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Apple Announces Management Changes: Scott Forstall and John Browett Out, Ive and Others Add Responsibilities
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Huh? Forstall was micromanaged by Jobs? Ok, so with Jobs no longer here, where does that leave Forstall? I'll tell you, with a couple monumentous bad decisions since Jobs died. The guy obviously couldn't think safely on his own. It was time for him to go.
Plus, if you knew anythings about the inner workings of large scale enterprise, you know there is a lot of ass kissing and political correctness and "workplace harmony" and Forstall didn't want to play by the rules. He was brash, abrasive, and divisive. In short, reports are people hated working with him. And when that occurs in large scale enterprise, it's time to go.
With all the turmoil, criticism and change the past year, this is the beginning of the end for Apple. No company can stay at the top forever.
Forstall was a consistent man that Steve liked. Steve probably would've never hired Browett.
Steve Jobs would never have let Forstall hit the road, Tim Cook has.
The problem was iOS6 was boring and brought nothing new or exciting. In terms of the biggest iOS update in terms of new features: iOS1>iOS2>iOS4>iOS5>iOS3>iOS6
Forstall was a consistent man that Steve liked. Steve probably would've never hired Browett.
Steve Jobs would never have let Forstall hit the road, Tim Cook has.
The problem was iOS6 was boring and brought nothing new or exciting. In terms of the biggest iOS update in terms of new features: iOS1>iOS2>iOS4>iOS5>iOS3>iOS6
I think people are making false memories of what happened to Apple back in the 90's. People take any drop in marketshare of the iPhone (or iPad) as as sign of what happened back in the 90's - expect Apple never had the marketshare to compare with the Mac. Same thing with money - They have way, way, way more money than they ever had even at their heights from the 70's onward.
The situation that they put themselves into in the 90's is very unlikely to happen again.
Steve could manage Forstall's ego because he had an even bigger ego. My guess is that once Cook became permanent CEO Forstall probably figured he was on thin ice. Maps was likely the excuse Cook needed.
There is always competition in the C-Suite, but it isn't good if two of the top officials won't talk to a particular person unless the CEO is around. Cook likely figured that Ive and Mansfield together were more valuable than Forstall. Remember, he did convince Mansfield to stay after he had announced his retirement.
you guys know scott is reading the blogs.
wonder how he feels when the majority of us fanboys are glad he's out
it's unfair because im sure he worked his ass off.
wonder how he feels when the majority of us fanboys are glad he's out
it's unfair because im sure he worked his ass off.
I think that AMZN and AAPL will both take a hit right now. Also, long-term isn't all-important to me since I'm a short to med-term trader. Part of knowing when to buy is knowing what short term dips the stock will have so the lowest buying price can be taken advantage of.
I see a lot of dislike of Forstall's skeuomorphism championing, not so much for the man himself.
There is no question Forstall been massively important to Apple as he's been there since the NeXT days, and OS X and iOS would not be what they are today without him. But I must admit that I am excited at the prospect of Ive taking over the human interface role as I share his design tastes.
This is the best announcement. iOS has been stagnant all while the competition is catching up and the gap is narrowing by the week. On another note, skeumophism is a joke most of the time. It's nostalgic and the podcast app is the worst culprit. It makes sense for apps like garageband obviously. But these are revolutionary futuristic devices and to emulate old technology look and feel is kind of counter to the very essence of these products.
you guys know scott is reading the blogs.
wonder how he feels when the majority of us fanboys are glad he's out
it's unfair because im sure he worked his **** off.
Windows developers work their butts off making Windows even worse. Dumb kids work their butts off solving simple arithmetic. Some people work their butts off selling drugs and killing people. Effort is not what matters
It might not have been that simple. Google might not have extended their license, and there could have been conflicts between TeleAtlas' and Google's respective data. Plus, Apple and Google clearly have been distancing themselves from each other, not just in terms of maps.
How the hell does iOS3 go near the end?
iOS3 was the only good update in terms of features - it introduced dozens of important things. People were crying tears of joy during the keynote.
We hear this every year - and yet Apple still makes massive profits. When this stops happening, maybe we can have this discussion, but until then, its just chicken little complaining crying about the sky falling when it was just an acorn falling on his head
Nobody questions that (nor asserts the opposite), but that doesn't mean that they are going out of business or going back to their position in the 90's. It would be silly to suggest that too.
That is pretty much what I have been reading. Apple can not rely on Google to provide core services - not when they are the competition. Amazon knows that which is why their version of Android is so customized and eliminates Google services too. Google was holding necessary turn by turn stuff - we knew this as far back as iOS3 (Apple said that GPS apps had to provide their own maps). Apple knew that they had to do this and fast.
Browett has no new ideas.
That became clear when his first action was to fire people.
Any manager who thinks about firing lower ranks first, is a failure.
Keep that in mind in your own careers. Always bring big ideas to the table first, and do a hatchet job later.
Don't be a Carol Bartz.
That became clear when his first action was to fire people.
Any manager who thinks about firing lower ranks first, is a failure.
Keep that in mind in your own careers. Always bring big ideas to the table first, and do a hatchet job later.
Don't be a Carol Bartz.
It's clearly been reported that there were/are camps in Apple inc. no different here on macrumors, we have some in Sir Jony's ranks and some in Forstalls ranks.
Lets keep in mind only Sir Ives had the everlasting protection and blessing from Steve to remain where he is and do what he wants.
Argue what you like about the forstall hate, it really just goes to show there were a good share of us that have gritted our teeth for the past few months and years and finally our 'feelings' are vindicated.
Lets keep in mind only Sir Ives had the everlasting protection and blessing from Steve to remain where he is and do what he wants.
Argue what you like about the forstall hate, it really just goes to show there were a good share of us that have gritted our teeth for the past few months and years and finally our 'feelings' are vindicated.
......unfortunately Scott did not acknowledge Steve had passed, and continued his ways.
Scott Forstall departure comes as a shock to me, he has been dubbed many times as the next Steve Jobs, he was treated specially by Jobs too in Apple.
Apple is under major changes, they will become a completely different Apple now under Tim Cook, they will sell Steve's products and ideas, but they will all come in a new operation, Apple becoming a corporation, instead of being ran like a 'start-up' like Steve used to say.. oh how I miss Steve Jobs and his attitude.
In a startup, less people do more things. And that's more or less how one might describe the changes that Apple announced today.
I think Browett might've been a snap decision to go in a direction towards a more traditional approach to retailing. They quickly realized it was a mistake and Browett wasn't the guy, so they let him "leave the company."
But Forstall? Obviously a lot more complicated, and no one who follows Apple closely can say that this hasn't been building for a long, long time. Steve may have thought a lot of Forstall and kept him close, but that may have been what kept Forstall in check. Given all we know and a fair amount of what is generally assumed based on anecdotes from former co-workers, Forstall was very, very hard to get along with, and very, very ambitious. There's only so far you can go when Steve Jobs is now in the picture, but now that he's not, perhaps it's taken a turn for the worst. It really wouldn't be surprising.
I honestly think that these are some very, very positive moves on Apple's part, and if anything, I'd say it's the opposite of them becoming more like any other corporation. I think most other corporations would continue to let the internal issues with Forstall fester and let Browett degrade the customer experience at Apple Stores. I think it's fair to at least suggest that Apple has already lost too many good people due at least in some part to personal issues with Forstall. When Mansfield wanted out too, I'd bet that enough just became enough.
With Forstall out, moving Federighi to a position that oversees iOS and OS X makes a fair amount of sense, and it opens the door for Ive to step in as human-interface visionary of it all. I was honestly surprised he wasn't set up to be in a role like this as soon as Steve left. To me, it seemed that at least initially, it ought to be a situation where Ive is the primary guy driving the design philosophy of the products, while Cook runs the day to day operational side of things. Apparently, that's much how it worked with Cook while Jobs was there, as Cook handled many of the responsibilities of a typical CEO, while Jobs spent much more time focusing on the products. And given that Jony Ive seemed to be Jobs chief ally in cooking up products, it just seemed to make sense that he'd have a broader role with the products than he has thus far. I think that's playing out now, and in a great way.
Jony Ive may not be a code guy, but he knows how things should work and he's a perfectionist. I really think that perfectionist's touch for design and usability has been missing from the software as time's gone on. With Ive having more clout in that department and now partnered with people he can likely communicate with without having to have Tim Cook play mediator, we might see some real interesting things come about. I honestly am incredibly excited, and this is truly the first time since Jobs announced he was stepping down as CEO that deep down I started feeling really excited about the future again and less worried about it potentially imploding.
Whether Forstall was an ******* with questionable taste in design or not, Jony Ive moving into this role is what probably should've happened a year ago. And Forstall's obviously a smart guy. I wouldn't be shocked if we haven't heard the last of him at Apple. Maybe he needs to do a bit of wandering himself to learn about compromising and working with others. And who knows, maybe this is a wakeup call and he'll go out on his own and do great things that turn up to add to the whole at a later time.
In any event, I'm very excited about this news. I think it's for the best, and I really, really, really can't wait to see iOS 7 next summer.
Joking, right?
Who the heck needs those stupid lines in the notes app to write on, it just looks rediculous - even infantile.
Swoosh before mail is actually sent.
That was the straw for me, and I suspect Tim when his failed and he never knew.
That was the straw for me, and I suspect Tim when his failed and he never knew.