bankruptcy and to irrelevance [but] you learn a lot about life through death, and I learnt a lot about vital corporations by experiencing a non-vital corporation. You would have thought that, when what stands between you and bankruptcy is some money, your focus would be on making some money, but that was not [Steve Jobs’] preoccupation. His observation was that the products weren’t good enough and his resolve was, we need to make better products. That stood in stark contrast to the previous attempts to turn the company around.