Mac Pro Election! Who would you vote?

[Ulenspiegel]

I'm curious what Scott Forstall would do with the company. I always thought his vision was closer to Steve's than Tim's. He may have gotten the blame for taking skuemorphism too far, but something happened when they made the 180 degree flip after his departure. I've noticed that the older OSes (10.5-10.6) were easier for my less technically inclined extended family to use than the current ones.

It is really an interesting question what Forstall would do. He had many things in common with SJ.
I just wonder how skeumorphism can be taken too far? It either resembles real world objects or not.
Personally I hate the now fashionable flat, naïve art-type, minimalist approach.

 

[mryingster]

It is really an interesting question what Forstall would do. He had many things in common with SJ.
I just wonder how skeumorphism can be taken too far? It either resembles real world objects or not.
Personally I hate the now fashionable flat, naïve art-type, minimalist approach.

Agreed. I didn't mind it as much as some people. The only application I hated to use was Address Book. In all cases though, it makes sense for buttons to look like gosh-darned buttons. So often people don't realize what their computer can do because functions are not discoverable. It's like visiting a website where links aren't underlined and just barely a different color. It's a nightmare! Form over function is not the answer people!

 

[zephonic]

It is really an interesting question what Forstall would do. He had many things in common with SJ.
I just wonder how skeumorphism can be taken too far? It either resembles real world objects or not.
Personally I hate the now fashionable flat, naïve art-type, minimalist approach.

Yes. The 'flat' look may be more stylistically homogenous, but it certainly isn't as ergonomic as the much-maligned skeuomorphism championed by SJ and Forstall.

 

[Bubba Satori]

I feel bad that Eduardo hasn't gotten any votes.

No I don't.

 

[LinusR]

My suggestion for other: Why not Scott Forstall? I know quite a few here thoroughly dislike him, but his vision for iOS was quite remarkable in a way. I've always had the feeling he had the drive and passion to improve the iOS platform.

Edit: Sorry, missed previous post on Scott Forstall... Totally agree with you, mryingster!

 

[ActionableMango]

My suggestion for other: Why not Scott Forstall? I know quite a few here thoroughly dislike him, but his vision for iOS was quite remarkable in a way. I've always had the feeling he had the drive and passion to improve the iOS platform.

He had appropriate drive and passion, but I didn't like a lot of his choices that came out of that. Skeumorphic design has its benefits, but he used it too often and in tacky ways. It felt like the terrible repeating marble/wood/stone backgrounds in 1990's web design.

 

[Larry-K]

Looks like "Other" is a shoe-in, of course he'd win the presidential vote as well.

 

[antonis]

Satya Nadella undoubtedly brought a breath of fresh air to Microsoft. Have you guys seen the Surface Studio ? I can't imagine what would happen in this site if Apple had released such a product. But they didn't. Heck, I don't think Microsoft has ever looked better hence I cannot think anyone else more suitable to put apple back on the right track.

 

[zephonic]

Looks like "Other" is a shoe-in, of course he'd win the presidential vote as well.

I'm pretty sure he'd be soundly beaten by "none of the above"

 

[Thunderbird]

To be honest, they all fall short as none of them have made any significant strides.

And people suggesting Woz are clearly unaware of the fact that Woz would make an incredibly inept CEO. Some of his post-Apple ventures have been atrocious. I love Woz as a person, but as a decision-maker, he'd run Apple to the ground. He's just too good of a person (morally speaking) to be a good business guy.

Some of Steve Jobs ventures were atrocious (i.e. Apple's first incarnation, NeXT).

 

[Goatllama]

Phil the Shill got a vote for CEO?
He'll need to stop buying clothes at the Goodphil store.

FTFY

I don't know much about Forstall, are there any good videos or articles he wrote to get a feel for him?

And I would vote for Federighi, he just seems the most passionate and natural though, as pointed out in another thread, he might not be leadership material for the whole company.

 

[ITguy2016]

Some of Steve Jobs ventures were atrocious (i.e. Apple's first incarnation, NeXT).

What led you to this conclusion? Most everything I heard about NeXT was generally positive. I think the only negative was the cost of the systems. Unfortunately by the time I purchased a NeXT system the company was gone and I didn't have any software for it. So it basically ran the OS during my ownership (though I did use Matlab on it in college) which was pretty useless.

 

[kennyisalive]

Some of Steve Jobs ventures were atrocious (i.e. Apple's first incarnation, NeXT).

NeXT was the foundation for OS X though.

Also, the WWW was developed on a NeXT workstation by Tim Berners Lee

 

[AidenShaw]

NeXT was the foundation for OS X though.

Also, the WWW was developed on a NeXT workstation by Tim Berners Lee

...and actually took off because it had servers and clients for Windows, VMS, Solaris, Ultrix, Irix, ....

And TBL's name is "Tim Berners-Lee".

 

[Larry-K]

I'm pretty sure he'd be soundly beaten by "none of the above"

He wasn't in the poll or he would have been my first choice.

 

[Thunderbird]

What led you to this conclusion? Most everything I heard about NeXT was generally positive. I think the only negative was the cost of the systems. Unfortunately by the time I purchased a NeXT system the company was gone and I didn't have any software for it. So it basically ran the OS during my ownership (though I did use Matlab on it in college) which was pretty useless.

NeXT was the foundation for OS X though.

Also, the WWW was developed on a NeXT workstation by Tim Berners Lee

You're missing the point. If Woz's ventures were 'atrocious' because of his decision making or running companies into the ground, then the same can be applied to Jobs with Apple and NeXT. Jobs initially ran Apple into the ground and Sculley had to save it. NeXT only lasted 2 years before going belly up. And whose decision were the sky high prices?

That's why I voted for Woz. He wouldn't be any worse than Tim Cook. Jobs only became a decent CEO after he came back to Apple.

 

[JamesPDX]

Nothing wrong with Tim in my book.

I was trying to come up with a joke about a book being glued-shut, but I failed. Help a guy out!

 

[Theophany]

You're missing the point. If Woz's ventures were 'atrocious' because of his decision making or running companies into the ground, then the same can be applied to Jobs with Apple and NeXT. Jobs initially ran Apple into the ground and Sculley had to save it. NeXT only lasted 2 years before going belly up. And whose decision were the sky high prices?

That's why I voted for Woz. He wouldn't be any worse than Tim Cook. Jobs only became a decent CEO after he came back to Apple.

Jobs didn't run Apple into the ground. He was fired for being tempestuous and impossible to work with by Sculley and the board of directors. The company was driven into the ground in the late 80s and 90s by poor management, terrible products and bad decisions like licensing the Macintosh OS to clone makers.

NeXT ended up successful insofar as it was bought out by Apple and a lot of NeXT's software became core Apple products like OS X and Web Objects. Let's not also forget Jobs also funded Pixar with his own money and look where he took that company.

To compare Woz and Jobs as CEOs is ridiculous.

 

[Goatllama]

I was trying to come up with a joke about a book being glued-shut, but I failed. Help a guy out!

You had four months but couldn't think of anything? How about "You can't find anything wrong with a book if all the pages are glued together." (although, not being able to read the book probably counts as 'wrong')

 

[Floris]

I was trying to come up with a joke about a book being glued-shut, but I failed. Help a guy out!

I still stand by what I said, nothing wrong with Tim. But I like to append right now while I have been waiting for over 9 months for a new iMac, and with the iPad Spring and iPhone Summer releases, that I have very little faith in "computer" releases beyond a laptop this year.. because it will probably be macbook updates in Fall. and all that stuff.

So, Tim Cook is great, he is doing fantastic as a CEO, if he wants to turn the company into a Microsoft.

 

[cube]

I thought I would be able to vote for Naples.

 

[Thunderbird]

Jobs didn't run Apple into the ground.

Yeah, he did. After initial great success, the MacIntosh and the Apple II that Apple developed later were not selling well.That's why Jobs hired Sculley in the first place, to boost sales. Jobs headed the MacIntosh division, but it was the Apple II that accounted for most of Apple's sales. Apple had a major cash flow problem. Many employees left. And even Woz later said that he thought Apple was going in the wrong direction, prompting Woz to sell most of his Apple stock. https://books.google.ca/books?id=zC...n1Np8&pg=PA35&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

He was fired for being tempestuous and impossible to work with by Sculley and the board of directors.

Jobs actually wasn't even fired, he was simply asked to step down from the MacIntosh division:

Instead of doing that, he resigned from the company completely.

The company was driven into the ground in the late 80s and 90s by poor management, terrible products and bad decisions like licensing the Macintosh OS to clone makers.

Sculley kept Apple afloat for a while but after he left, Apple took another tumble.

NeXT ended up successful insofar as it was bought out by Apple and a lot of NeXT's software became core Apple products like OS X and Web Objects. Let's not also forget Jobs also funded Pixar with his own money and look where he took that company.

If NeXt was really successful, it wouldn't have been bought out by Apple, it would have flourished on its own. NeXt was somewhat profitable (after it turned into a software company), but never truly "successful". Jobs did some good innovative things with NeXt, which is why Apple eventually bought it. Jobs also learned a lot more about managing a company at NeXt, just as he did at Pixar.

By the time Jobs came back to Apple after 12 years, he was a lot more experienced and seasoned as a CEO.

 

[seveej]

I want someone with a similar mindset to Steve Jobs', the way he thinks and the way he operates the company.

Steve was unique. That said, while the cMP was created with Steve at the helm, he was also the one who started shifting resources away from dekstops and let the pro lineup starve and languish. Steve was a brilliant person, but reification has its limits (methinks)

Phil the Shill got a vote for CEO?
He'll need to stop buying clothes at the Goodwill store.

Phil has his trademark shirt, just like Steve had his trademark turtleneck. Personally I do not appreciate comments on people's appearance (male or female), but I do understand that in the age of audiovisual some people pay a lot (too much?) attention to surface issues...

I don't really care who is CEO, but they really need to have a distinct Macintosh division.

I second that, almost. Apple has been used (for a decade now) as a business school textbook case of how all the old theories about lines and divisions and all other contrived methods of company-internal differentiation (which were all the rage since the 80's) were not the only way. Apple is not differentiated. Apple (at least the part making the company's future) is integrated. In fact, it sometimes seems apple has made integration its religion...

While that same integration has not benefited the Pro Mac line, it has worked for the company as a whole. So I think the question should be: How can the Pro Mac lineup get some juice, without screwing with the integration?

Me.

Or Me?
Seriously, off course not. But Apple would do well in listening to the likes of us here.

RGDS,

 

[JamesPDX]

And let's not forget that Bill Gates wrote a big check that kept Apple from going down the drain. Does anybody remember that panic-rush to go get a Mac? There was a time when we really weren't sure if they'd be around in the next few months, etc. Around the time of the Clones. It was when Windows had a really hard time with MIDI and DAWs. Scary stuff.

 

[MH01]

Somebody voted Eddie cue....wow.