Now this thing really IS clickbait. Published by a British tabloid and so lopsidedly biased as to be laughable it is constructed to elicit the most biased comments from the hater and Debbie Downer crowd. I’ve learned a lot about “journalism” during the years I’ve followed Apple and it applies to all corners of subject matter. The fact that AI pulled this off the news wire and reprinted it here more than confirms its purpose. A single, uncorroborated negative hit piece and the entire Apple “journalism” sector runs with it like it was the news of the century. I can’t wait to read the comments at MacRumors when this drops there. And make no mistake, every tech website will run with this. That’s precisely why it was written.
Oh dear. Your personal anecdote is nullified by mine.
I don't find it less crowded, but business is conducted much more efficiently; I get in and make my purchase faster. My store in Reno has been in operation since March 2006, and I go there about 4 times a year; a couple of major purchases, and usually a quick stop for an accessory or cable. It's always fast if you know what you want, and I have never seen any of the tables for consultations or diagnosis empty. That "empty skirt" is pretty valuable to the retail operations, and I'm quite fine with labeling you a raging misogynist from your BS comment.
There would be less excitement of course than when the store opened, but then again, I'm part of the customer base for the store for the last decade. Younger customers likely have a "more exciting" experience.
Let me ask you a couple questions about your quarterly visits to Jony Ive's House (your local Apple Store) You already own one of everything they sell, correct? Your visits there are not an eye opening experience? Are you challenged ( oh that's a neat, intriguing, compelling accessory I was unaware of) at all?
My point is that for an increasing amount of people, store visits are a ho-hum experience. A lot of traffic with fewer and fewer actual purchases. Much like my last quarterly visit which was to view a very specific website (high def images of King Tut's Tomb) on a 5K monitor to see if there was noticeable difference from my 7 year old iMac at home. I surfed the website (unimpressed, no discernible difference) and walked out.
I think many people are having the same experience.
No, some are, many aren't
Not sure why you would think that a website would host a 14.7 mp (or greater resolution) image that is equal to an iMac 5k resolution; likely it would have to have been downloaded. The use case for a 5k iMac isn'n built around surfing low res images.
For the record, if you can't tell the difference between a full resolution image on a 5K iMac screen (14.7 mp), against what you likely have, a 2560 x 1440 (3.7 mp) 27 inch monitor, then I feel sad for you.
"A pain point for a lot of people with Apple is they can't talk about what they're working on, which hinders your social status in a way," Sultan said. "You want to put on your LinkedIn that you're working on the latest iPhone, but you absolutely can't. It's interesting Apple can retain top talent at all. I don't know how. They keep you sort of locked up."
It's for a good reason (it's one of the keys to Apple's success.) Do these idiots not get it? Like, it's 2016. The raison d'être for internal Apple "secrecy" has been known for years, and it has already (long ago) been proven to be an incredibly successful strategy. Yes, everyone seems to hate it, the media loves to sneer at it, but the proof is in the PRODUCT and PROFIT. For years and years and years now.
Or is it that this generation of millennials MUST advertise almost literally every damn thing they're doing and put themselves on display?? For the sake of WHAT, exactly? Is discretion for the sake of your CAREER not good enough anymore? smh
Apple culture hinders recruitment and talent retention efforts, report says
"Apple culture" is the very reason for Apple's success. Once you let go of that culture and water it down, the competition will do everything in its power to steal, copy, and otherwise completely destroy your mindshare, market position, and patent portfolio. You can kiss Apple as you know it goodbye. A little more openness, Tim Cook style, is great. A little more transparency. But Apple can't cross over that line, no matter how much they like to play right up against it now and then.
As one might say in England, "what a lot of bollocks".
This is really scraping the bottom of the barrel, guys. Who gives a royal flush what these self-interested parties are griping about Apple? Honestly.
But what if it's true? I have a friend (another scout dad -- I've backpacked with him for years) who worked for several years at Apple in Austin, as an electrical engineer. He said that Apple is a miserable place to work. The yelling, long hours, and upper management pressure were common themes. He hated it, and is much happier at ARM now.
The survival of a free state and the lives of many thousands of people at stake - there is not the slightest parallel.
Of course there is. It is not uncommon for people to NOT be able to talk about their work. I had an avionics software bug I discovered recently that made Fox, CNN, SlashDot, The Verge, ArsTech... The whole lot.
Reading the comments in the comment sections were a hoot and frustrating because lots and lots of people know tons about nothing. I couldn't speak up.
As one might say in England, "what a lot of bollocks".
This is really scraping the bottom of the barrel, guys. Who gives a royal flush what these self-interested parties are griping about Apple? Honestly.
But what if it's true? I have a friend (another scout dad -- I've backpacked with him for years) who worked for several years at Apple in Austin, as an electrical engineer. He said that Apple is a miserable place to work. The yelling, long hours, and upper management pressure were common themes. He hated it, and is much happier at ARM now.
Have a look at reviews on Glassdoor and the biggest negative re: Apple long work hours and work/life balance. Thats hardly newsworthy. But this article wasn't just about that. How do we know these aren't a couple disgruntled people that tried to get a job st Apple but were never hired? If you're going to write a story like this it should have some balance. I'll bet for everyone you find that says it was/is miserable you'll find someone else who feels the complete opposite.
They're secretive because the entire industry is awaiting their products to rip them off. How would Apple babbling about what they're working on help employees? Or anyone besides samsung and other iKnockoffs?
Makes a lot of sense - the over paid empty skirt has no value to add so she spews BS to try and look valuable. What I have noticed at our local Apple Store is that it is far less crowded and very little excitement is observed. Several years ago you could barely get in the door and the passion of things Apple was palpable.
If Apple retail is moving online than why are they building out so many stores?
Contradicted yourself there.
Funny how Apple is the only company in Silicon Valley pressured to innovate.
What is the contradiction?
I doubt that Apple is the ONLY company in Silicon Valley pressured to innovate. To whatever extent that is accurate, it may have to do with the baseline Steve & team established. GUI, mouse, iPod, iPhone, iPad, plus things I''m sure I missed.
The survival of a free state and the lives of many thousands of people at stake - there is not the slightest parallel.
Of course there is. It is not uncommon for people to NOT be able to talk about their work. I had an avionics software bug I discovered recently that made Fox, CNN, SlashDot, The Verge, ArsTech... The whole lot.
Reading the comments in the comment sections were a hoot and frustrating because lots and lots of people know tons about nothing. I couldn't speak up.
secrecy in your work is not just military.
You seem to have misconstrued, let me put it another way. Is the secrecy that was exercised at Bletchly of greater importance than the secrecy Apple exercises? The former is about peoples lives and national security and survival, the latter is about some small pile of money. Are these two instances of secrecy of equal importance?
Oh dear. Your personal anecdote is nullified by mine.
I don't find it less crowded, but business is conducted much more efficiently; I get in and make my purchase faster. My store in Reno has been in operation since March 2006, and I go there about 4 times a year; a couple of major purchases, and usually a quick stop for an accessory or cable. It's always fast if you know what you want, and I have never seen any of the tables for consultations or diagnosis empty.
There would be less excitement of course than when the store opened, but then again, I'm part of the customer base for the store for the last decade. Younger customers likely have a "more exciting" experience.
Let me ask you a couple questions about your quarterly visits to Jony Ive's House (your local Apple Store) You already own one of everything they sell, correct? Your visits there are not an eye opening experience? Are you challenged ( oh that's a neat, intriguing, compelling accessory I was unaware of) at all?
My point is that for an increasing amount of people, store visits are a ho-hum experience. A lot of traffic with fewer and fewer actual purchases. Much like my last quarterly visit which was to view a very specific website (high def images of King Tut's Tomb) on a 5K monitor to see if there was noticeable difference from my 7 year old iMac at home. I surfed the website (unimpressed, no discernible difference) and walked out.
I think many people are having the same experience.
Oh god...you are yet another Debbie Downer. Ignore.
They're secretive because the entire industry is awaiting their products to rip them off. How would Apple babbling about what they're working on help employees? Or anyone besides samsung and other iKnockoffs?
Contradicted yourself there.
Funny how Apple is the only company in Silicon Valley pressured to innovate.
What is the contradiction?
I doubt that Apple is the ONLY company in Silicon Valley pressured to innovate. To whatever extent that is accurate, it may have to do with the baseline Steve & team established. GUI, mouse, iPod, iPhone, iPad, plus things I''m sure I missed.
About once a year we get a really lazy, tin-eared trolling stream like the one you're putting out here.
The interface innovations you mention appeared over a period of 26 years. Last year alone we had 3 input innovations alone — force touch, 3D touch, and Pencil.
If you were a serious poster, I would say you had a serious perception problem. Since I doubt that you are, I'll just point out that I have a serious problem with you.
Apple is one of the very best companies in the world, not just Silicon Valley, to work for. The food isn't free, but it's high quality and reasonably priced. If free food is what attracts you as an employee, then you're a shallow-minded glutton. Apple is also far more product oriented than its primary "competitors". Hence, Apple needs secrecy and doesn't need openness to attract top talent interested in making a difference in the world. Google has a myriad of X labs projects and high profile employees that are doing pure b.s., will never lead to a product, but are publicized in order to attract top talent. It's all about Google's/Facebook's image. They need to look cutting edge in order to attract employees and to keep users coming back to deliver their personal information.
Seriously? Point to a tangible product that any of the large tech companies put out that is impressive, groundbreaking, and not evolutionary. Just because Google publicly announces its research projects, doesn't mean Apple's engineers aren't doing anything. Just because Facebook increased their revenue last quarter doesn't mean that they are revolutionizing the technology space. Other than the Echo (which is a cool product from what I have read), Amazon has their online store and AWS, which aren't a part of this conversation. The only thing that comes to mind is the Oculus Rift and rumor is that Apple has been pretty active in the space, especially with some recent high profile hires. The Rift was also a very long development cycle and is only just about to be released.
Ultimately, there are a lot of things at play. Other than Samsung, no other hardware company is operating at the scale that Apple is. Not even close. Even if Apple comes up with the greatest thing since sliced bread, their manufacturing partners need to be able to make them at their scale. 75 million iPhones in 3 months is bananas. Most of Samsung's phones are their lower end models. Most cutting edge technology wouldn't even be able to hit those yields. I'd add that the iPad Pro is a great product. The Pencil is something that no other product can compete with right now, and with it being some complicated, they are still hitting yield issues. Apple hasn't released sales numbers, but Watch and the new Apple TV are having a material impact on their revenue less than a year in. These are early products. People forget that the first iPhone didn't have an app store, or 3G, or MMS, or copy & paste, etc. The first iPad barely had enough RAM.
We are at a bit of a technological transition for consumer tech right now. A lot of money is at stake in the future and legacy companies are holding on for dear life to stay relevant, and tech companies have different incentives than those legacy companies. There is a lot of stuff at play.
I'd close with this. We are also hitting up against some genuinely complicated technology barriers from batteries to processors and many other extremely tough hurdles. Look at how hard it has been for Intel to hit their roadmaps. Intel has probably been a huge crimp in Apple's Mac product roadmap.
You can have the best engineers in the world and that will only be a part of a much larger pie.
This. Plus Apple is very secretive about it's pipeline. It's easier for Apple to not look innovative because we don't really know what they're working on. Bryan Chaffin, who writes for the Mac Observer and has contacts in SV says he knows Apple is working on stuff that has never been rumored about. He's heard this from people who have seen stuff. They didn't give any hints to what this stuff is, just that it exists. Jony Ive has said 80% of what Apple works on will never ship so it's understandable why Apple keeps most of this stuff secret. But unfortunately it leads to memes like this story.
What I find really disingenuous though is this notion that when Steve Jobs was around Apple had all this amazing stuff they were cooking up and everyone knew it and now everyone assume the pipeline is completely dried up. I think that's looking at history with rose colored glasses. Someone in my Twitter feed posted historical stock charts from Apple. In 2000 Apple stock lost 80% of its value in 8 months. In 2007/8, after iPhone 3G the stock lost half of its value. The Apple of then and the Apple of today aren't really that different except Apple is selling A LOT more product now than they did then. In this last holiday quarter Apple sold roughly 34,000 iPhones an hour or 570 per minute. That is absolutely nuts. To me that's what's most incredible about the company right now. Nobody, except maybe Samsung is manufacturing at a scale like that. How is that not innovative?
Apple had little or nothing going on except software wise except OS X for his first few years.
Working for an Apple store is not the same as working for Apple as a developer or engineer, which is what this article is about, as stated in its opening sentence.
Good point - and with all these world class engineers you would expect an impressive pipeline rolling out by now - which it is not.
Working for Apple is like being in the Marines. Most people aren't cut out for it. You have to have a high level of discipline in order to keep your product quality above the rest. You won't hear a Marine whining about long hours and being yelled at. It's well known what you're getting into when you join Apple. Either you get it, or you don't.
Comments
This is really scraping the bottom of the barrel, guys. Who gives a royal flush what these self-interested parties are griping about Apple? Honestly.
If you are at a job you enjoy, then guess what doesn't matter? An Apple investor's opinion of your employer.
Not sure why you would think that a website would host a 14.7 mp (or greater resolution) image that is equal to an iMac 5k resolution; likely it would have to have been downloaded. The use case for a 5k iMac isn'n built around surfing low res images.
For the record, if you can't tell the difference between a full resolution image on a 5K iMac screen (14.7 mp), against what you likely have, a 2560 x 1440 (3.7 mp) 27 inch monitor, then I feel sad for you.
It's for a good reason (it's one of the keys to Apple's success.) Do these idiots not get it? Like, it's 2016. The raison d'être for internal Apple "secrecy" has been known for years, and it has already (long ago) been proven to be an incredibly successful strategy. Yes, everyone seems to hate it, the media loves to sneer at it, but the proof is in the PRODUCT and PROFIT. For years and years and years now.
Or is it that this generation of millennials MUST advertise almost literally every damn thing they're doing and put themselves on display?? For the sake of WHAT, exactly? Is discretion for the sake of your CAREER not good enough anymore? smh
Apple culture hinders recruitment and talent retention efforts, report says
"Apple culture" is the very reason for Apple's success. Once you let go of that culture and water it down, the competition will do everything in its power to steal, copy, and otherwise completely destroy your mindshare, market position, and patent portfolio. You can kiss Apple as you know it goodbye. A little more openness, Tim Cook style, is great. A little more transparency. But Apple can't cross over that line, no matter how much they like to play right up against it now and then.
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Apple-employees-reveal-the-19-best-things-about-6776927.php?__vfz=profile_comment%3D9509700002408
I doubt that Apple is the ONLY company in Silicon Valley pressured to innovate. To whatever extent that is accurate, it may have to do with the baseline Steve & team established. GUI, mouse, iPod, iPhone, iPad, plus things I''m sure I missed.
The interface innovations you mention appeared over a period of 26 years. Last year alone we had 3 input innovations alone — force touch, 3D touch, and Pencil.
If you were a serious poster, I would say you had a serious perception problem. Since I doubt that you are, I'll just point out that I have a serious problem with you.