Neil Cybart:
The two most powerful people at Apple are Tim Cook and Jony Ive. While Cook is tasked with making sure the Apple machine is being run by the best team possible, Jony’s role is much more abstract.
And:
However, the one area Cook does not have complete control over is product strategy. That distinction belongs to Jony. It may seem hyperbolic to consider Jony the most powerful person at Apple. He no longer spends much time managing anyone on a day-to-day basis. He doesn’t speak on Apple’s earnings conference calls. Wall Street knows very little about him, and neither does Silicon Valley. In fact, following his recent promotion to Chief Design Officer, Jony doesn’t even spend as much time at Apple HQ these days. Yet Jony has such a significant influence over Apple’s product strategy, it is safe to say we are firmly within the Jony Ive era at Apple.
And:
Jony holds an incredible amount of power because Apple is a design-led company. Apple’s functional organizational structure and culture are set up in order to give the Industrial Design (ID) group absolute power. ID holds more power at Apple than any other group.
And:
Much of the criticism pointed towards Apple today is a by-product of Apple executives doubling down on Apple’s design-led philosophy. The logic behind the move is pretty clear: The strategy works. Jony, Richard Howarth, VP of Industrial Design, and the rest of the ID team have more power today than at any other point in Apple history. Jony grabbed additional power during the first major management reshuffle under Tim Cook in 2012. His promotion to Chief Design Officer in 2015 reflected Jony receiving even more control. In fact, Jony has so much control, he now is able to spend more time away from Apple HQ (which I suspect is related to Project Titan).
Really interesting piece, full of specific examples.
A complete rehash of subjective criticism, even rumors. “Some people are saying” seems to be the new standard. Where have we heard that phrase?
I think from people who are in the know and people who are familiar with.. uh you know, things.
Ahhh… on the the internet. Must be true then. Never mind 😉
Too many chefs will spoil the broth.
The pessimism is realistic. To some of us old farts the Mac represents Apple. A retreat from the Mac will only cause some of us to simply entertain the idea of moving to another platform and more open services.
Project Titan does not interest me. Tesla would have to do a front face flop. Apple’s ADHD for computer SW/HW is mildly tolerable but I’m not entrusting 25k or more to a company that has a history of losing interest in products.
Apple’s biggest competitor isn’t Google or Microsoft. It’s the web and the potential it offers. Imagine another decade of growth within the web sphere where you rely on wifi for calls and a web centric OS. You may not even need a carrier.
old fart threats of defection are meaningless. we’ve heard all your doomsaying and we don’t care.
I use Macs for my business and would never consider equipping with Windows, ever.
“we” how many different personalities do you have Sybil?
You’re pretty much right though, Redmond isn’t doing anything of note to really consider switching. I’ll probably tinker a bit with Linux.
I’m bullish on Apple so long as they realize that the Mac is what keeps the ecosystem together but that’s the old fart in me speaking.
I don’t know Sybil but I’ve read your dooooom nonsense plenty.
Totally of topic, well somewhat anyway, Sybil is actually a pretty good movie. Sally Field won an Emmy for lead actress. I’d recommend checking it out.
On topic, I completely agree. I work almost exclusively with Macs in a printing/design environment. We have the “one PC” in the room for those that think Publisher is actually something they should use. But then it”s “open application you hate, convert to PDF, leave PC”.
I’ve dabbled with Red Hat, Sun and others as well as Ubuntu at home out of curiosity. But then it was bac to my trusty platform of choice.
That’s not changing anytime soon. This coming from someone who’s been using them since the mid to late 80’s professionally and personally.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075296/
What do you like the most about running Macs in your business?
That’s enough of the personal attacks, gentlemen. Stay on topic, stay civil or don’t respond to each other if you can’t.