Apple's Reorganization Goes Deeper Than Just Who's In Charge

[iThinkIt]

not worried about this news.... just get me*my iPad 4th Gen

 

[tmroper]

The two things I am (or was at least) most interested in fall at the opposite extremes of this: FCP, and the Mac Pro. FCP X was released according to schedule, which was waaay too early. And the Mac Pro doesn't even seem to have a schedule anymore, so that one's out of sight, out of mind by now. So both approaches seem to have benefits as well as downsides.

 

[Macsterguy]

Curley, Larry & Moe

 

[FlameofAnor]

This actually sounds like an improvement, provided the three heads are capable of holding up their end.

 

[NewbieCanada]

I get the feeling that Steve Jobs had some kind of deal in place that meant Tim Cook was not able to make any major changes in staff and organisation until a year after his death.

Absurd. Apple is a public corporation, responsible to its shareholders and its board of directors. The board would have to approve such a deal, just as they had to approve making Tim Cook CEO. They would never agree to handcuff themselves, their CEO and abdicate their responsibility to the shareholders.

 

[gnasher729]

Image


I find it vaguely amusing that this word doesn't even appear in OS X's built-in dictionary.

In the interest of humanity: A "skeuomorph" (noun) is an object that is "skeuomorphic" (adjective), meaning "an object or feature which imitates the design of a similar artefact in another material". "skeuomorphism" does indeed seem to be not an English word.

I wonder how many people use copy/paste for this word instead of typing it. Mac OS X spelling checker doesn't know either what a skeuomorph is.

The "Ship it on time" vs "Ship it when it's ready" change happened around the time of Jobs' return; and it's not necessarily a bad thing.

The correct way is to ship on time what you have at that time. You can set a deadline, then ship whatever is finished at that point. Drop everything that doesn't work properly and add it to the next release.

 

[mbh]

I understand that, but what experience does Ive have with HCI?

Apparently he has enough to land the head of design position at Apple.

 

[Anuba]

releasing a product based on a schedule, rather than releasing it when it's finished.

Exactly.

As John Carmack of ID software responded when people pestered them with questions about the release date of Quake:

"When it's done."

Maybe that's why we haven't seen iTunes 11 yet. They're releasing it when it's done. Cool by me.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I like where this is going.

I like Tim Cook more and more as time goes by.

 

[designgeek]

Instead of separating products into different teams, Tim Cook has now divided responsibility for completing products across three separate divisions, each headed by a long-time Apple executive. All three divisions will be required to work together in order to finish and ship anything, necessitating increased collaboration and perhaps consistency across the company.

If this is how it pans out then Tim Cook is surely a genius. Otherwise we may be boned. Here's to ten more years of innovation.

 

[vmachiel]

"consistent" Well, that's good enough for me

 

[NutsNGum]

Apparently he has enough to land the head of design position at Apple.

You've been a great help.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

I get the feeling that Steve Jobs had some kind of deal in place that meant Tim Cook was not able to make any major changes in staff and organisation until a year after his death.

To me it sounds more like the choice was between Ive and Forstall and Cook choose Ive.

 

[RSchot]

Jonathan Ive

Seems to me that Jonathan Ive is the only one with a secured seat. Who on earth would dare to fire the iconic face of such succesful products. So succesful that he is an inspiration to industrial design all over the world in many different industries.

If it would ever come to succession of Tim Cook, Jonathan has a powerful hand.

 

[DMVillain]

Image


I find it vaguely amusing that this word doesn't even appear in OS X's built-in dictionary.

Shows up on mine

 

[o0jelly0o]

No question Ives is a genuis, but it does seen to me that some of the products lately have followed form over function.

Examples; thin & light phone but with poor battery life, imac...super thin if looking from the side, but no optical drive, non expandable ram, ect.

Optical Drive is old tech. I completely agree with what Phil said about that, reducing as much mechanical functions as possible is the best thing to do. Mechanical things fail.

 

[smulji]

That Cook and Ive, have secretly been working on an updated iOS since a year ago. Similar to how Jobs was secretely working with his people on OSX for Intel a while ago. So we do not have to wait two years to see some of Ive´s work and probably next spring we will be seeing the future roadmap of iOS.

I'd be seriously surprised if we see anything concrete next year resulting from this shake-up. My guess is 2014 at best.

 

[jayducharme]

Hope there is noticeable change to ios. Then I might go back. Love apple, ios not so much anymore. It was the the greatest only 2 years ago.

I don't know why so many people feel iOS is outdated. I'd get really frustrated if Apple started changing its interface every few years just for the heck of it. iOS works well for me and does what I need it to do. It's intuitive and smooth. I'm sure it will gradually evolve; it's only five years old, after all. If a system works, why muck it up? I don't see much ground-shaking interface evolution from Android. The only OS to get a major makeover recently is Windows, and we'll have to wait and see how that one turns out.

 

[smulji]

Seems to me that Jonathan Ive is the only one with a secured seat. Who on earth would dare to fire the iconic face of such succesful products. So succesful that he is an inspiration to industrial design all over the world in many different industries.

If it would ever come to succession of Tim Cook, Jonathan has a powerful hand.

As of now, I think Schiller is the No. 2 man at Apple. I still don't see Ive as CEO. He's exactly where he should be.

 

[Simplicated]

I have a feeling that the Siri founders left Apple because of the absurd time-driven approach.

 

[teknikal90]

Design by Committee.

nope. Design by Ive.
Services by Cue.
Software by Frederighi.

 

[Jhn316]

It's time for apple to realize that they are the tend setters and not rush to compete with rookies in the business. I have had three iPhones an 3 iPods,iMac,iPad ,iPod touch an Apple TV and I am satisfied customer

 

[QCassidy352]

No question Ives is a genuis, but it does seen to me that some of the products lately have followed form over function.

Examples; thin & light phone but with poor battery life, imac...super thin if looking from the side, but no optical drive, non expandable ram, ect.

If you're talking iphone 5, the battery life is outstanding! 4s was not as good.

 

[smulji]

I don't know why so many people feel iOS is outdated. I'd get really frustrated if Apple started changing its interface every few years just for the heck of it. iOS works well for me and does what I need it to do. It's intuitive and smooth. I'm sure it will gradually evolve; it's only five years old, after all. If a system works, why muck it up? I don't see much ground-shaking interface evolution from Android. The only OS to get a major makeover recently is Windows, and we'll have to wait and see how that one turns out.

The Windows 8 UI is, from what I read, universally praised. As for the iOS UI, there's nothing wrong with the grid of icons per say, but there's serious lack of consistency / integration in the UI across the OS. Plus there are good features iOS is lacking vs other platforms.

 

[Patriot24]

These changes appear be in line with Steve's philosophy for how to run the business. Cook has simplified it even further than it already was.

"We are organized like a startup..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60dheI4ARg