Jonathan Ive was granted knighthood in the United Kingdom this week, as part of a yearly New Year Honours ceremony. Honored for "services to design and enterprise," the famous designer behind many of Apple's creations is now a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, a step up from the Commander rank he was given in 2006. Ive's British heritage may have made him a slightly more obvious fit for the honor than Steve Jobs, who was never knighted — though it could also be that Ive doesn't share Jobs's tendency to rub important people the wrong way. Ive's knighthood adds him to a long list of others in the technology industry who have received the honor, including Richard Branson, Akio Morita, and Bill Gates — that's not bad company for anyone to be in.