Starting today, Apple operates under new rules, with 3 people in control of the most important segments of the company. Eddy Cue leads the internet division that develops iTunes Stores, iCloud, Siri, iOS 6 Maps and everything related to Apple's internet services, Craig Federighi develops OS X, iOS functionality and Jony Ive takes care the design of the products, but also that of the iOS interface. Basically these 3 people they have in their hands the future of the Apple company and for now they seem to be the most capable of bringing a new breath in a period in which Apple has made many wrong steps.
Not only is this a profound increase in responsibility for all three of these top executives, it's a profound change in Apple's organization going as far back as I can remember. There's a long-standing pattern of separating watershed products important to the company's future. The Mac and Apple teams. Mac OS X and Classic. The iPod division. iOS and Mac OS X. Suddenly, Tim Cook has pulled the reins in. Federighi owns software. I own design. Cue owns services. Period.
If you wonder why Apple made wrong steps, I will tell you that the development deadlines imposed by the management caused big problems for the engineers. Those in management set certain deadlines in which certain services had to be produced, and because of these deadlines Crab it came out as a beta product again iOS 6 Maps it came out as a largely useless product. The engineers knew about the problems, the management knew about them, but the mistake of imposing development deadlines forced them to launch them on the market and we all know what the result was.
The time-based schedule is one of the reasons why Siri and Maps arrived as half-baked products and were met with derision. Many engineers inside Apple could foresee problems with Maps. Why? Because Maps were driven by a time schedule. Maps and Siri are complex products whose dependencies (for lack of a better word) go deep into different parts of the phone and even the network. The schedule-driven release culture makes folks less daring — why take arrows in your back for failing to deliver a radical new feature on a pre-dictated time? If this cultural warp continues, Apple might have a bigger headache on its hands. Ive's appointment as the Human Interface honcho means that more risk-taking needs to come into the products.
Many American analysts consider that the change made within Apple is beneficial, Tim Cook is again in charge of the retail division and he is extremely skilled in this field, Jony Ive has the opportunity to improve the design of iOS, which they know it extremely well, and Cue and Federighi are masters in their own fields. Theoretically, 2013 should bring us much better Apple products, but it remains to be seen how the 3 SVPs with so many responsibilities will manage.
