[Macworld]

Post your comments for Forstall, Browett to leave Apple; Mansfield takes on new Technologies group here

[EddieC]

This is great news. Lately I've been increasingly alarmed at how unpleasant it has become to use (and look at) so much of Apple's software. The Maps catastrophe was only a symptom of a more fundamental problem. Thank goodness it's being addressed.

[Stewsburntmonkey]

 EddieC, on 29 October 2012 - 03:13 PM, said:

This is great news. Lately I've been increasingly alarmed at how unpleasant it has become to use (and look at) so much of Apple's software. The Maps catastrophe was only a symptom of a more fundamental problem. Thank goodness it's being addressed.

I find it interesting that so many keep talking of maps as a catastrophe, when it seems to have had virtually no appreciable impact on anything of substance as far as the overall user-base is concerned.

I don't believe Maps is the reason Forstall is gone, though it may have been a final straw of sorts. Things like the iOS podcast app seem to me like the thing that would have lead him towards the door. Maps was mainly a PR issue, the software itself hasn't been the real issue there. The podcast app was a truly poorly done bit of software engineering, which does reflect very badly on Forstall and his leadership.


I think virtually everyone knew Browett wasn't a good fit from very early on and it is nice to see him gone so quickly. Though firing is easy, hiring no so much, so the real test will be if Cook and company can find a good replacement.

This post has been edited by Stewsburntmonkey: 29 October 2012 - 04:09 PM

[flowney]

Jonny Ive will make short work of getting rid of skumorphic design principles in both iOS and MacOS X -- a good thing. He's already on record as hating it.

The only weak point not addressed by these changes are applications that are either overdue for an overhaul (iWork suite) or immature on release of new versions (Final Cut Pro X, iBooks Author 2, QuickTime, etc.). Who do we look at for that?

[macgenius13]

Update: The senior management page has in fact been updated. (10/29 8:15 PM ET)

[Stewsburntmonkey]

 flowney, on 29 October 2012 - 04:14 PM, said:

Jonny Ive will make short work of getting rid of skumorphic design principles in both iOS and MacOS X -- a good thing. He's already on record as hating it.

The only weak point not addressed by these changes are applications that are either overdue for an overhaul (iWork suite) or immature on release of new versions (Final Cut Pro X, iBooks Author 2, QuickTime, etc.). Who do we look at for that?

Those are probably more in Tim Cook's domain. As CEO he is going to the final word on overall strategy and product ship dates.

I think the more Apple relaxes into the role of an infrastructure company the better it will be. It is great at building technology infrastructure, base hardware, OS/APIs and development environments. It does best when it creates a base platform for others to build on. OSX saved the company once and iOS has been a primary driver of the company since the iPhone launched. If Apple can embrace that role, as a technology enabler, then it can keep changing the world for decades to come.

[Dennistrator]

Jonny Ives as head of human interface design seems like good news. Hopefully, he will tighten up the inconsistent elements that have crept into the UI over the years.

[DocNo]

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The podcast app was a truly poorly done bit of software engineering, which does reflect very badly on Forstall and his leadership. I think virtually everyone knew Browett wasn't a good fit from very early on and it is nice to see him gone so quickly.

Exactly. Reading developer comments on API issues like the recent problems with GameCenter point to further fundamental issues.

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Though firing is easy, hiring no so much, so the real test will be if Cook and company can find a good replacement.

That's the real issue. Apple's culture is so opposite many companies it's going to be very, very hard for them to get experienced managers that aren't "tainted" with myopic quarterly-based wall street driven decision making habits

[ront1]

The Maps issue is way overblown. Yeah, there are some problems with it, but overall I've found it quite useful for turn by turn directions both here in San Diego and a medium size town in Texas a month ago. Overall, it's more useful than the previous Maps app which didn't give you turn by turn directions. The bigger problem in my opinion has been how lackluster iCloud is. iCloud is simply unusable.

[Rycho]

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Jonny Ives as head of human interface design seems like good news. Hopefully, he will tighten up the inconsistent elements that have crept into the UI over the years.

It's Ive. There's no 's' in his name.

[icerabbit]

IF he was ousted over skeuomorphism, as other sites suggest; I don't really look forward to the future, because that could mean that everything will be stripped of color / fun / ... and rendered in a limited grayscale palette like iTunes, Finder, ... on our desktops. Sure some of the leather effects are whimsy, but things should be allowed to have some identity.

But who knows, there's probably a lot more going on we may find out about in 10 years.

[JDW]

The strangest part is (and especially strange that this article makes no mention of it) is that just some weeks ago I was reading about how Forstall was extremely close to Steve Jobs and well respected by Steve, and that Forstall was likely next in line for CEO behind Tim Cook!

So is it really that Forstall is just being the sacrificial lamb here over the maps fallout? Or is it not rather than some within Apple don't want another Steve-like personality in Apple, so they pressured him to resign?

Something seems fishy here, and quite worthy of a good journalist at Macworld to investigate further!

[Stewsburntmonkey]

 JDW, on 29 October 2012 - 05:47 PM, said:

The strangest part is (and especially strange that this article makes no mention of it) is that just some weeks ago I was reading about how Forstall was extremely close to Steve Jobs and well respected by Steve, and that Forstall was likely next in line for CEO behind Tim Cook!

So is it really that Forstall is just being the sacrificial lamb here over the maps fallout? Or is it not rather than some within Apple don't want another Steve-like personality in Apple, so they pressured him to resign?

Something seems fishy here, and quite worthy of a good journalist at Macworld to investigate further!

According to most reports, Forstall was never really liked within the company. He apparently wasn't very good at bringing people together and had many ideological disagreements with senior management. He seems to have been protected by Jobs, but now that Jobs is gone so too is that protection. That said I highly doubt Forstall is going to be terribly upset. He's free to pursue whatever he chooses now and is assured of a soft landing whatever he does.

[mathogre]

On Browett, maybe they can retrieve Ron Johnson from JCP. From what I understand, the brilliance he showed at Apple hasn't worked the same magic at JCP.