Apple Removes Heads of Software, Retail Groups

[Luke Jaconetti]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-iphone-software-retail-chiefs-leave-company-212250126--finance.html

 

Former Software Unit chief Scott Forstall is being seen as the scapegoat for the very public Apple Maps fiasco.  He will serve as an assistant to CEO Tim Cook until next year when he is formally removed.

 

The head of the Retail Unit was John Browett, who himself last year replaced Ron Johnson.  Johnson went on to be the CEO of JC Penny, and was responsible for their failed and utterly cockamamie "no sales" strategy, which you might remember being agressively advertised with Ellen Degeneres earlier this year before the entire experiment tanked.

[Jason Service]

On the one hand, it seems like overkill to kick S. Forstall to the curb because of Maps...was that REALLY THAT BIG A DEAL? As a Droid user, i can't speculate, but the hype seems 100 times worse than the actual app...

 

Now the track record of top level Apple folks once they leave Apple is becoming questionable. We all kow what a dictator Steve Jobs was, it is beginning to make me wonder if Apple is lacking the kind of leadership they have been accustomed to, and if that may be problamatic moving forward...

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[Cary Preston]

Not surprising at all; both were at the center of a couple very non-Apple decisions that had negative impacts on public perception (and organizations that strive to offer high-end goods like Apple does LIVE off of public perception). 

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[Cary Preston]

The retail officer was a questionable hire- he was head of a department store chain in the UK that wasn't know for their sterling customer relations. As for maps, it was an overblown issue in the US, but outside of the US it was as bad as advertised- and they are really pushing to expand on the global front. Oddly the iPhone's maps are by far the best in China and outlying areas due to the data they have access to and their head start in the area. I've been using Apple's maps since my iPhone 5 arrived and haven't had an issue yet, but I've read of some really bad issues in the UK, and the satellite images had some very bad rendering issues in places like Las Vegas. 

Altogether it isn't the appearance they strive for, and when you're in charge it's always your fault. The retail store staffing decisions alone was a big red flag for me. One of the things that got me to switch to a Mac was the level of customer service afforded; if you pay a premium price you expect a premium product and the support to go with it. When you pay Dell prices you get Dell phone support. I'm surprised it took them this long to kick him to the curb; his policy decisions were rescinded within days of being reported. 

[Race]

I'll just chime in regarding the Maps issue: I tried using the turn by turn navigation to get down to Key West a few weekends ago.  Rather simple route, really.  The problem arose when we got to the Miami area.

A) Siri's recitation of road names is just not there yet.  She doesn't put appropriate pauses between key words and it makes it impossible to decipher.  "In the next half mile turn right on miamiexpressaonea." or some such.  We missed an exit because of this.  Not the end of the world, but not a problem I experienced with more mature GPS devices.

B) Siri is too damn chatty.  There was a 5 mile turn warning, then 2 mile warning, then another one when almost at the turn.  I kept yelling at Siri: "All right! I get it, the turn is coming up!".  

I agree that these problems didn't warrant the shitstorm the Internet decided to generate.  On the other hand, you'd think Apple could have just waited a little longer to get some kinks worked out before making this swap.

[Cary Preston]

They had at least another year on the contract with google, but I understand why they jumped early. New version of iOS, and the pressure of not wanting to fall further behind in navigation (Google wasn't going to allow turn by turn on iOS). It took google time to get their maps up to par, so I expect apple to improve dramatically in a relatively short time. It's far easier to catch up than to innovate. 

Sent from my iPhone

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