Former Apple Employees on Eddy Cue: Siri and Eddy Were 'A Bad Fit' and He is 'Always Doing Too Many Things'

[IG88]

Reading the article about him being a "hands-off manager", I imagined he'd smile and dance his way out of door whenever people asked him to make an executive decision.

He would have likely done the dance via FaceTime though, since reportedly he was rarely in the room...

 

[pat500000]

bad fit? He looks like he can't even fit into his clothes.

 

[omihek]

Eddy Cue died in 2011? So it's his evil twin that's been showing up to Apple events?

 

[robbyx]

You just assassinated his physical form and his personal clothing style. What does that even have to do with his ability to do the job?

His physical form might not, but the way he carries himself does. He comes across as a slob and buffoon. Services have truly been Apple’s biggest lost opportunity. It’s taken nearly two decades for Apple to build a reasonably reliable online/Cloud service. They were late to the music steaming party. They are late to the video party and I’m not sure people are going to jump at their video service when it launches. Unlike music, where people switch from one service to another, video is about adding another service. I’m not going to give up Netflix for Apple’s video service. So Apple’s video service must add enough value to my life for me to add another monthly charge. We shall see...

Apple’s cloud services are largely “me too” products. Where’s the vision? I’ve always disliked Cue. I’ve never seen him come across as competent, so nothing in this article surprises me.

 

[RumorConsumer]

Ok, sorry for the incorrect statistical claims. I am sure no one in these forums has made generalizations before

In any case, I believe further evidence is seen in how little apple and MS are developing their media client software (and/or abandoning it). Unless you think they dont have tracking statistics that guides their software development focus needs?

I do hear your point. For sure the music library situation is WAY diversified since 3-4 years ago. People who dont care to upkeep libraries truly dont give a F and are using Spotify mostly, in my circle, and rib me for using iTunes.

 

[Rogifan]

It always seems to me he is out of place. Like he belongs on a used car showroom somewhere. Belly hanging out and wearing the wrong sized shirts that don’t do him justice. Then, he speaks and it doesn’t make sense. His words don’t captivate an audience. He wants people to applaud him, but he seems like everything he touches turns to crap. I have never met the man, and these are all just impressions from seeing him mostly in the Apple keynotes. However, each time I read something about him, my disdain for him grows. I think Apple’s executives are a pot luck.

Ive should be under an innovator (missing executive at a tech company).

Cook should be the COO, as he is overextended as CEO and has no innovator/leadership sense to take Apple to a better direction.

Angela is probably the best fit. When she was with Burberry she gave a great interview that made me think she knows how to use technology to sell. I don’t know that any of what she was doing there has translated over to Apple. It should, and she is the only executive that could actually have a vision for Apple.

Craig seems like a great guy and best fit to run MacOS.

They fired the guy Forstall who should be in charge of iOS. He was ultimately, I think, supposed to be the successor to the thrown after Cook made the transition and gave Apple a good five to ten years of stability. He was the innovative thinker. He was the one that had the insights to lead Apple down magical paths and great products. From what I have read and heard, he was doomed the day Jobs died. Cook knew he was a threat to Cook’s leadership, so Cook fires him. And that was the end of Apple as an innovative tech company.

Apple should have been buying great companies cheap five to seven years ago like Netflix and DeopBox. Think how big Apple would be if it had an innovator on deck and in charge of the new products, with Ive underneath designing, and purchased lots of startups that make great technology and used the talent and IP to lead into the future.

Now, let’s all watch Amazon be the company to reach and stay on top. More innovators in their warehouses than anywhere in Apple.

If I had the CEO job at Apple, Iwould lead with new innovation that makes the AppleWatch look like a joke. And Netflix would have been integrated perfectly into AppleTV. DropBox would be iCloud and actually work. I would have augmented reality glasses on deck. Probably buy Tesla and use battery manufacturing for iPhones and use capacitors and force my hand on Trump/Government to make roads smart car ready by building out smart car ready roads with electric and sensing features built in. Cars don’t need huge batteries. The roads should have the power in them. There should be a secure network providing information of where all vehicles are on all roads. There should be sensors all over the roads that interact with cars/trucks and that would allow true autonomous transportation that could be accident free.

Why doesn’t Cue think of any of this? Oh he is overloaded telling people he is Apple and he doesn’t have to do this or wear that as it isn’t Apple culture.

How was Scott Forstall a threat to Tim Cook’s leadership? Steve Jobs made Cook CEO. No one else in the executive team could stand Forstall (which is one of the reasons he was let go). Rumors were Bob Mansfield refused to be in the same room with Forstall unless Cook was there. Forstall wasn’t a threat to anybody.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. I meant visually looking at the Apple maps. There isn't enough visual information such as street names to orient yourself, unlike Google Maps. This I believe is a design issue that Eddie would be in charge of that might not be very simple, but definitely affordable in relation to how much it would aid the customer experience.



With no disrespect, no research is needed for the simple claims that I make. Simply turn on your phone and discover that the music player interface is less intuitive and slower to navigate than before the time that Eddie Cue was managing that department. Even with all great new features that the Apple maps upcoming updates are promising that Eddie is in change of, the street name issue has not been addressed, and it's a central component of a map. These are just a couple examples that I'm posting here. After research on past posts to extensively list out problems that cropped up in a department after Eddie was put in charge, I don't feel the need to rehash what everyone else here doesn't give a **** about.

Temper temper.

While I agree, I think iTunes has always been under Eddie’s watchful eye, and many had felt after Dre and Iovine took most of the streaming aspects over, felt Eddie may have been too free in letting “Boz” present so early on. Her presence was a lot better received than when Iovine presented Apple Music yet her personality want well “acceptable” to the Apple attendees.

I see what you mean by Maps and street names being an after thought where by the explicit need to zoom in so deeply to find a street name, especially at an intersection. That can get very annoying. I’ll agree her that yes it shouldn’t updve been very easy for Eddies team to implement, curious as to why?

PS: I find my use of the word “acceptable” can be inferenced by many on the forums well enough. It’s sad Apple has become driven by the yuppies when it was lifted up and championed by the hippies in the golden era that would have allowed varying personalities to work within and be around the company.
[doublepost=1536202952][/doublepost]

He’s an idiot and proof any fool can get into a position of wealth if they are lucky.

Apple should have sacked him long ago.

That’s odd. There is an article specifically stating he got to executive role due to his prowess with negotiations that Steve Jobs was very impressed with and was elevated by Jobs due to that. Seems it worked out VERY well for Apple’s content within Music:

Music Conglomerates agreeing to track and albums pricing and distributional rights and licensing restrictions.
ITunes juke box.
Apple Music Festivals (gone now) yet features top artists attending: Timberlake, U2, Drake, yeah bankable names big budget performances.
Being the first to legally license and sell Beatles online (one and then some done!)
Logic Pro purchase from long time software partner EMagic here most of the team included the founder Gerhardt stuck with Apple for quite a while - and longer than Siri’s founders did.

But yeah Eddies track record proves he’s a lucky fool who should be fired because you fail to see what he has accomplished over the decades. This is what the world is coming too ... small mistakes and damn into the pit fires with you.
[doublepost=1536203310][/doublepost]

How was Scott Forstall a threat to Tim Cook’s leadership? Steve Jobs made Cook CEO. No one else in the executive team could stand Forstall (which is one of the reasons he was let go). Rumors were Bob Mansfield refused to be in the same room with Forstall unless Cook was there. Forstall wasn’t a threat to anybody.

There have been many reports Forstall was being groomed by Jobs for CEO role. Maybe that may have been false and mistaken due to their close friendship ... but he had stage presence and the programming skills like very few others - I’d wager more than Federighi did until he (Forstall) was ousted. The issue was only within the software team that disliked him - most likely because he was so deiven and eyed towards excellence (thinking about the article of him using a monocle to view iOS icons submitted by early developers for prestige quality). Back then iOS was a leap ahead of Android in terms of real system UI quality which baffles me how Anyone before 4.0 KitKat would want to use Android.

I’m sure Forstall was a hard Nut especially with his sense of humour that going angry would leave lasting scars.

But Time Machine
iPhone iOS 2,3, and 4 presentations and Siri initial 3 updates yeah ... he was Jobs on stage.

 

[DeepIn2U]

bad fit? He looks like he can't even fit into his clothes.

You know this is really low and so “revenge of the nerds 80’s” type of rudeness. It’s damaging both to those around you and to your own psyche and personality.

I know because I was like you, and made the same commentary about Phil Schiller and I like the guy always. Someone corrected me and I’m grateful for the growth in my personality and hope the same for you.

Curious just how in shape are you and how long do you think your physical fitness regimin and your genetics will keep you in better shape than Eddie is? Are you even the same age as he may be? Personally I’m very fortunate with my youthful genetics and physical health and fitness always have been but you know what, there is the ultimate equalizer ....


TIME!

 

[thetruth9000]

Eddy if you are reading this please add the ability to select multiple bookmarks and open/edit them. Also a bookmark indicator like that star in firefox or chrome would be great. Thanks bro

 

[wubsylol]

Apple reportedly "fought tooth and nail" to keep Spotify out of the United States following its debut in Europe, with Jobs going so far as to privately threaten Universal Music by stating Apple would remove its content from iTunes if it worked with Spotify in the U.S.

More ****** behaviour from Steve.

 

[Karma*Police]

Cue the Eddie Cue hate machine without any education or skills from the haters to back it all up just perception.
[doublepost=1536164767][/doublepost]

But he's been a manager since 1989 or a few short years after. Look at all the other executives they've hired since then. But yeah he sounds like he's not a good manager.

[doublepost=1536164816][/doublepost]



Says you why?
reasons, evidence to claim that?

Oh maybe you'll place the reason Siri sucked was because he had it for less than 1 year ... but that was Cook's mistake that is BAD leadership.

You only need to look at the results... there’s not a single thing Eddy manages that’s done exceedingly well. In fact, under his leadership, Apple has fallen behind or remains far behind in whatever he oversees. More telling is how quickly Siri and the App Store improved after those responsibilities were handed to Craig and Phil respectively.

He’s a good maintenance guy but not the creative leader that Apple needs for its services. He’s always a couple of steps behind the competition and clearly the weak link in Apple’s hardware, software and services strategy. That’s probably why Steve never promoted him to the upper ranks, and keeping him around has been Tim’s biggest failing IMO.

 

[Canyonero]

You know this is really low and so “revenge of the nerds 80’s” type of rudeness. It’s damaging both to those around you and to your own psyche and personality.

I know because I was like you, and made the same commentary about Phil Schiller and I like the guy always. Someone corrected me and I’m grateful for the growth in my personality and hope the same for you.

Curious just how in shape are you and how long do you think your physical fitness regimin and your genetics will keep you in better shape than Eddie is? Are you even the same age as he may be? Personally I’m very fortunate with my youthful genetics and physical health and fitness always have been but you know what, there is the ultimate equalizer ....


TIME!

There’s a difference between aging and getting fat. Tim Cook is just as old and very fit, probably has a lot more on his plate than Cue. The point is Eddie’s appearance oozes of someone who has gotten too comfortable and whose true passions lie outside of his responsibilities at Apple. If you don’t want to buy the appearance theory, look at everything he manages and how hopelessly complicated and behind the competition these are. The guy isn’t some junior level manager, he’s a SVP, is paid handsomely and should perform accordingly. He’s not though and should be fired immediately.

 

[robbyx]

There’s a difference between aging and getting fat. Tim Cook is just as old and very fit, probably has a lot more on his plate than Cue. The point is Eddie’s appearance oozes of someone who has gotten too comfortable and whose true passions lie outside of his responsibilities at Apple. If you don’t want to buy the appearance theory, look at everything he manages and how hopelessly complicated and behind the competition these are. The guy isn’t some junior level manager, he’s a SVP, is paid handsomely and should perform accordingly. He’s not though and should be fired immediately.

The things he manages are sloppy and lazy, like him. There's no vision. It's all "me too" and nothing ever quite works right. I think it's totally fair to criticize his appearance, not his weight or looks, but his appearance. When he comes on stage with his shirt untucked, looking disheveled, and gives a lazy, meandering presentation, it all just looks bad. The simple indisputable fact is, nothing he's managed has ever been wildly successful or worked well. Apple services revenue are growing, finally, and that's a bright spot, but given Apple's close hardware/software integration and incredibly loyal customer base, services should be a much bigger chunk - and should have been for a while now. Apple should be leading, not playing catch up.

 

[SarcasticJoe]

Sadly he's not the only upper level manager at Apple with this "If I ignore a conflict/problem it'll eventually sort itself out" attitude to management...

 

[Bacillus]

bad fit? He looks like he can't even fit into his clothes.

But yeah Eddies track record proves he’s a lucky fool who should be fired because you fail to see what he has accomplished over the decades. This is what the world is coming too ... small mistakes and damn into the pit fires with you.

Sadly he's not the only upper level manager at Apple with this "If I ignore a conflict/problem it'll eventually sort itself out" attitude to management...

He’s an idiot and proof any fool can get into a position of wealth if they are lucky.
Apple should have sacked him long ago.

The lucky bandit exploits Tim’s diversity principles: equal opportunities even comprise Latin koala’s.

 

[fatboyslick]

There are different types of managers - those more strategic, those who hand hold, those without expertise and simply aim to develop people, those who hate people and want to look good.

There's no perfect fit or perfect manager and you can't please everyone.

Everyone I know, including myself, has too much work to juggle - it's no different at Apple.
And bringing together to high profile organisations is a monumentously difficult task - of course there's going to be arguements and mistakes.

If he is a lazy, uninterested manager and poor at his job he will be found out - they always are

 

[ROGmaster]

I read the whole thing. They basically leaked the juicy bits. This stood out to me though:

So Apple’s improvements to maps are because Cue got spooked buy an internet blog post?

Yeah Apple Maps was absolutely perfect anyway.
Blog posts should always be ignored no matter what.

 

[Bin Cook]

Eddy is not overextended. He's checked out. Think about how many times you've seen him on the sidelines at big NBA games. You don't see all his Ferrari-related activities. He's an avid car guy, in addition to being on Ferrari's board of directors.

Running iTunes meant that Eddy was *constantly* in contact with all the biggest stars in music and movies. Every celebrity who came to infinite loop was there to see him. He's a hyper-rich fame hound who hasn't cared about technology in a very long time.

If anyone believes this isn’t either an Eddy Soprano or Apple PR piece then I’ve some snake oil to sell them. And a bridge.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Cue the Eddie Cue hate machine without any education or skills from the haters to back it all up just perception.
[doublepost=1536164767][/doublepost]

But he's been a manager since 1989 or a few short years after. Look at all the other executives they've hired since then. But yeah he sounds like he's not a good manager.

[doublepost=1536164816][/doublepost]



Says you why?
reasons, evidence to claim that?

Oh maybe you'll place the reason Siri sucked was because he had it for less than 1 year ... but that was Cook's mistake that is BAD leadership.

How’s this? Every time I watch him on stage, I f’ing cringe. I dislike the guy, at least from what I’ve seen. Just an opinion. Like yours.

Let’s let people have opinions without trying to demean them.

 

[bluecoast]

Sadly he's not the only upper level manager at Apple with this "If I ignore a conflict/problem it'll eventually sort itself out" attitude to management...

Oh really? Do tell...
[doublepost=1536235980][/doublepost]

There’s a difference between aging and getting fat. Tim Cook is just as old and very fit, probably has a lot more on his plate than Cue. The point is Eddie’s appearance oozes of someone who has gotten too comfortable and whose true passions lie outside of his responsibilities at Apple. If you don’t want to buy the appearance theory, look at everything he manages and how hopelessly complicated and behind the competition these are. The guy isn’t some junior level manager, he’s a SVP, is paid handsomely and should perform accordingly. He’s not though and should be fired immediately.

Given that Cook has just bought in an AI expert reporting directly to him, you have to wonder if it’s not time to bring in a cloud expert from Google or Amazon at the same level.

Especially, as (allegedly) Apple was having trouble hiring other AI leads. I read that people like that wanted to report to someone who was a respected leader in their field.

I mean, if you were an expert in Cloud services at massive scale, would you prefer to work at Google, Facebook Amazon, Microsoft - or Apple?

Hint: I doubt it would be Apple as they’re just not seen as a leader in cloud tech.

Similarly, for Apple’s content side of the business, you’d have to imagine that eventually, someone from a company like Netflix will take this over.

I suspect that Cue has got to where he is by being an extremely talented fixer who just gets things done & who will do this with a diverse set of products. That’s obviously served him - and Apple - very well.

I don’t want to personalise all of this into an attack on Cue.

It’s just that Apple’s services don’t feel that great. They feel behind the competition, a little bit stale and behind the times. I’d sum them up as ‘great for 2014!’.

Maybe that’s down to Cue. Maybe it’s down to Cook (who is ultimately responsible).

However as a consumer knowing no one in Apple etc. something just doesn’t feel ‘right’ with Apple’s services.

They’re primarily succeeding off Apple’s massive installed base - not because they are best in class.

And it’s worrying that Apple seems to be ok with their services being ‘good enough’ and hitting their financial targets.

I’d argue that Apple is its best when it has a ruthless approach to shipping at high quality in everything that it does.

And for about the last five years, its services just haven’t felt that way.

 

[Rogifan]

There have been many reports Forstall was being groomed by Jobs for CEO role. Maybe that may have been false and mistaken due to their close friendship ... but he had stage presence and the programming skills like very few others - I’d wager more than Federighi did until he (Forstall) was ousted. The issue was only within the software team that disliked him - most likely because he was so deiven and eyed towards excellence (thinking about the article of him using a monocle to view iOS icons submitted by early developers for prestige quality). Back then iOS was a leap ahead of Android in terms of real system UI quality which baffles me how Anyone before 4.0 KitKat would want to use Android.

I’m sure Forstall was a hard Nut especially with his sense of humour that going angry would leave lasting scars.

But Time Machine
iPhone iOS 2,3, and 4 presentations and Siri initial 3 updates yeah ... he was Jobs on stage.

Do you have a source for this? Not anything I’ve read/heard ever suggested he was being groomed for that. Also if this was true why would Steve write a letter to the board recommending Tim replace him as CEO? According to Adam Lashinsky in his book about Apple there were only 4 Apple employees at Steve’s burial service - Tim Cook, Jony Ive, Eddy Cue and Katie Cotton. Seems Tim, Eddy and Jony were closer to Steve than Scott ever was.
[doublepost=1536240644][/doublepost]

Given that Cook has just bought in an AI expert reporting directly to him, you have to wonder if it’s not time to bring in a cloud expert from Google or Amazon at the same level.

Especially, as (allegedly) Apple was having trouble hiring other AI leads. I read that people like that wanted to report to someone who was a respected leader in their field.

I mean, if you were an expert in Cloud services at massive scale, would you prefer to work at Google, Facebook Amazon, Microsoft - or Apple?

Hint: I doubt it would be Apple as they’re just not seen as a leader in cloud tech.

Similarly, for Apple’s content side of the business, you’d have to imagine that eventually, someone from a company like Netflix will take this over.

I suspect that Cue has got to where he is by being an extremely talented fixer who just gets things done & who will do this with a diverse set of products. That’s obviously served him - and Apple - very well.

I don’t want to personalise all of this into an attack on Cue.

It’s just that Apple’s services don’t feel that great. They feel behind the competition, a little bit stale and behind the times. I’d sum them up as ‘great for 2014!’.

Maybe that’s down to Cue. Maybe it’s down to Cook (who is ultimately responsible).

However as a consumer knowing no one in Apple etc. something just doesn’t feel ‘right’ with Apple’s services.

They’re primarily succeeding off Apple’s massive installed base - not because they are best in class.

And it’s worrying that Apple seems to be ok with their services being ‘good enough’ and hitting their financial targets.

I’d argue that Apple is its best when it has a ruthless approach to shipping at high quality in everything that it does.

And for about the last five years, its services just haven’t felt that way.

Agree with all of this. The growth in Apple’s services revenue is primarily coming from the App Store, which Phil Schiller now owns. I’m not suggesting Eddy had nothing to do with the success of the App Store but pinning Apple’s growth in services on him seems a bit dubious. I also agree that Tim needs to hire someone to run Apple’s cloud business. I absolutely think he could poach someone from Amazon, Microsoft or Google if they knew they were reporting directly to him and had full control. And if he did that Apple would probably attract top level talent to work on that team. I think you’re right on about Cue getting to where he is by being a good fixer. That doesn’t mean he’s a great leader though. I wouldn’t be surprised if he retires soon. It sure seems like he’s got people underneath him who could take over. And maybe at that point Cook would finally split the content business from everything else he has. Let one of the entertainment guys they hired run it from LA, give iCloud, maps and Apple Pay to someone else and pro apps to Craig.

 

[Bacillus]

Eddy is tolerated as long as he doesn’t snore

 

[AngstyKylo]

I take former employee opinions with a grain of salt. They've moved on, were let go, or just in general are sour grapes.

I'm not a huge Eddie Cue fan, but we've beaten the Siri topic to death and Apple has definitely not lost out on much because of its perceived shortcomings. See their earnings lately?

My guess is it's going to get a lot better when it needs to be better (meaning it will drive profit).

Yep, people don't use the assistant when they have a phone in the hand as it's slower and less reliable. This will change when Apple (and others?) release their AR glasses.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Eddy is unfocused; Apple is unfocused.
Bummer.

 

[MacBH928]

Siri should be on the list of the worst Apple products ever, next to Ping. It was great and had potential when it first released... but 7 years later, which is a lifetime in computer years, its been mostly the same. Not to mention is actually worse given all the data hoarding and retention happening in the current internet world.

I really don't want 168hrs. of my recorded voice stored in the Apple servers available for the gov. (or highest bidder) upon request.