Apple's iOS senior vice president Scott Forstall, who has overseen the operating systems and software for the iPhone and iPad since the devices launched, will leave the company next year.
Forstall's departure will be a major change for the company -- he joined the corporation with Steve Jobs 15 years ago when Apple acquired NeXT, and played a crucial part in building the Mac OSX operating system, as well as iOS. He also managed partnerships with iOS developers, and helped launch Apple's social game platform Game Center.
Apple has offered no reason for Forstall's departure, but a report from the New York Times indicates that there was friction between him and other executives at the company, and that his involvement in Apple's recent troubles with its buggy Maps app may have played a part. He will serve as an advisor for CEO Tim Cook in the interim.
A number of executives at Apple will take over Forstall's previous responsibilities -- Industrial Design SVP Jonny Ive will now handle "Human Interface" design for iOS, Internet Software and Services SVP Eddy Cue will oversee Siri and Maps, former Hardware SVP Bob Mansfield will manage a new Technologies group for the company's wireless products, and Software Engineering SVP Craig Federighi will lead the iOS and OSX teams.
Apple also announced that recently recruited Retail SVP John Browett will be leaving, and that the Retail team will report directly to Cook as the company searches for a replacement.
iPad 3 = naming issue, how are they going to market the "latest new iPad"?
The iPad 3 (at least mine) also gets very hot and takes a long time to charge.
MacBook PRO Retina = cool. Really cool. Except for the part where that resolution is useless at that size.
iPhone 5 = everything was known before the announcement.
iPad mini = everything was known before the announcement.
iPad mini's price point and features could be great, if it wasn't for the Kindle which has it's own ecosystem and makes a lot of money for developers. Plus the marketplace isn't saturated (yet).
These company departures unfortunately fuel my pessimism. Why they're not heavily focusing on getting the console marketshare with the Apple TV is beyond me.
They also need to nail down the media deals... an iTV which pulls programming directly from the internet and has a built-in DVR is an extremely disruptive technology, one which will panic the cable companies, the media companies which make the programming, and especially the networks which distribute it. Think about how many billions of dollars go creating a network identity, and along comes a TV which says "who gives a shit what network it's on, just ask for the show that you want when you want to watch it and we'll make that available to you." My understanding is that the device is ready to go and that test versions are already being distributed, but that it won't be released to the public until Apple can leverage the programming companies to get over their terror about on-demand programming and the loss of dependable advertising revenue. If you think that's an easy row to hoe, you should take a hard look at what had to happen in order to get the iTunes music and video services to happen, then multiply those difficulties by a thousand.
iPad 3 = naming issue, how are they going to market the "latest new iPad"?
The iPad 3 (at least mine) also gets very hot and takes a long time to charge.
MacBook PRO Retina = cool. Really cool. Except for the part where that resolution is useless at that size.
iPhone 5 = everything was known before the announcement.
iPad mini = everything was known before the announcement.
iPad mini's price point and features could be great, if it wasn't for the Kindle which has it's own ecosystem and makes a lot of money for developers. Plus the marketplace isn't saturated (yet).
These company departures unfortunately fuel my pessimism. Why they're not heavily focusing on getting the console marketshare with the Apple TV is beyond me.
High-end, high priced hardware has not fared well in the console market.