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

Yeaaaaaahhhh!!! Awesome news for iOS!!

That Scott has been doing nothing lately, while WP8 and Android have improved vastly.

Ios 6 was such a letdown that Apple could see the deception in their fans.

I hope the new guys that come in can improve iOS and bring some innovation again.


Also... this news kind of confirms that everyone feels iOS is starting to feel outdated compared to the competition. Apple knows it.
 
In a way I'm surprised about Scott Forstall because he's been at the company for so long. He came back with Steve from NeXT and he was the driving force behind basing iOS on OSX was he not? I'm also not really against skeumorphism (it can look pretty most of the time especially with touch interfaces).

Thank god that muppet John Browett is leaving though. Goes to show Tim Cook can make the touch decisions.
 
smulji said:
I'm not so sure about Forstall leaving. He is young and smart. So far the foundation of iOS is pretty solid. Besides, Jonny Ive is excellent at hardware design. What does he know about software UI design?
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Jony isn't going to be writing code. He'll be managing a design team. He has a good sense of what is visually appealing.
 
John Browett, shouldn't have even been hired in the first place. Good riddance to talentless dead weight.

Hopefully Ive will bring back the simplicity to the UX, and get rid of the skeumorphism.
 
Windows 8 effect?

Perhaps the minimalist and surprisingly restrained Windows 8 Ive-like new interface was a factor. The fact that MS is combining their software platforms could have been a factor too.
 
iGrip said:
Good riddance to bad rubbish!

I'm so glad that both of these "guys" have been booted where the sun don't shine! Browett is a cheap-ass discount store guy with no taste and no idea of how to give fine customer service. Forstall is a liar and a weasel who was more into coroprate politics than he was into creating great products!

Just look at Maps! Even though it is the best mapping software on the planet, it should have been better. MUCH better. That's the way a REAL Apple exec does things.

And now with Sir Jon in charge of all human interface, we'll see iOS and OSX totally merge into the one OS to rule them all! Forstall was too pushy and didn't listen to Sir Jon. He didn't have what it takes to really progress towards transcendent greatness. But Sir Jon does! He'll whip Federighi into shape in no time, and together, they will introduce an OS that again changes the entire world!

This is the tipping point for Apple, when they transform themselves from being merely the biggest, baddest tech company in the word to being the biggest and most powerful force the world has ever seen! The Catholic Church? The Roman Empire? Twentieth-Century America? They ain't going to look like sheet compare to what Apple is about to become. Nations will bow down to them. Before Tim and Sir Jon are finished, Apple will become the center of World Civilization.

And it can't happen soon enough!
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Time to take off the tin foil hat ;)
 
bbydon said:
If Forstall was taking the blame for maps and or Siri he would be gone immediately and Not advising Tim cook in the interim. He left by personal choice.
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Or it may be that Tim Cook recognizes that Forstall has made important contributions to the company and wants to treat him with the respect he's deserved even though this is a necessary and unavoidable change.
 
On Monday, 29th October 2012, Apple announced, via a press release, that Scott Forstall would be leaving Apple in 2013, and would serve as an advisor to Tim Cook until his departure in 2013.
 
Mustafa said:
No, we NEVER use this form. Sir Jony, Sir Jonathan, Ive (considered impertinent unless you're ennobled yourself) or Jony Ive (close acquaintances, with his permission) would be correct. But NEVER Sir Ive.

Lord Ive would be correct, should that happy day ever arrive.

I'm guessing you're American? This stuff takes a generation to learn:).
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It's so much easier here. It's Jony, or Mr. Ive, depending on the context.
 
MMOTotal said:
My thoughts exactly. However they could scrap what they were working on and focus on the new UI people have been banging on about.
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I doubt they will want to scrap months of work. Now I am worried that iOS 7 will just be half Forstall and half Ive. But I am hoping to see some major changes. Windows Phone is looking better and better every day.
 
I didn't like either of these guys.

Glad to see they are giving more responsibility to other people I like more.
 
Significant

Loosing Browett is a good thing, loosing Forstall could be bad, especially is he jumps ship.

Announcing it when the markets are closed, and Hurricane Sandy is impacting most of the Eastern US just smacks of Apple trying their best to bury this in the news and not take a stock hit.

These are 2 major execs, like them or not, and their departure means something for Apple. Hopefully good change, but it is nothing to ignore.

I wonder if Browett was a forced resignation. He never seemed a good fit.
 
PsudoPowerPoint said:
Or it may be that Tim Cook recognizes that Forstall has made important contributions to the company and wants to treat him with the respect he's deserved even though this is a necessary and unavoidable change.
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Or that he doesn't want Scott to be allowed to touch anything without going directly through Tim. It might be in his contract that he gets a certain number of months.
 
strausd said:
I doubt iOS 7 will be a major change. Forstall has probably been working on it for months now. iOS 8 will be the big one IMO.
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You don't start firing people so that you can use the product for which you are firing them for.

Only time will tell what Ive and Federighi's influence bring, but I have a feeling we're not going to see Forstall's iOS in the next release.
 
bbydon said:
If Forstall was taking the blame for maps and or Siri he would be gone immediately and Not advising Tim cook in the interim. He left by personal choice.
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It's often the case that high level executive firings are presented as the firee being moved into an advisory role or my favorite, put in charge of "special projects". It's face-saving move and a way to let the person collect a few months salary (in return for going quietly).
 
This is bad for Apple. Dump your shares immediately. Apple is trending down these days. I miss Steve Jobs. Apple is nothing without the mind of Jobs.
 
cowbellallen said:
John Browett sucks, good riddance!

*patiently waits for this to be upvoted since everyone on MacRumors hates him too*
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Can't agree more )))
Absolutely can't stand him, dumbest "Top Manager" at Apple(if there are two, one of them would be him). With his stupid, background (dixons?) where "Technical Team" worse than useless, and horrible services (money and customer never balanced) seller assistance run at sore like zombies as soon as you say them, that you don't need their Rip Off insurances, there in no more "smiles"
very good news, This will be my 2012 Apple highlights

But, not sure about Scot he seamed OK, can't say anything about him (no information)
 
Having Ive actually in-charge of Human Interface will be just as good as if Steve were doing it himself.

I'm so happy about this news.

Props to Mansfield as well, that man is brilliant.
 
yocko said:
what is a human interface team? what does it do?
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I find the word "human" in design terminology quite old fashioned. Another way of putting it would be "user interface (UI) team" which is probably more understandable.

It's the same with "human centred design" and "user centred design" both are exactly the same. I find the word human a leftover from the 80's-90's where user-interfaces were still something relatively new.
 
Wow, this is huge!

Browett's hiring never made sense. However, there were problems at retail long before his arrival. Too many bodies in the Apple Stores without any idea how to do pretty basic stuff in OS X or iOS. I've had several non-techie family and friends visit the Genius Bar recently and they were greeted with rude and, what I would consider, incompetent tech support. That was never my experience a couple of years ago.

People don't mind waiting if they know there's good help at the end. Reducing the wait to only a few minutes, when you then have to deal with noobs is infuriating.

Now, Forstall's departure is fantastic. I don't think the Maps fiasco is the real reason, but it is the convenient, clear-cut, excuse. I think it's his (poor) relationship with other management and the lack of any major-feature progress in iOS in recent years. Ok, OS X hasn't had major progress either. But, there's only about 4 people working on it. :-D Plus, there's that god-awful skeuomorphism.

Papermaster took the axe for Antennagate, and now Forstall for Mapsgate (though, to be honest, I think the new Maps is great). Good to see Apple sets high expectations for their senior management.
 
Goodbye Browett and his Dixons/PC World (shudder) mentality, and hopefully we'll see less skeumorphism with Forstall on way out, huzzah! If there's ever any doubt individuals can have influence on os's, just look at the difference Matthias Duarte had in Android, that became a whole lot better when he stepped in.
 
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