Apple confirms retirement of Greg Christie as sources rebut claims of internal struggle
In statements furnished to multiple news outlets on Wednesday, Apple confirmed that Human Interface director Greg Christie will be leaving the company in a planned exit later this year, while additional reporting has disputed claims that his departure was a result of a spat with design chief Jony Ive.
Christie was integral in developing the original iPhone's UI, being presented here by Apple cofounder Steve Jobs in 2007.
Multiple publications received notice from Apple earlier today corroborating in part a report that said Human Interface chief Greg Christie would be leaving the company after 18 years of service.
An Apple spokespersons supplied the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch, among others, with the following:
For example, Daring Fireball's John Gruber cites "several" sources as saying Christie is simply ready to retire. There may have been times when he and Ive disagreed on certain design points, but nothing so severe as to force a premature exit. Gruber also reports that Christie's retirement was announced internally some weeks ago and that he plans to stay on until the end of the year.
That sentiment was echoed by TechCrunch, which cites its own sources as saying Christie's retirement has been known "for weeks -- and planned for even longer." According to the publication, Christie's leaving is designed to streamline the transition of power within Apple's Human Interface group.
As one of the most senior software engineers at Apple, Christie is an important figure who played a central role in creating the first iPhoneOS. He worked under cofounder Steve Jobs for most of his tenure at Apple and recently testified as an expert witness in the company's second California patent trial against Samsung.
Christie was integral in developing the original iPhone's UI, being presented here by Apple cofounder Steve Jobs in 2007.Multiple publications received notice from Apple earlier today corroborating in part a report that said Human Interface chief Greg Christie would be leaving the company after 18 years of service.
An Apple spokespersons supplied the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch, among others, with the following:
News of the departure was first reported on Wednesday, when it was claimed Christie is leaving due to tension between SVP of Design Jony Ive. While the exact reasoning is yet unknown, subsequent reports quote insiders as instead saying Christie's exit has been planned for some time.Greg has been planning to retire later this year after nearly 20 years at Apple. He has made vital contributions to Apple products across the board, and built a world-class Human Interface team which has worked closely with Jony for many years.
For example, Daring Fireball's John Gruber cites "several" sources as saying Christie is simply ready to retire. There may have been times when he and Ive disagreed on certain design points, but nothing so severe as to force a premature exit. Gruber also reports that Christie's retirement was announced internally some weeks ago and that he plans to stay on until the end of the year.
That sentiment was echoed by TechCrunch, which cites its own sources as saying Christie's retirement has been known "for weeks -- and planned for even longer." According to the publication, Christie's leaving is designed to streamline the transition of power within Apple's Human Interface group.
As one of the most senior software engineers at Apple, Christie is an important figure who played a central role in creating the first iPhoneOS. He worked under cofounder Steve Jobs for most of his tenure at Apple and recently testified as an expert witness in the company's second California patent trial against Samsung.
Comments
OT: is Florian Mueller a complete sell-out or what?
Or maybe he bought-in?
OT: is Florian Mueller a complete sell-out or what?
He's been outed as a shill in the past. Maybe someone new is paying his bills these days?
A uge loss!
To my opinion, Ive is pretty good in hardware design, but he greatly lacks in the feeling of "human interface"…
All this flatness is so boring and robotic!…
9to5Mac in making stuff up shocker.
I'm begining to think that Mark Gurman sources are disgruntled Apple employees, which makes sense since loyal employees don't tend to leak stuff. They may provide accurate info about future Apple products, but they are biased when it comes to internal politics. It would also explain all the negative comments he does about Apple since he has a biased insight.
I STILL want to know who ruined iOS.
If it ever happens we'll let you know.
Anyway I'd still love to know what made that site become much more anti-Apple. Is it because the Gurman's of the world want to be liked in the broader tech world and think being critical or Apple is the way to accomplish that?
You're welcome to your tech fad delusions.
Could be. Obviously whoever leaked to him wanted the story to be friction forced Christie out. And since Gurman's story came out first, that's what most tech sites reported. It didn't take long for Apple to jump on it, and Gruber tweeted that in his experience, current and former Apple employees who are usually tight-lipped will speak out when they think something is BS. So that along with the fact that Christie hasn't left and might be at Apple until the end of the year, makes me think Gurman's story is BS.
Anyway I'd still love to know what made that site become much more anti-Apple. Is it because the Gurman's of the world want to be liked in the broader tech world and think being critical or Apple is the way to accomplish that?
To answer your question, I guess there's a little bit of that, he doesn't want to be labelled as an Apple fanboy.
But like I said if he's friend with one or more disgruntled employees (maybe a group that were loyal to Forstall) his "opinions" might be biased toward what those employees think about the company.
That doesn't mean that their criticism is always justified and that there's a big crisis at Apple. It's not unusual to have a group of overly critical employees that don't like their bosses and/or the decisions a company takes, especially in a big company like Apple.
The problem I see is that the info Mark Gurman gets from them about internal Apple politics seems to be one sided.
Do reporters ever apologize for being wrong? Fact is Christie is still working for Apple and not as a Forstall-like "consultant".
You're welcome to your tech fad delusions.
And you're welcome to yours.