Is Scott Forstall a true engineer/programmer or (just) a manager?
Says he "designed" this and that, but this does not really say so much—designed how?—visual designer, programmer, team leader (manager), or what?
Honest question. spent a bit of time researching this question without any definitive answer.
Anyone know for sure?
No doubt about Scott's extreme intelligence and motivation...
(Please refrain from quoting the typical stuff about him being responsible for this or that, I truly am looking for the actual background of Scott).
yes hm ok i did read your post but cant offer you a answer you did not already read
Stanford , next, aqua ,OSX , nobody at Next or Apple would have let him near a computer if he wasn't a good engineer and coder , especially not Steve Jobs , if he wasn't good Steve would have fired him already at Next
and he is not just a ordinary manager
from Apple press release
Scott Forstall is senior vice president of iPhone Software at Apple. Reporting directly to the CEO, Forstall leads the team responsible for delivering the software at the heart of Apple’s revolutionary iPhone including the user interface, applications, frameworks and the operating system.
Forstall joined Apple in 1997 and is one of the original architects of Mac OS X and its Aqua user interface. He was responsible for several releases of the operating system, most notably Mac OS X Leopard. Prior to Apple he worked at NeXT developing core technologies.
Forstall received both a Bachelor of Science in Symbolic Systems and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Apple's senior VP for iOS, Scott Forstall, was indirectly responsible for the leak of an iPhone 4 prototype in 2010, a new Businessweek profile suggests. A former Apple manager claims that Forstall persuaded the company's CEO at the time, Steve Jobs, to allow dozens of engineers to carry prototypes so they could do better testing of network performance and reduce dropped calls. It was one of Forstall's engineers who accidentally left an iPhone 4 in a pub, which eventually resulted in a Gizmodo hands-on piece and a high-profile criminal investigation.
The profile also reveals some other facts about Forstall, such as his close ties to Jobs. "He was as close to Steve as anybody at the company," says Andy Miller, the former head of Apple's iAd division. Forstall is in fact said to have a car identical to Jobs' -- a silver Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG -- and an on-stage uniform, that being jeans, black shoes and a black zippered sweater.
Sources claim the VP has a tense relationship with other Apple executives, such as lead designer Jonathan Ive and Mac hardware leader Bob Mansfield. The conflict is allegedly intense enough that some executives will avoid meetings with him unless CEO Tim Cook is there as well. Two former Apple executives, Tony Fadell and Jean-Marie Hullot, are said to have left Apple after regularly fighting with Forstall. Another, Jon Rubinstein, reportedly turned away from conversations at a Silicon Valley party last month when Forstall's name was mentioned.
"I once referred to Scott as Apple’s chief a–hole," says a former Apple software engineer, Mike Lee. "And I meant it as a compliment." AT&T CTO John Donovan comments that Forstall "knows what he wants," and can be "relentless" about pursuing it.
A more positive perspective comes from Google's senior VP of social business, Vic Gundotra. "Scott's a pretty amazing guy," he remarks. "In terms of running an operating system team, he's one of the best I've ever seen." Such views may be reflected in Apple revenues, since the iPhone now forms the largest part of Apple's business, dwarfing even Macs, and the iPad is on the rise.
thats enough info for you , if you want more then you know where to look for ...Google
but i agree he tries to make OSX merge iOS or the other way round , but that was something favoured by Steve Jobs too , soon we wont need Mac's as we knew them , a bigger iPad will be the future
