melendezest
Suspended
In a way Apple have recognised this, and the benefits of having a single person sign off on design, by moving Ive into his current position. One of the key differences between Apple since the the NeXT reverse takeover was having a single gatekeeper to clear things rather than a committee.
Agreed.
Unfortunately, Ive's taste in software design is wildly, um, "different" from Steve Jobs'.
As such, the look and feel of Apple's products has begun to change drastically.
Having a "single gatekeeper" in this case has become a negative (in my opinion). Where Steve had universally appealing taste for both hardware and software (thus making him an ideal candidate for "single gatekeeper"), Ive is really a hardware guy.
Tim Cook "chickened" 😉 out of the "single gatekeeper" position of authority here, given he's an Ops guy. He passed the buck to the hardware guy and got rid of one of the primary software guys (Forstall) who actually shared Steve's software aesthetic sense.
The result? iOS 7. Ugh.
Whether you think Tim was brilliant or a fool depends on your position on iOS 7.