Former iOS Chief Scott Forstall is Now a Broadway Producer

[rrrahu1]

It's evident that his rift with the post-Jobs Apple exec team left him with a very bitter taste in his mouth. So much so that rather than join another tech behemoth, he decided to leave Silicon Valley altogether to pursue his artistic interests.

Scott was an artist in a sense, after all. There was a visual poetry, a familiarity, and an elegance that you just don't see in iOS 7 and beyond. I was a huge fan of the skeuomorphic design.

Sure, it was kitschy and cheesy, but it made you feel like you were not using a cold, lifeless, electronic device. It made you relate to the objects, signs, and textures of the real world, which made the iOS experience humanizing.

Jony Ive fetishizes ever-flatter design and ever-thinner hardware. He thinks simplicity = less stuff. But he is wrong. Simplicity = harmony/relateability with the real world. Jobs and Forstall understood that.

 

[MacVista]

Fantastically talented individual.
Wish him great success in that new venture.

 

[JAQ]

How the mighty have fallen...

This is the stage adaptation of a critically-acclaimed and award-winning memoir by MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" recipient Alison Bechdel. The play itself is also getting really good press. The original work was in the form of a graphic novel, and for someone with an obvious visual-design interest like Forstall, that may be part of what drew him to the project.

And you know .... if I'd been canned from years at a high-paying job that would leave anyone with decent money-management skills set for life, I'd be far more interested in what kind of enjoyment I could have from what I did next, rather than whether trolls on Apple message boards thought it was a prestigious career move or not.

 

[kerosene]

good for him.

Is there anyone on this forum, myself included, even remotely successful & talented as he is so far?

anyone?

Scott...is it you?

 

[DudeDad]

Putting aside your thoughs of Forstall, the show has been in preview and my son (15) saw it last Saturday and said it was fantastic. There is buzz that it could be a surprise at the Tonys.

 

[rappr]

It was then I realized just how deep this design ideology went at Apple.

The one thing I did like about Forstall is he ran a tip top ship. I have seen quality slip since he left in 2012. IOS6 was the most polished bug free IOS i ever had. But Maps was a disaster, the service part anyway.

iOS 6 was also the most boring iOS ever.

 

[Porco]

Do we know if this was originally called 'Fun Home Button'?

 

[bluespark]

This is really cool -- good for him.

 

[MacVista]

Putting aside your thoughs of Forstall, the show has been in preview and my son (15) saw it last Saturday and said it was fantastic. There is buzz that it could be a surprise at the Tonys.

I will take the Apple WATCH money and instead book tickets to NYC and his show, I will do this from my iPhone running iOS6.

----------

iOS 6 was also the most boring iOS ever.

Elegant and functional, as opposed to wacky clown colors.

 

[Clubber]

I will take the Apple WATCH money and instead book tickets to NYC and his show, I will do this from my iPhone running iOS6.

----------



Elegant and functional, as opposed to whacky clown colors.

Image

Yes, and flat. You know the last time graphics were that flat was the goofy ANSI windows in the DOS days (Norton Commander / Midnight Commander in Linux)

 

[HenryDJP]

This guy is lost. You figure Microsoft of Google would have picked him up.

Just the fact that he went into theater suggests that he's not lost and decided to get completely out of the tech business. People do have other business interests and personal goals in life.

 

[C DM]

iOS 6 was also the most boring iOS ever.

For an OS boring is certainly something that's much more important than performance, stability, usefulness, etc.

 

[FieldingMellish]

I always believed that the flat icons were in preparation for the Apple Watch. The prior icons would not have been able to remain good-looking when practically reduced to fit on the head of a pin.

 

[nofear1az]

I really miss Scott's skeuomorphic design elements.

Apple IOS design is now sterile, glaring blind you at night bright white and red. Who ever thought that the current UI design was an improvement? It's horrible.

And the way he was pushed out of Apple shows that the slogan "think different" only applies to those in political favor.

I'm happy to see that the scapegoat is doing well in some other endeavor.

Yay Scott Forstall !!!

And I totally disagree.... I think iOS now has never looked better. It is what has drawn me back to the iPhone again. I love it now.

 

[oliversl]

Back in business! This was his 1st tweet and my 1st retweet

I hope he is ok and in a few years he can back and bring Apple back from product/OS Bankruptcy. Maybe then we won't need a manual for Apple Watch and gold Macbook/iPhone will be the past.

 

[C DM]

How does this have anything to do with MACRUMORS?

A rather important/prominent Apple figure is doing something that is in the news, seems appropriate for a site that is about Apple and various rumors and information surrounding the company and people/organizations/companies involved with the company, directly or indirectly, past or present (or future).

 

[JGIGS]

It was then I realized just how deep this design ideology went at Apple.

The one thing I did like about Forstall is he ran a tip top ship. I have seen quality slip since he left in 2012. IOS6 was the most polished bug free IOS i ever had. But Maps was a disaster, the service part anyway.

iOs misses Forstall. It's been stale since they took him off it and buggy. Biggest thing I miss from ios 6 is the simple compact drop down menu and widgets. Some skumorphism is actually good obviously some isn't. Just need to tweak instead of slapping a weak looking winterboard theme on top of it and calling it new and improved. I also get the feeling that apple maps was rushed so may not have totally been Forstall fault with the time constraints.

Apple made a mistake letting him go.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Glad to see he's active.

 

[uid15]

Well good for him, all he best to him.

 

[hydr]

First he works with SnapChat, then he does a broadway musical?? What´s next?

 

[MacVista]

Back in business! This was his 1st tweet and my 1st retweet

I hope he is ok and in a few years he can back and bring Apple back from product/OS Bankruptcy. Maybe then we won't need a manual for Apple Watch and gold Macbook/iPhone will be the past.

AND a manual for iTunes.

 

[uid15]

I think that MR are trolling - trying to evoke a reaction just to bump up hit counts. Such pathetic "journalism", they know full well what a tiresomely childish bunch some MR members can be, and MR know exactly what manner of brain dead comments this article will provoke.

Slow day in the newsroom, huh?

Good on you, Scott. I'm serious, and MR needs to grow the #### up.

 

[jonblatho]

I'm guessing his severance was contingent on a non-compete for who knows how long.

Isn't that illegal under California law?

 

[dampfnudel]

I really miss Scott's skeuomorphic design elements.

Apple IOS design is now sterile, glaring blind you at night bright white and red. Who ever thought that the current UI design was an improvement? It's horrible.

And the way he was pushed out of Apple shows that the slogan "think different" only applies to those in political favor.

I'm happy to see that the scapegoat is doing well in some other endeavor.

Yay Scott Forstall !!!

Let's hope we get "dark mode" with iOS 9, enough with all of the bright white.

 

[scottsjack]

I dislike this post simply because of the bashing and vitriol that is sure to follow. Leave the guy alone. Time to move on.

I hope he's found something he enjoys and is successful at it.

Exactly. There are so many sad, childish and rude losers mixed in with the good members of the MacRumors forum that some subjects really get out of hand. Very small people sitting behind their little keyboards trying to seem important can really be jerks.