Boom, indeed:
Apple today announced executive management changes that will encourage even more collaboration between the Company’s world-class hardware, software and services teams. As part of these changes, Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will add more responsibilities to their roles. Apple also announced that Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim.
A few quick thoughts:
Forstall is a huge loss, clearly. The father of iOS. But he was not without controversy inside of Apple. People have heard about the “skeuomorphic wars”, but there were also plenty of whispers of um, issues, with other employees. And then there was also the matter of Maps and Siri, under his watch, of course.
Apple makes a point in the release of saying that Eddy Cue is now in charge of both Maps and Siri. Read into that what you will.
Forstall’s “special advisor” role sure sounds a lot like a pure optics move. The same title was given to Tony Fadell when he stepped down as head of the iPod division in 2008 (and he officially left about a year later).
Seven (7!) paragraphs in, we get: “Additionally, John Browett is leaving Apple. A search for a new head of Retail is underway and in the interim, the Retail team will report directly to Tim Cook.” This was clearly a mistake by Apple from the start. Good to see them rectify it so quickly.
Bob Mansfield went from retiring (just four months ago!), to un-retiring and being an SVP without an official role, to getting a whole new division, Technologies. HUGE.
Likewise, Jony Ive can now add software design to his resume. The fact that he’s staying may be the single most important thing to Apple in all of this.
Craig Federighi is now in charge of iOS. The OS X/iOS lines continue to blur. I think it will be good to get some new blood in there. It was only two months ago he was elevated to SVP (of OS X), now he is without question one of the most important execs at the company.
No mention of Phil Schiller. No need. He’s clearly number two in the food chain, I believe.
Update: Interesting thought by Ryan Jones.
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