Craig Federighi Succeeding Bertrand Serlet as Apple's Chief of Mac Software

[MacRumors]

Bertrand Serlet (Apple)

Apple today announced that Bertrand Serlet, senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering, will be departing the company in order to "focus less on products and more on science", although his specific destination remains unknown. Serlet joined Steve Jobs at NeXT in 1989, and transitioned to Apple in 1997 when NeXT was acquired and Jobs brought back to lead Apple."I've worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering.

Craig Federighi demoing Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Reuters)

Serlet will be replaced by Craig Federighi, currently Apple's vice president of Mac Software Engineering and who has led Mac OS X engineering for the past two years. Federighi is another former NeXT and Apple employee who spent ten years at Ariba before returning to Apple in 2009. Serlet notes that the transition should be seamless given Federighi's role in leading the current Mac OS X team."Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release and the transition should be seamless."Serlet has occasionally appeared at Apple keynote and media events over the years to introduce Mac OS X-related features, and thus well known to longtime Apple followers. Federighi has made a couple of on-stage appearances since his return to Apple, demoing Mac OS X Snow Leopard at WWDC 2009 and showing off some of the features of Apple's forthcoming Mac OS X Lion at last October's "Back to the Mac" event.

Article Link: Craig Federighi Succeeding Bertrand Serlet as Apple's Chief of Mac Software

[HiVolt]

Its funny how every position at Apple is either a Vice President or Senior Vice President of something... hehe..

[owengot]

I'll always remember Serlet for his hilarious presentation of Mac OS X Tiger at WWDC.. "Redmond, start your photocopiers"

[Cydonia]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

I seem to recall Craig Federighi demoing Mac OS X Lion and he did a good job. Slightly nervous shaky hands but a watchable presenter.

[KPOM]

Originally Posted by HiVolt

Its funny how every position at Apple is either a Vice President or Senior Vice President of something... hehe..

Maybe Apple was a bank in a previous life.

It's sad to see an "old timer" leave Apple, but I'm guessing that Serlet's financially set and wants to do some "pure" research at a university before he retires. Not everyone has that luxury.

It seems that OS X will be left in good hands, though.

[Littleodie914]

Dang, Federighi has large shoes to fill. His Lion demo was so-so. Serlet has been on the Mac OS X team since day one if I remember right, and has always seemed to understand where it needed to go next.

I wonder if the departure has anything to do with Mac OS X transitioning away from a traditional desktop OS towards a more touch-centric, "no-fuss" one. Would be interested in Serlet's opinion on this.

[lunarworks]

Although Serlet did a good fairly job leading the Mac software division, he did oversee all the flaws in it as well. UI fragmentation, iTunes bloat, etc. Let's see what the new guy can do.

[kirky29]

Originally Posted by owengot

I'll always remember Serlet for his hilarious presentation of Mac OS X Tiger at WWDC.. "Redmond, start your photocopiers"

I always love that one!

[impulse462]

Originally Posted by Littleodie914

Dang, Federighi has large shoes to fill. His Lion demo was so-so. Serlet has been on the Mac OS X team since day one if I remember right, and has always seemed to understand where it needed to go next.

I wonder if the departure has anything to do with Mac OS X transitioning away from a traditional desktop OS towards a more touch-centric, "no-fuss" one. Would be interested in Serlet's opinion on this.

+1

It seems like Serlet is more of an independent worker who *thinks different* where as Craig is a hardworker but would just "follow." Not making a cheap shot, they're both really good at what they do, just an (maybe wrong) assumption of mine.

In any case, sad to see Serlet go.

[Consultant]

Originally Posted by HiVolt

Its funny how every position at Apple is either a Vice President or Senior Vice President of something... hehe..

No VP or SVP of magic though. =/

[apolloa]

Now if this guy is not leaving to retire. Then RIP Apple. Seriously, if Apple thinks I want my computer to resemble an overgrown iPad then they can loose my money and I'll be buying an Alienware.
Microsoft seem to be the only ones that still get computers? Apple has done brilliantly as well but I really do worry that they have an itch to dumb them down to ridiculous levels!!

Then again...... perhaps the man is leaving because he just is not comfortable with the talk from other employee's about where they want to take Apple after Mr Jobs leaves which is no doubt going to be very soon. I have a feeling they want to go in an entirely new direction..

IMO you don't leave a massively successful company after 22 years without a reason unless your retiring.

[Littleodie914]

Originally Posted by impulse462

+1

It seems like Serlet is more of an independent worker who *thinks different* where as Craig is a hardworker but would just "follow." Not making a cheap shot, they're both really good at what they do, just an (maybe wrong) assumption of mine.

In any case, sad to see Serlet go.

Nah, I agree completely. Serlet has always struck me as a power user who also knew how to cater to the masses. (Great features for developers/coders, and simple UIs for everyone else.)

Probably off-topic, but Lion seems more "toy-ish" than previous releases. I hope Serlet's departure isn't a sign of things to come.

[HiVolt]

Originally Posted by Consultant

No VP or SVP of magic though. =/

LOL. Jobs holds that title. CEO of "Revolution and Magic"

[RoboCop001]

omg

[talkingfuture]

I guess we probably won't see any major change in the direction of OSX. I wonder what the science he wants to focus on could be?

[Stente]

"look they tried to cover up the windows logo with a bubble....but you know what......its still windows!"

Can't remember if I got the quotation just right, but that made me laugh .

Cheers,

Stefan

[hcho3]

Damn.... Sir Serlet had a best accent ever.

"REDMOND START YOUR PHOTOGRAPHERS. IT WAS ONLY A JOKEEE, BUT THEY ACTUALLY TOOK IT SERIOUSLY."

Craig has no accent! Get an accent, Craig.

[mikeapple]

As long as Steve and Johnny Ive stay... I'm not panicking ...Everything is going to be A O K

[aiqw9182]

Craig is demoing Snow Leopard in the picture above in the article, not Lion.

[ArtOfWarfare]

Does anyone else think the choice of image for Craig is odd? Fist in the air, hand on his hip, hunched over... All adds up to looking like a cranky old man.

[Small White Car]

Originally Posted by apolloa

IMO you don't leave a massively successful company after 22 years without a reason unless your retiring.

I'm guessing that you're not someone who's been in that position, though. How does your opinion account for those guys?

[Hildegunst]

He also demoed the Snow Leopard user features, didn't he? Or did he leave Apple between Snow Leopard and Lion?

[Mr. Chewbacca]

Is it just me or does his right eye look odd? Is it a fake eye?

[toddybody]

Like OMG, I had the craziest thought! What if MacRumors had more articles about...Mac Rumors?! Whoa whoa wee wow, that would be so cool.


*Face Palm.

Boring stuff.

[talkingfuture]

Does this make Jony Ive the only European at the top of Apple now? Can't think of anyone else.