Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple’s longtime head of industrial design, has been awarded the Visionary Innovator title for 2012 by Britain’s Intellectual Property Office, the organization said on its website.

Some 47 percent of online voters supported the candidacy of the 45-year-old designer of iPhone, iPad and iPod in the contest whose aim was to “celebrate people who have achieved considerable success or developed innovative products, services or designs.”

The London-born designer, who holds nearly 600 patents, has been called “Most Influential Person on British Culture” by the BBC, “Product Designer” of the Year by GQ UK, and the second “Most Powerful Person in Technology” by Forbes. He has also been named a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

Ive has headed Apple Inc’s design team since the mid-1990s.

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the internet, came in second place in the contest with almost 19 percent of the vote. James Goodfellow who invented the cash-point machine and pin number technology was third with 15 percent.