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Apple Acknowledges Siri Leadership Has Officially Moved From Eddy Cue to Craig Federighi
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"Vice President of People?" How Orwellian.![]()
Apple has updated its executive profiles to acknowledge that software engineering chief Craig Federighi now officially oversees development of Siri. The responsibility previously belonged to Apple's services chief Eddy Cue.
Apple's leadership page is only now reflecting Federighi's role as head of Siri, but the transition has been apparent for several months, based on recent interviews and stage appearances at Apple's keynotes.![cue-federighi-siri-800x295.jpg]()
At WWDC 2016, for example, Federighi and Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller joined Daring Fireball's John Gruber to discuss how Apple was opening Siri up to third-party developers with SiriKit later that year.
At WWDC 2017, Federighi was on stage to discuss improvements to Siri in iOS 11, including more natural voice, built-in translation capabilities, and advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Cue continues to oversee the iTunes Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, Apple Maps, iCloud, and the iWork and iLife suites of apps, and handing off Siri should allow him to focus more on Apple's push into original content.
Apple's updated leadership page also now lists profiles for recent hires Deirdre O'Brien, Vice President of People, and Isabel Ge Mahe, Vice President and Managing Director of Greater China.
Article Link: Apple Acknowledges Siri Leadership Has Officially Moved From Eddy Cue to Craig Federighi
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Everything he touches turns to turd. If I recall, there were stories a few years ago about how he was in charge of the TV deals efforts but showed up in NY to speak to execs in a Hawaiian shirt and jeans. The TV execs thought he was a clown.
No idea how he ever got this reputation as "a fixer" or Apple's "deal guy." I think Jobs is the one who bent the record people; not Cue.
Tim doesn't need to go. The fact you don't like doesn't mean it's not doing his job well. In fact, his job is to make Apple grow, and data says Apple keep growing. I don't see why, for example, the CEO under which we will have HomePod should be deemed worst than the one under which we had iPod Hi-Fi. Or why the CEO that gave has Antenna gate iPhone should been deemed better than the one that gave us a long series or issue-free iPhones.
Wouldn't hold out much hope of an iTunes redesign anyway, especially since they're moving all the iTunes U stuff not the podcasts app.
The writing is on the wall.
Wow, people sure are cruel and harsh here! Please remember that these guys built this amazing company called Apple that we all love. Not everything is perfect, and maybe Cue is responsible for that, but he can't be the only one. The iTunes / App Store interfaces just don't "feel" right to me. Steve Jobs once said web-based music stores were a horrible experience, and then Apple switched to web-based a year or so later. He was right, it sucks! I know Apple can do better.... much, much better, and maybe this leadership change will take us in that direction.
A new hairstyle?
Really all I'm worried about is how comparatively invasive Cortana et al are to Siri, I like Apple's relative restraint with Siri if I'm honest. Not that I use it much, but I don't use cortana on windows either. Guess I can just turn it off if I don't like it and let people who do use it have the extra features though.
If you think all these is something automatic, that anyone would have had the same results, you are a bit delusional.
So you think Timmy is fit for Apple because that's all you see from the media and public. Federighi is fun to watch during keynotes but that doesn't cancels out Cue what he brought to Apple. Who knows what he's been throwing to Apple's table besides he made that far in his position if he's not fit for Apple.
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You're kidding right? There is no comparison whatsoever between Cook and Jobs. There have also been plenty of issues with iPhones on Cooks watch..
https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/
https://www.apple.com/uk/support/iphone6plus-isightcamera/
https://www.apple.com/uk/support/iphone6plus-multitouch/
You should watch some videos of Siri in iOS 11 vs Google Assistant on YT or try it on the latest public beta... Siri outdoes Google in most respects and makes the latter sound dated and robotic. I'm sure they'll go back and forth, but it shows how much progress Apple's made.
As for Alexa actually doing things, most people use it to set alarms and timers which Siri does just fine. It's known as the world's most expensive alarm clock for a reason.
Echo is also convenient for playing music, but personally, I couldn't deal with the poor sound quality. Apple nailed it with the HomePod IMO... consumers will appreciate great sounding speakers long after they've stopped using the assistant feature.
You are really comparing hardware bugs that affected a tiny portion of a model run with a design problem that affected a whole model for a whole year?
Make like a tree and get out of here!
Last week I experienced my favorite Siri response to date:
![lRXYccx.png]()
Last week I experienced my favorite Siri response to date:
True. I've made the same point about his supply chain expertise being useful for the logistics that the iPhone caused. My point is valid nonetheless. If there were no iPhone--and its offspring of products and services--Cook's skills would not have accomplished the same. Similarly, the least qualified CEO could accomplish much of the same with a product as popular as the iPhone. Ironically, Cook's pay was reduced last year when he failed to meet shareholder expectations!
Until Cook has to gamble on a product that wasn't already in the pipeline, I wouldn't overestimate his influence.
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Just because Apple is growing their services business does not mean that customer satisfaction with those services is "off the charts" (as Cook likes to say of Apple's sat scores, in general) with said services. Most of the people I know who use Apple's services likely only do so because access to those services is baked into their devices. Similar to the way IE market share used to be huge because it came preinstalled on every Windows PC and most people didn't bother searching out a different, better browser.
My anecdotal experiences with some of Apple's services:
iCloud: I'm not particularly fond of iCloud or its pricing structure pre-iOS 11/High Sierra. The inability to buy one big pot of data and share it with your family (until iOS 11/High Sierra) is asinine. I use iCloud because for the things I use it for the most (Photos and Notes syncing with family and friends), it generally works and it would be a pain to migrate my family to a different platform.
Apple Maps: I don't use Apple Maps at all because the times that I have, I've found it to be vastly inferior to the competition when it comes to real-time traffic updates. I hear it's great for transportation directions (in areas where those directions are supported), but I only ride mass transit once or twice per year so I have no experience with transit directions with Apple Maps.
Apple Music: Eh, I used it for the duration of the free trial; but I went back to Spotify and eventually switched to Google Play Music in order to get streaming music plus ad-free YouTube for the same price that Apple charges for Apple Music. It still boggles my mind that Apple is cramming their original video content into Apple Music. Similarly, I'm not sure why Apple continues to sell movies and TV shows in the iTunes Store. The icon for the iTunes Store is a music note, for crying out loud. Yet that's where I'm supposed to go to buy/rent TV shows and movies? If you say so, Eddy. I think these are things that Cue has little time to address (or he doesn't think they're important); but little things like this affect the user experience.
Apple Pay: When I can use it, I love it. The problem is the when. In Metro Atlanta, at least, our two largest grocery store chains (Kroger and Publix) have no plans to support NFC payments. The same goes for just about every establishment I frequent. I've heard it said that Cue is supposedly a skilled negotiator. I wish he would put some of those negotiating skills to work in the U.S. to try to convince more businesses that they need to support NFC payments. Customer frustration over the length of time a transaction takes with the newer chip cards is mounting. I complete an Apple Pay transaction in about six or seven seconds on average. With my chip debit card, a transaction takes at least two times longer than that. My hope is that the new iPhone hardware will have the security and speed of Apple Pay but will be able to mimic a card insert/swipe. I've given up on Apple Pay in its current form being useful for me on a day-to-day basis.
How much has he had to do with the growth? Most of it is coming from Apple’s cut off App Store sales as the install base has increased. I don’t think Eddy is responsible for more people buying apps and more idevices being handed down. If he was responsible for that why was the App Store given to Phil Schiller?
I think this is a massive exaggeration. Please show me examples of Siri being a "disaster" where Google Now or Cortana are excellent.
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A new hairstyle?
Really all I'm worried about is how comparatively invasive Cortana et al are to Siri, I like Apple's relative restraint with Siri if I'm honest. Not that I use it much, but I don't use cortana on windows either. Guess I can just turn it off if I don't like it and let people who do use it have the extra features though.
Honest to God, none of the problems I have with Siri are caused by it not having enough of my data. I don't find myself saying "Call my boss" and being frustrated by it saying "Who's your boss?"
I get frustrated when I say "Set the timer for 15 minutes" and it fails to recognise what I've said.
Can't speak for other assistants, but from other reviews I don't get the impression that any assistants are any good.
The bigger problem, though, is I've no idea what exactly Siri does. Can it replace the function of every default app on my iPhone? Or is it more like Google Search? The UI only gives you vague hints, and trying something and it not working makes me think "of course that wouldn't work, I was stupid for trying".
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Make like a tree and get out of here!
Last week I experienced my favorite Siri response to date:
![lRXYccx.png]()
Yeah, come on, Siri. At the very least, bring up a list of post offices near me. Although, maybe this was Siri's attempt at a joke because just about every time I walk into a post office, I feel as though I am about to have a close encounter of the third kind.
Apple Pay has been successful. Apple Music has been successful (UI issues, notwithstanding).
Make like a tree and get out of here!
Last week I experienced my favorite Siri response to date:
![lRXYccx.png]()
I just tried your same query and here's what I got back from Siri:
That seems to be one of the more consistent problems with Siri -- Siri's lack of consistency. You can ask the same thing the same way multiple times and get different responses each time.