Jonathan Ive: The Designer of Apple iPhone

[The first iPhone Call - Steve Jobs talking to designer Jonathan Ive]
Popularly known as the Apple Design Guru or even the Armani of Apple Computers, 40 year old Jony Ive heads the design team at Apple, reporting directly to the CEO Steve Jobs.

Ive's team has designed key Apple products including the Powerbook G4, iMac, Mac Mini, iPod and now the revolutionary iPhone, a mere prototype of which sent the Apple stock prices roaring.

Infact Steve Jobs, during his keynote address at Macworld 2007, made the first iPhone call from stage to Jonathan Ive who was sitting among the audience. [see screen capture from Macworld above]

Businessweek says that Ive's team works together in a large open studio with little personal space but great privacy. Many Apple employees aren't allowed in, for fear they'd catch a glimpse of some upcoming product.

CNN has an interesting report on how the Apple Design team could keep the iPhone a well-kept secret. Apple showed Cingular the final iPhone prototype just week's before. In some cases, Apple crafted bogus handset prototypes to show not just to Cingular executives, but also to Apple's own workers.