Apple may not always sell more phones than the competition, but between its trend-setting handset designs and gargantuan fan base, it's easy to see why it's considered one of the most powerful companies in the wireless industry.
In fact, the folks over at FierceWireless just posted their annual list of the top 25 most powerful people in US wireless. And out of all of the carrier CEOs and heads of government agencies, they ranked Tim Cook number one...
Tim Cook has ushered in a number of changes to Apple in his first year as the CEO. He's instituted an employee donation program, and a few weeks ago he spearheaded one of the biggest management shakeups in the company's history.
And this afternoon, we can add another alteration to the list. According to a new report, Cook has signed off on a new program, code-named "Blue Sky," that gives select employees up to two weeks to work on special side projects...
Do you love that linen-like background when logging into your iOS or Mac device? Well, it could be the most visible fatality as minimalism overtakes realism and design chief Jonathan Ive takes the reigns once held by iOS honcho Scott Forstall. That noise you hear is the splintering of the Jobs era and Cook era at Apple.
Forstall, who headed iOS development, was also the chief cheerleader of the late Steve Jobs. Jobs loved what design geeks term skeuomorphism, a Greek word meaning a tool's shape. In computer design, placing realistic objects - such as linen on a screen or ebooks stored in a wooden bookshelf - are used to lend a sense of assurance, like seeing a familiar face among a crowd of strangers.
But with Jobs gone, voices within the Cupertino, California firm which simply hated this sort of design gained volume. A particularly vehement enemy of Forstall's design philosophy: Industrial design guru Jony Ive...
The many layers of why Scott Forstall was ousted as Apple's iOS chief just keep peeling away. The latest wrinkle: Bob Mansfield, the company's former hardware engineering senior vice president, agreed to come out of retirement to become senior vice president of Technologies, a new group encompassing wireless and hardware tech, only after Apple CEO Tim Cook offered a boatload of cash and the promise he didn't have to talk to Forstall...
Joy of Tech does regular takes on the tech industry's blunders and Apple is often the subject of their daily web comic. This is their view of Monday's executive shake-up that saw CEO Tim Cook fire long-time iOS chief Scott Forstall and retail boss (though he never earned that title) John Browett. Go past the fold for the comic and an additional explanation...
If there's one thing that really came as a surprise this month, it's certainly not the iPad mini, or any other product announcement, but the executives shake up and shuffling at Apple. SVP of Retail John Browett is gone, and that's a good thing, and really, hardly a surprise. The biggest surprise was that he was hired in the first place. The real bombshell in yesterday's abrupt announcement is the departure of SVP of iOS Software, Scott Forstall.
Although it was the biggest kick, Apple's press release also told us that Ive would now be in charge of Human Interface (aka everything design), iOS and OS X groups are now one, Maps and Siri are now part of the Internet Services unit, and Mansfield will lead the new Technologies group.
Now that we've gathered a little more information about the news and that I've had time to really soak it in, I'd like to share my thoughts on the situation, and what it all means for the new Apple...
Earlier today, Apple announced some major changes to its management team. The company's SVP of iOS Software, Scott Forstall, will be leaving next year, as will SVP of Retail John Browett. Other executives, particularly Jony Ive, will be picking up Forstall's responsibilities, and a search is underway for Browett's replacement.
This afternoon, Tim Cook sent an internal email to Apple employees regarding the management changes, and thanked Scott for his many years of service. We've got that email after the break...
Apple CEO Tim Cook during yesterday's conference call with Wall Street analysts briefly touched on Microsoft's Surface tablet, which hit store shelves today, canibalization of its own products by the iPad mini and more. He also addressed his predecessor's public dissing of smaller tablets two years ago, insisting that Apple's position on the matter remains unchanged and stressing that the iPad mini, which has a 7.9-inch display, is "in a whole different league" than other seven inchers. Apple in fact, he said, "would never make" a seven-inch iPad...
You had to know this was coming: during the Q&A portion of Apple's conference call yesterday, analysts grilled Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer about the higher-than-expected pricing on the iPad mini.
As you would expect, the two defended the tablet's $329 price tag, stating that they didn't want to build a small, cheap tablet. "iPad mini is a fantastic product; it's not a compromise like the other 7-inch tablets."
In his email to employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook describes 2012 as an "incredibly successful year" which continues "to show Apple's unrivaled leadership in this post-PC era".
And in order to mark the company's accomplishment, Cook announced Thanksgiving vacations will be extended for employees...
Apple's boss Tim Cook just issued a mea culpa on Apple's awesome Maps in the form of an open letter published on Apple's website. What's really interesting is that the issue which threatened to snowball into a PR catastrophe has forced Apple to advise customers to use rival services "while we’re improving Maps".
It takes a tremendous amount of public outcry to force Cupertino into such a defensive position. I imagine heads will roll as Cook gives Apple's mapping team a kind of dressing down Steve Jobs once gave to the MobileMe team ("you should hate each other for having let each other down"). No matter how you look at it, the Maps fiasco has tarnished Apple's reputation, at least in my view...
Acknowledging what has become Mapgate, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook issued an apology for inaccuracies, faulty data and other issues plaguing Apple's new in-house mapping service that replaced the stock Google Maps app on iOS 6 devices.
And just as his predecessor did when Apple got entangled in disputes with the music industry over copy-protecting iTunes songs or Adobe over Flash, Cook issued an open letter on the company's web site to explain Apple's position on the matter...