Apple Announces Management Changes: Scott Forstall and John Browett Out, Ive and Others Add Responsibilities

[v0lume4]

At first glance I was like "WHAT?" Scott Forstall gone?!

But when looking at everything as a whole, with all due respect to Forstall, this is very exciting news for Apple. Namely, Ive's new responsibilities.

[tann]

Oh wow, wonder what iOS will look like in a year or two! I wonder what he's doing (Scott I mean) as in retiring or moving somewhere else!

[Cougarcat]

Originally Posted by dashiel

The difference of opinion between Forstall and Ive was only ever going to end one way.

I think this is a much likelier explanation than the Maps one.

[emulator]

Originally Posted by Nathan20

Refreshing vacancy page, no sign of 'head of Retail' opening...

They won't take resumes over the website, you know...

[DotCom2]

Originally Posted by Michaelgtrusa

I wonder what led to this.

mapgate.

[Pianoblack3]

Originally Posted by yocko

what is a human interface team? what does it do?

UI pretty much!

[SisterRay]

I think this is a lesson to us all

1. Don't mess up so badly so quickly
2. Never show your naked ambition... then mess up badly

[cowbellallen]

John Browett sucks, good riddance!

*patiently waits for this to be upvoted since everyone on MacRumors hates him too*

[GeekLawyer]

Ron Johnson might be available soon for Retail.

[modemthug]

"The Aging Of Apple? Google Android Voted Coolest Kid On The Playground"


http://www.forbes.com/sites/prospern...he-playground/

[tirerim]

Originally Posted by tdream

Hopefully a big change for iOS. Felt so trapped in 960x640 resolution. Expect 720p minimum along with complete redesign of iPhone.

Um, what? Maybe my sarcasm detector is off, but you do realize that you already can't see individual pixels unless you're holding your phone closer to your face than is comfortable to use, right? That's the definition of a retina display. Increased resolution on the iPhone at this point would have absolutely no point except to make the thing more expensive and harder to produce.

[Discoverer]

Damn. I liked Scott when I first saw him at WWDC '06. He had a lot of potential.

[WatchTheThrone]

iOS 7 is gonna be the biggest update to iOS EVERRRR!!!!
I'm glad Ive isnt leaving yet he has a great eye for beautiful designs!!

[Saladinos]

Originally Posted by Michaelgtrusa

I wonder what led to this.

I don't. Apples products have been slipping, and they've lost big leads in design and innovation to Google. Maps and iOS6 were big signs of that, probably catalysing the process.

Bringing online services together is good; Apples backed has been showing strain lately (game centre, Siri). Bringing them together with icloud makes sense.

Browett hasn't got Apple retail. He had to go.

Forstall is the biggest drop; he was widely seen as a long-term successor to Jobs. iOS has been sputtering recently though, and the skeumorphic design hasn't won any fans. He probably had to go for political reasons and for apparently not getting on well with the rest of the executive team. It'll be interesting to see if Federighi can step up to this enormous role, but I bet well be seeing hints of Ive in iOS 7.

Bob Mansfield is back. Best retirement ever.

In all, great shakeup. Hope to see this rejuvenating Apple. They'd gotten a bit old and Microsofty lately. Hope to see them going back to their strengths.

[olegandbuster25]

I liked Scott :/ always saw him as future CEO with his style. Sad to see him go.

[slicecom]

This is great news! They're getting rid of Forstall, the one who has been pushing all the excessive skeuomorphism in Apple's UI's, and Browett, the one who tried to cut all the "fat" from Apple's customer service.

Giving Jonathan Ive more influence over anything design, whether hardware or software is a good idea IMO.

[d0nK]

Scott Forstall was the only one I actually enjoyed to watch after Steve Jobs. Shame.

[Fast Shadow]

Forstall out?

The magic is gone.

[sfwalter]

I liked Scott Forstall when he did the presentations and videos. I don't know if those stories about Mansfield not getting along with him is true.

I think Scott will be missed. He came over from Next with Steve so this is big news.

[LaDirection]

Great moves. It's impressive to see such a HUGE mega-corporation making drastic changes in both product lines and personnel for the good of the company. I don't know if people realize that is not the norm.

[pk7]

This is HUGE. I'm excited to see where Apple hardware and software are headed without Forstall at the helm after 5 years, and with Jony Ive getting a bigger role.

[truettray]

Originally Posted by nfl46

iOS 7 will be huge! It'll be Forstall last iOS update for him.

I think you mean iOS 8 will be huge... Forstall's design philosophy should have gone out the door in 2008.

[TSE]

Very few companies would make such sudden changes and destroy the company bureaucracy due to unsuccessfulness... examples: Palm... AMD... HP...

It's good to see that at Apple, if you do a bad job, you are fired.

[Felix01]

Well, the Brit readers told us what a dick John Browett was and why he'd never mesh with the Apple culture.

Didn't take Tim Cook very long to see they were right...and take corrective action.

[Cougarcat]

Originally Posted by tirerim

Um, what? Maybe my sarcasm detector is off, but you do realize that you already can't see individual pixels unless you're holding your phone closer to your face than is comfortable to use, right? That's the definition of a retina display. Increased resolution on the iPhone at this point would have absolutely no point except to make the thing more expensive and harder to produce.

He was complaining about the aspect ratio, not screen density.

Though with Ive now in an even more prominent role, I don't know why one would expect radically different iPhone hardware with this news.