Apple Cans iOS Chief, Retail Chief

[jpeyton]

http://news.yahoo.com/2-top-executives-leaving-apple-221444530--finance.html

Apple Inc. shook up its executive ranks Monday, saying the head of its store operations is leaving after just six months on the job and the long-serving head of its iPhone software development operations is exiting next year.

Apple didn't say why retail senior vice president John Browett and iOS software SVP Scott Forstall were leaving, but both have presided over missteps this year.

Browett cut staffing hours at Apple's retail stores, a move the company reversed and acknowledged as a mistake. Forstall's division launched a software update in September that replaced Google Maps with Apple's first mapping application. It quickly drew unfavorable comparisons to the software it was replacing, and Apple apologized.

This could be great news for Apple users, particularly if Jony Ive decides iOS needs to evolve beyond icons on a grid.

Kudos on timing the announcement while the entire news cycle is dominated by Hurricane Sandy. I bet Zynga wished they waited.

 

[zerocool84]

No one got canned.

 

[jpeyton]

No one got canned.

Oustered, forced to leave, use whatever terminology you (or Apple's PR team) are comfortable with.

 

[s44]

Apparently Forstall was the big pusher of skeumorphism and Ive is against it.

Good for design, if nothing else.

 

[akugami]

I see Apple repeating the same mistakes of the past and what numerous companies have done. They have some success, then they sit on their laurels and stagnate while everyone else catches up and surpasses them. Quite frankly, while every version of iOS has had improvements, overall it feels stagnant. I think iOS needs a refresh. Maybe with someone new at the helm steering iOS we will see some genuine improvements rather than incremental steps.

 

[zaydq]

Maybe iphone fans will get what they want in the next gen. Maybe they saw the S3 commercial all over youtube haha.

 

[grkM3]

I'd buy an iPhone 6 if it ran jellybean

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

No one got canned.

he was allowed to leave gracefully, but im sure it was "nice kind of canning." he got pwned.

 

[grkM3]

Like they say.if you can't beat them join them lol

 

[s44]

he was allowed to leave gracefully, but im sure it was "nice kind of canning." he got pwned.

Apparently he had like $600 million (current value) in Apple stock due to him if he stayed through 2015/2020 (half each).

Not sure how gracefully one takes that kind of loss.

 

[jpeyton]

Apparently he had like $600 million (current value) in Apple stock due to him if he stayed through 2015/2020 (half each).

Not sure how gracefully one takes that kind of loss.

Tim Cook's stock is worth around $600 million; Forstall's share was worth around $250 million (if he stayed with the company). He's not poor by any means, having sold around $40 million worth of stock earlier this year.

 

[KentState]

I'd buy an iPhone 6 if it ran jellybean

Me too if it had a slightly larger screen. I've gotten used to the S3 and pre-orderd a Note 2. However, Apple has never sold a product to my knowledge without their own OS on it.

 

[Mopetar]

Quite frankly, while every version of iOS has had improvements, overall it feels stagnant. I think iOS needs a refresh.

Really, if they added some form of widget that'd be all they need. Anything else is just change for the sake of change and just making things different without necessarily making them better. How would you even suggest that they refresh iOS?

Some of these changes are interesting though. Mansfield was going to retire just a few months ago and now he's heading up a new group with even more responsibility and importance. I wonder if there was some infighting between him and Forstall and as part of him coming back Forstall had to go.

Not surprised to see the other guy go, though. It was pretty clear after that last blunder of his that his way of running things had nothing in common with the way things had been done at Apple and wasn't inline with the way Apple had been trying to build their brand.

Going to be a lot of pressure on the guy who got handed Maps and Apple's other cloud stuff. That's obviously been the area where they've been the weakest.

The biggest announcement is probably that Ive is now going to be responsible for both software and hardware design. It will be interesting to see what kind of changes he brings to apple's apps and other software.

 

[grkM3]

Me too if it had a slightly larger screen. I've gotten used to the S3 and pre-orderd a Note 2. However, Apple has never sold a product to my knowledge without their own OS on it.

how sick would a quad core a6 be on a 4.3 in cell running android!you would get the best of both apple build with android OS

imagine the next nexus being an Iphone lol

This would never happen but it would help both companies make more money

 

[jpeyton]

how sick would a quad core a6 be on a 4.3 in cell running android!you would get the best of both apple build with android OS

imagine the next nexus being an Iphone lol

This would never happen but it would help both companies make more money

Samsung is every bit as competent as Apple when it comes to designing and fabbing SoCs. Exynos 5 (dual or quad) will be fantastic when it's introduced in the next Galaxy S phones early next year. A15 + Mali T604 quad-core GPU is beastly enough to power a 300ppi 10" display, it shouldn't even break a sweat pushing 720p. Even an S4 Pro has serious power.

A6 is fast, but it's nothing game changing.

 

[grkM3]

Samsung is every bit as competent as Apple when it comes to designing and fabbing SoCs. Exynos 5 (dual or quad) will be fantastic when it's introduced in the next Galaxy S phones early next year. A15 + Mali T604 quad-core GPU is beastly enough to power a 300ppi 10" display, it shouldn't even break a sweat pushing 720p. Even an S4 Pro has serious power.

A6 is fast, but it's nothing game changing.

Oh trust me I know very well samsung has a monster and if it wasnt for apple needing samsung to make the a6 we would of had the 5250 in the gs3 instead of the s4 because samsung had to build a crap load of a6s for apple in its fabs.

I never ment it as android dosnt have a chip to compete,heck exynos A15 was out almost a year ago and is just hitting leaked benches now.

all the time the apple fan boys were afraid that samsung would copy apples A6 design lol while samsung had a monster a15 already tapped out!

what I ment is getting a nice slim phone with a really powerfull soc without being 5.5 in.A coworker just got the iphone 5 and I adimt my gs3 at times is just to big and just wished samsung or some company would just build a perfect flagship 4.3 in phone.

my perfect cell would be

4.3 720P ips or samoled non pentile
true A15 (quad or dual)
2GB ram
button setup like the gs3(no onscreen ones)
16gb storage with sd slot
vanilla android
and make the cell as small as possible without a crazzy bezzle gap

samsung attempted it with the mini gs3 but put 2 year old hardware in it and the iphone 5 is close but needs to be just a tad bit bigger and wider.

I dont know why but makers keep pushing specs and keep making cells bigger

 

[makken]

sources are now saying that Forstall refusal to sign the maps apology letter was the tipping point in finally letting him go.

This is getting to be /popcorn worthy.

/popcorn.

 

[s44]

That's one expensive non-apology.

 

[ponyo]

I think it speaks highly of Apple that they hold people accountable.

 

[Mopetar]

Samsung is every bit as competent as Apple when it comes to designing and fabbing SoCs.

I don't know if I'd agree with this statement. Samsung certainly knows a hell of a lot more than Apple when it comes to fabbing SoCs, as they run their own fab, which Apple doesn't do. On the other hand, Apple is designing some heavily customized SoCs, to the point where they've even started playing around with the ARM cores themselves. The only other major chip vendor that's doing the same is Qualcomm with their SoCs. Samsung is just using the basic ARM reference designs and probably adding in other off-the-shelf stuff. I would say that they're nowhere near Apple, or other companies like Qualcomm that are doing their own designs.

Obviously there are advantages to either. For Apple, they got extra milage out of the Cortex-A9 design because the A15 wasn't ready to go. For Samsung, they have the ability to produce massive quantities of ARM's newest chip for their products. It could take years before Qualcomm or Apple are able to come out with customized A15 cores that can provide a tangible benefit over the stock design, so it's not as though not having a design team really hurts Samsung at this point.

Oh trust me I know very well samsung has a monster and if it wasnt for apple needing samsung to make the a6 we would of had the 5250 in the gs3 instead of the s4 because samsung had to build a crap load of a6s for apple in its fabs.

I don't think the timing would have worked out for that. Waiting for the 5250, most likely would have delayed the GS3 by quite a bit. Also, the S4 does have its own set of advantages, such as having the cellular communications stuff on-die.

 

[badb0y]

Scott Forstall probably got canned because of the iOS maps debacle.

The other guy was probably cutting costs at the retail stores at the expense of customer experience.

Glad both got dumped.

 

[jpeyton]

I think it speaks highly of Apple that they hold people accountable.

It also says that despite how they publicly declared iOS 6 the most advanced mobile operating system in the world, internally they had some high-level disagreement and disappointment with it.

Obviously there are advantages to either. For Apple, they got extra milage out of the Cortex-A9 design because the A15 wasn't ready to go. For Samsung, they have the ability to produce massive quantities of ARM's newest chip for their products.

Apple got some mileage out of the efficiency portion of their custom designed A6, but very little mileage in the performance portion. It's a testament to how advanced Samsung's engineering is, that they have a true A15 solution released to market a month after Apple launches A6.

It could take years before Qualcomm or Apple are able to come out with customized A15 cores that can provide a tangible benefit over the stock design, so it's not as though not having a design team really hurts Samsung at this point.

It's a bit disengenious to say Samsung doesn't have an SoC design team. Even a complete turn-key solution requires some level of engineering to implement on the scale that Samsung has done so. But I don't think Samsung is simply relying on ARM to secure the future course of their mobile devices; I think every major player in the smartphone industry is doing some R&D in this field, whether or not their designs have hit the market yet.

 

[badb0y]

It also says that despite how they publicly declared iOS 6 the most advanced mobile operating system in the world, internally they had some high-level disagreement and disappointment with it.

Every company says they have the most advanced *insert product* in the world.

 

[Skel]

I think it speaks highly of Apple that they hold people accountable.

It's nice that they didn't attempt to pretend the whole thing didn't happen, but this really seems like more of a case of he gave them the excuse they needed to get rid of him. According to the article, he was extremely disliked by "a number of others at his level inside Apple". When your head designer refuses to be in the same room as him, that's a major sign someone needs to go.

 

[makken]

Is it me, or does it feel like Kanye West took over technology news today?
Microsoft: "Introducing Windows Phone 8, the most p--"
Google: "Yo Microsoft, Imma let you finish but our new Nexus 4 is the bes--"
Apple: "Yo Google, Imma let you finish, but Scott Forstall was the worst exec ever!"