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"This was better than the Giants winning the World Series ... people are really excited." That's...
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012, 10:33 AM ET"This was better than the Giants winning the World Series ... people are really excited." That's how an NYT source describes the mood among Apple (AAPL) employees following Scott Forstall's removal. Om Malik basically reports the same, though he adds many think replacement Craig Federighi "is someone who needs to prove himself." Forstall's refusal to sign an apology letter for iOS 6 Maps was apparently the final straw, though all signs point to other factors also being at work.
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This news story has 34 comments:
We'll probably never know the whole story unfortunately would make for an interesting read.
Apple has an image to uphold and the Apple Maps (it's irrelevant that it's just one app on their product it tarnishes the brand so fanboys calm down) took that image down a notch. It showed they aren't as perfect as they have been over the last years (which isn't really accurate either they had a few flop ideas and I think the iTv will be next not because its not a great product but price is king and TV deals are scarce).
More advanced in every way except being maps.
But one can still download Google maps app, utilized via Safari, and it works just fine. I am not selling stock over this.
If I wasn't using Apple maps, I've use the mapquest app for voice turn by turn.
Consumer Reports was likely correct about their Apple maps assessment ... It's not that bad and it will get better.
Most Apple problems are blown way out of proportion. Antennagate was a good illustration of that. You had to hold the phone in a death grip to make it fail.
Apple maps is not a mature product. Nor has it been on the street for 10 years either.
Apple had no logical choice other than to release the product and take the flack. They did the right thing.
Google maps are great, but since I appreciate the pioneering work Apple did in designing and introducing the first true smartphone which everyone else has been competing against and stealing from ever since... I boycott Google at every opportunity and opt for an Apple way to do search, navigating, etc, to avoid helping the thieves and bullies at Google.
WE at Apple used to make fun of and laugh ar sick Steve Jobs jokes. Not that he wasn't eccentric and hard to understand (deserved some criticism to be sure), but it was an ,"Old boy network." You are eithet in or out.
To think this solves any problems or makes Apple better is foolish thinking. Yes Cook deserved the blame because it's his pay grade. He wasn't blind sighted. The board isn't getting rid of him just yet for good economy reasons, but I'm betting he is on notice himself.
Blaming someone else for Mapgate is just that, blame.
And I agree that Google maps are bad, bad, bad, bad as well. Google maps told me I had a bank branch location at an empty lot. It told me there was a gas station where there a house 40 years old. Imagine had I been low on gas and actually depended on that information.
Anyone thinking Google maps aren't bad don't use them or work for google, either way they arentt from this galaxy.
The mere fact that people are happy Scott is gone and then the added fact that the iOS has been so successful tells me that Scott was very demanding on his people, just like Steve was in his younger days and that is exactly what made iOS so great. Now you will see the quality get worse, deadlines missed, more bugs, more issues, etc... as time goes no. Dumb move by Apple.
Don't get me wrong, by no means am I saying that Scott was another Steve Jobs. He was not, but he is up there as one of those A players that Apple is so famous for and without Steve there to pre-qualify new A players, the quality of employees Apple hires won't be as high as before.
I can see the bad decisions already starting, this being one of them. This is only the beginning. Just my opinion. What do you guys think?
"Apple's executive shakeup will end well due to Jonathan Ive's influence, analysts say:
Reuters
Posted: 10/30/2012 09:03:34 AM PDT
The exit of Apple's (AAPL) longtime mobile software products chief may be a surprise, but a band of able executives led by Tim Cook and a bigger role for design boss Jonathan Ive mean the Cupertino company is in good hands, analysts said Tuesday.
Ive, Apple's celebrated industrial design chief will now look into both hardware and software designs, following the departure of Scott Forstall after years of friction with other top executives.
"Yesterday's announcement all but confirmed that Ive will be with the company for the foreseeable future, putting to rest
a recurring investor concern of an Apple without Ive," Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a research note. "This, combined with Tim Cook's nine years remaining on his contract with Apple, suggests the two most critical management figures will be in place for the longer term."
John Browett, recently hired as Apple's retail chief, will also leave, the company said on Monday.
Eddy Cue, who runs online products, will lead Apple Maps and its Siri voice search software, while Craig Federighi, who oversees the OSX software that powers the Macintosh computers, will take charge of the iOS software.
"We think that despite the departure of Forstall who ran iOS development, iOS's future is in good hands," Munster said.
Forstall
-- longtime lieutenant of late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs -- refused to sign a public apology after the mapping software on the latest iPhone contained embarrassing errors and drew fierce criticism, Reuters reported citing sources.
His departure was years in the making, and came to a head with the Apple Maps incident, sources said.
"Though Scott Forstall's departure is a surprise, this appears to be part of Tim Cook putting his own stamp on the company, and importantly, he is still surrounded by several key long-time Apple executives and innovators," Robert W. Baird analyst William Power said.
Yes, maps wasn't totally ready, but no matter when it was launched, it was going to have inaccuracies - clearly the sooner the launch the more issues.
They would have been criticized whenever they launched, so bite the bullet, and get on with it. Fact is, it'll be finetuned quickly with 100M installed base helping.
And it had to be done sooner than later, because using google version without voice is too much of a handicap to accept.
I frankly don't think anyone is to blame, not Cook, not Scott, not Apple. It had to be done quick and it couldn't be done quickly without blemishs, live with it folks and enjoy it. I know I do
In other words, Apple understands that in our cloud-centric connected future, the company needs to not only care about the “human interface” and the “industrial design” but that all of those pieces have to work seamlessly with the guts and nerves of digital devices — chips and the networking technologies. With Cue, Ive and Mansfield, Cook has ensured that Apple is putting its best foot forward. Forstall is no longer part of this future fortunately for Apple.
None of us on the outside can know the problems with working with Scott. If he thought maps was a finished product and encouraged its presentation as such he deserved to be fired, PERIOD.
A OS where he put together the team, a team which then when on to design the OS for all the mobile devices that Apple makes and profits from at a immense level not seen by any tech company today a huge profit center that didn't exist five years ago bigger than Google and Microsoft.
Siri and Maps work very well for the non geek public by the way, in fact I want Siri and Maps to be ported over to the Mac, which will of course be done in the near future.
This is a great move for innovation at Apple, and a brilliant move on the part of Tim Cook.
As Bill Clinton would say: He's got brass! Tim Cook just took Apple out of the clouded limbo it's been in since the last months of Steve Jobs' illness. He's propelling the company into a clear and positive future.
Alone the move of giving Jony Ive free reign over all aspects of design is going to bring new changes. And the whole team is going to be much more collaborative and cooperative. I believe this is going to bring a whole new era of great products and design. I can hardly wait to see what's going to come!