Scott Forstall Reportedly Forced Out of Apple

[btbrossard]

It's going to be an awkward few months around Apple until he leaves. If I was in his shoes, I'd rather just go right away.

It's not like he's going to be rubbing nickels together on the street corner for spare change.

It's always sad to hear about people being forced out or losing their jobs, but the Maps thing was a big PR black eye.

 

[SatManager]

To all skeumorphism haters: How would apps like garageband on iPad or compass would look like if they weren't skeumorphic?

Everyone has an opinion without educating himself first. Don't you realise that the minimalistic style of most modern handheld devices, the clean lines and "lack of character" allows interface designers to become effectively product designers by using skeumorphic concepts on their UIs? There are papers and psychological studies out there connecting skeumorphism with enjoyment.


Furthermore advances in haptic technology on displays letting people feel the textures displayed can elevate skeumorphism into a whole new level in the foreseable future.

It is a sad day today.. and most of you haven't even realise it yet..

So then the best approach is to provide the user the ability to utilize themes. Let the user determine how the app looks and feels. Does that want it to look like an old style calendar or more of a simplistic approach or it is all purple. Let the user have the choose. Then you please many more people and give them ownership of how it looks.

 

[Manderby]

This announcement comes a little surprising. Aside from my personal opinion about taste and functionality, Mr. Forstall nonetheless guided iOS in a direction. And I completely understood why he was chosen. On the other hand, I never understood why he was on stage so often. In my personal opinion, Mr. Forstall tried to act like Mr. Jobs on stage. To me, this felt unauthenthic and untrustworthy which probably is why I personally never built excitement for anything he presented.

Personal taste aside, I doubt that something like not signing an apology-letter has something to do with it. Maybe it was just the last drop.

If on the other hand what is rumored about apple being divided into camps is true, his leaving (or being pushed) is totally comprehensible. Everyone can be kicked (pushed, mobbed) out, even the big ones. That is sad and I'm sure, all these posts here only scratch the surface of what is the true reason behind it all.

This announcement sounds to me that there were very personal (not so pretty) things going on which lead to this decision. I wish him strength for the future.

 

[SatManager]

It's going to be an awkward few months around Apple until he leaves. If I was in his shoes, I'd rather just go right away.

It's not like he's going to be rubbing nickels together on the street corner for spare change.

It's always sad to hear about people being forced out or losing their jobs, but the Maps thing was a big PR black eye.

It just wasn't maps that canned him. When you have a large majority of the employes are cheering his departure then you have other factors in play.

 

[Wordman]

Wonder if he was responsible for buggering up the Apple TV and home sharing too?

 

[ironsienna]

No ... I will NOT grant credit to OSX to Forstall ... I'd rather give that Bertrand Serlet who was a pure prrogrammers' engineer. Aqua was not loved by many and I've used it for a full year after Puma. Bertrand gave us serious innovative improvements in Leopard and Snow Leopard.

He is still around, you can see him on apples new keynote sitting at the bottom left corner in the crowd at 49:30, 50:20

http://www.apple.com/apple-events/october-2012/

 

[jafingi]

Hmm.. After Steve's death, Scott Forstall's keynotes has been what I've looked forward to at every keynote :/

He seemed really passionate at what he do, and I really don't dig Cook's and Phil's presentations. Scott just seemed to love it more and was way more passionate.

Anyways. I'm looking forward to seeing what Scott's next project(s) will be.

 

[Macjack]

Not enough

Tim should also fire the guy that is responsible for the Mac Pro delay.

Though, sorry for Scott.

 

[o0jelly0o]

profound?? you can't swipe the multitasking bar up because it's already accessible by double clicking the home button. why would you require additional means to access the very same option? go buy some books about design usability.

Hahaha you are smart. (Insert sarcasm) Double clicking the Home Button as I discussed in my post is incredibly unintuitive. Look up the word unintuitive, I doubt you know the meaning. P.S. yes I love being condescending.

 

[iBreatheApple]

To say he "never fit in" is a bit brash and unlikely. Perhaps his views differed from others at Apple, but I feel like he truly loved what he did. And for what it's worth, pushovers don't get very far. We've heard similar "assertive traits" of Mr. Jobs' personality as well.

 

[The Bulge]

Well, one could argue that by firing Forstall, Tim Cook is doing just that: keeping together.

I'd argue that Steve was keeping it together by having people that think one way and the other way, that's where all great Apple ideas came from, from that clash of different minds.

I don't see how Maps issues are enough to force someone like Forstall from Apple and UI is all a matter of opinion after a certain point.

Cook is a lunatic that's for sure.

 

[Northgrove]

Who thinks Google hires him?

You think they're in need of a Google Maps revision?

 

[iLuvMyMacToo]

Don't slam the door behind you Scott. There are more important things happening to people less fortunate than him.

 

[o0jelly0o]

Scott Forstall was even better than Jobs at presentation. I was thinking he might even take over Steve's role when he died, but it never happened.

I hope they don't put too much pressure on Jonathan Ive, hardware and UI design are two very different things. Surely Apple can find another designer with a bit of skill.

What i'd love to see in the next version of iOS, is a big focus on using typography effectively. Think slick magazines etc. They could possibly combine some of their own stuff into the OS itself, instead of having them as separate apps, like photos, music, books, safari, maps, the various stores, etc... That way, everything could be far more seamless and integrated.

Whatever they do, it needs to be a big change. Something that blows Microsoft's efforts away... but that still retains the basic functionality of iOS underneath.

Forstall was absolutely terrible at presentation. Phil is the best at it currently.

 

[Northgrove]

I am definitely happy that John Browett left. But Forstall, not so much. Yes, I do hate the old fashioned calendar, but how do we know as the public that Forstall hadn't been part of more than just the design of those specific apps?

I feel like forcing someone out for doing a job that Steve Jobs wanted them to do is not something that Apple should do.

Just my thoughts...

On the other hand, Steve hasn't been here to experience the complaints on both Siri (accuracy) and Maps (uh, again accuracy), both of which Forstall was in charge of. Other than that, I think iOS has actually not presented that many new, big features the past two years. So the big ones have actually either failed or been controversial.

Edit: Oh, Game Center and gaming always seem to be highlighted during Apple presentations. But I don't particularly like where they've gone with that one either. Actually, I think the foundation of iOS was just great with the very first iPhone up to the time where it got folders and iCloud support, i.e core developments. But I think it's been falling behind in terms of built-in apps and actual features that "wow" end users.

 

[Anuba]

In light of the shakeup, Jonathan Ive is now taking over Apple's Human Interface teams.

Yay. I look forward to an interface so minimalist it makes Windows 8 Metro look like Las Vegas. I also look forward to the white-background video where he uses all obscure adjectives in the dictionary to explain his decision to reduce the IOS UI to a single grey button on grey background.

"When you think of the iPhone, it's probably the object you use the most in your life. And when you think about what you do with it, as you hold this extraordinarily thin and gorgeous object with its unprecedented fit and finish in your hand, you always pick it up and touch the screen with your thumb. This is why we extracted the purest essence of the user experience and transformed it into the new single-button interface. The lush purity and sublime beauty of this interface seems to counterpoint the sophistication of the technological underpinnings and circumvent the irrevocable vulgarization of the stream of subconscious thought imperative to the reflectiveness upon which the chamfered diamond cut edge of your mind celebrates the now of the future."

 

[Dr McKay]

And he shouldn't have either. It was and is a non-issue

Going from Full Service and 3G to 'No Service' in seconds because my skin touched a certain area of the phone is not and never was a non issue.

 

[o0jelly0o]

Here's when you immediately fire Forstall: He gets on stage and touts how absolutely amazing Maps Flyover is. He forgot to mention how absolutely terrible it really is, and that they spent time with a gimmick feature that few would use, over getting basic mapping features correct, which everyone uses. In my eyes he was a terrible leader for the iOS team, and most likely most of the iOS team needed firing as well. I am die hard Apple fan, mainly because of Jonny Ive, but I'm not some 'fanboy' who doesn't see or say when Apple is doing terrible things. In my eyes iOS was Apple's problem, and now I see it as being fixed, and hopefully it will be so much better with actual new features as opposed to embarrassingly bad menu bar colors and completely eradication of ALL color in the Music app. Might I add how terrible the App Store is? Honestly I've never seen worse searching.

 

[inertiat]

Thank goodness. I was wondering if it was just me or had Apple's own iOS apps taken a complete nosedive over the last year. The awful podcasts apps which was just completely broken and is still terrible slow and buggy (unbelievable), new broken Books app, Maps of course and the horrible, horrible skeuomorphic UI design in so many apps (game centre - what on earth?!?!).

Anyone with an ounce of design savviness will say that skeuomorphic design is a horrible, ugly, pointless exercise. So glad Jonny Ive is taking control of this now - put a proper designer in charge of design decisions.

Just got some of my faith in Apple back. Phew.

 

[Anuba]

Forstall was absolutely terrible at presentation. Phil is the best at it currently.

They all suck. On the surface they seem to be channeling Steve and all his hyperbole, but when Steve did it, it came with an inherent authority and passion that made you believe him... sort of. Schiller isn't cut out for standing in front of an audience and millions of online viewers, he looks like he has cold sweats and is about to crap his pants. Cook is more cool with it, but his speech pattern and the way he gargles on the words ("Retina dispwlllaeurgh") is disgusting, it's like having a bowl of snot and polenta dumped on your head every time he speaks.

 

[Ochyandkaren]

To say he "never fit in" is a bit brash and unlikely. Perhaps his views differed from others at Apple, but I feel like he truly loved what he did. And for what it's worth, pushovers don't get very far. We've heard similar "assertive traits" of Mr. Jobs' personality as well.

True.
So true.

 

[Bezetos]

Jonathan Ive working closely on iOS?

I can already see the ad:

When you look at *pause* how *pause* impossibly amazingly fantastic iOS is, you see something absolutely superbly extraordinary and breathtakingly gloriously splendiferous, and it just becomes magical. Its *pause* chimerical and otherworldly features give you a stunningly magical experience that remarkably takes your breath away. So we wanted to take all the absolutely amazingly flabbergastingly magical things you can do in iOS 6, but increase the number by one.
And that's what we did with iOS 7.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

C'mon Jony get rid of the crappy non-uniform interfaces across the board. This happening today kind of explains the mess of styles over the years. If there was a power struggle of sorts then whoever won out that day got to 'decorate' the app. The perfect style is a timeless one. Jony knows this. Forstall obviously doesnt. Torn paper edges?! Cool for about two weeks in 1996.

Jonathan Ive working closely on iOS?

I can already see the ad:

When you look at *pause* how *pause* impossibly amazingly fantastic iOS is, you see something absolutely superbly extraordinary and breathtakingly gloriously splendiferous, and it just becomes magical. Its *pause* chimerical and otherworldly features give you a stunningly magical experience that remarkably takes your breath away. So we wanted to take all the absolutely amazingly flabbergastingly magical things you can do in iOS 6, but increase the number by one.
And that's what we did with iOS 7.

This post *pause - look off to distance* is breathtakingly amazing. The attention to detail *pause - wave hand a bit* is stunning as much to leave the end user wanting more.

 

[everything-i]

Whatever you think about the man there is no question that software quality at Apple has started to slide of late. iOS6 has a lot of lazy QA problems and Maps was a disaster but there has also been little innovation in the UI for a while and they guy at the top has to take most of the heat for these problems. I understand that the cretin John Browette has been shown the door too, couldn't have happened soon enough in my opinion.

 

[jebbe]

I'm going to miss his creepy lazy eye.....