My guess would probably be redirect the iTools department ex: revive iWeb, iPhoto to be more like Adobe's Photoshop, Make an easier to use User Interface for Developers? Take over Bob Mansfield? I don't see him in that position!
The best part about this is all the people wondering why he was hired. Then next year Apple will announce something and people will go "aaahhhh, so that's why he was hired."
I'm sure Apple has a good reason to hire him. Browett was an anomaly. If you're looking to hire software developers, LCD engineers, antenna designers or microprocessor specialists it's pretty straightforward to look at their résumé and skill sets to see if they're qualified. However, retail and marketing are different. You can't have them write a "test" to see if they know bough for the job. It's not an exact science. You can't take Browett not fitting in and assume that people hired for completely different positions are going to also be the wrong person for the job.
As a stock holder this is really the first thing Cook has done that makes me question how long I should keep my investment. This guy seems like an ass clown. The Maps apology was a mistake (they never should have. it certainly didn't have the intended effect of softening the media coverage did it?) But this guy brings nothing. His track record at adobe is proof of that. If he replaces Mansfield, Im selling.
And you have proof this guy brings nothing? And you're going to sell shares based on your complete lack of knowledge of him and why he was hired?
Young folks might not realize that many old folks have followed Apple from the very beginning. The very start.
One thing almost all old Apple folks can agree on is that sometimes Apple simply goes Crazy Eddie.
If you don't know what Crazy Eddie is, google it.
I hope Apple just buys Adobe and takes all those graphic/media industry-standard pieces of software under their protective wing. But you never know with Apple. Every now and then, Apple simply goes Crazy Eddie.
Then again it just occurred, Apples looking to start a new Streaming Service or online service. Basically every position in Apple is filled, so he will be running a new department, Music Streaming Service, perhaps an online service to compete against Ms Office? Will see :-)
Whether people feel Tim is poor at hiring key positions, what is clear is he doesn't sit on a rotten apple very long. He tests them out and if they fail his test he sends them packing. NeXT.
He won't be groomed for Bob's position. He'll be tasked with a new hardware product line. My guess is that he's there to take his experience and education to new products:
Quote:
Lynch studied interactive computer graphics at the University of Illinois, working with artists and engineers in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory. While he was in school, the first Macintosh was introduced, and Lynch began at his first startup as vice president of product development. He developed and shipped some of the first Macintosh applications, including a graphical adventure game in 1984, a 3D graphics package in 1985, and a desktop publishing application in 1987, which introduced user interface elements in common use today.
There is a whole lot of hardware and consumer end product experience in his background. He'll work with the Television and future collaboration projects that Apple has received patents on.
I've got a bad feeling about this. Both Apple and Adobe have a "My way or the highway" attitude to their customers. The difference is that, with Apple, I'll go with My Way, because they generally give the issues a lot of thought and make each decision with care and economy, resulting in products with a price in money and in karma that I'm prepared to pay. With Adobe, it's definitely the Highway for me: their products are at odds with the systems on which they run, cruft-encrusted, and seem to be out to damage my pocket book, my patience or my soul at every opportunity. None shall pass. I greatly fear the appearance of Adobe's attitudes in Apple's products.
I've got a bad feeling about this. Both Apple and Adobe have a "My way or the highway" attitude to their customers. The difference is that, with Apple, I'll go with My Way, because they generally give the issues a lot of thought and make each decision with care and economy, resulting in products with a price in money and in karma that I'm prepared to pay. With Adobe, it's definitely the Highway for me: their products are at odds with the systems on which they run, cruft-encrusted and seem to be out to damage my pocket book or my soul at every opportunity. None shall pass. I greatly fear the appearance of Adobe's attitudes in Apple's products.
The best part about this is all the people wondering why he was hired. Then next year Apple will announce something and people will go "aaahhhh, so that's why he was hired."
I'm sure Apple has a good reason to hire him. Browett was an anomaly. If you're looking to hire software developers, LCD engineers, antenna designers or microprocessor specialists it's pretty straightforward to look at their résumé and skill sets to see if they're qualified. However, retail and marketing are different. You can't have them write a "test" to see if they know bough for the job. It's not an exact science. You can't take Browett not fitting in and assume that people hired for completely different positions are going to also be the wrong person for the job.
Browett and Forstall demonstrated the same destructive trait: they were more concerned with collecting feathers for their caps than for the company as a whole. Nothing wrong with ambition, but in Forstall's case this led to Maps being not up to snuff when it was released. Browett was worse; he tried to make his name by turning the world's most profitable retail chain into a series of cut-price electricals outlets.
WIll this chap do the same? Possibly, but he as already taken a demotion to work at Apple, so perhaps he's more focussed on the effecting technological change than from sitting in the CEO's chair. Time will tell, but if it is a mistake then at least we know that Cook doesn't have a problem with correcting it ... harshly if necessary.
He won't be groomed for Bob's position. He'll be tasked with a new hardware product line. My guess is that he's there to take his experience and education to new products:
There is a whole lot of hardware and consumer end product experience in his background. He'll work with the Television and future collaboration projects that Apple has received patents on.
Right, cautiously optimistic, but keep your finger on that big red button on your armrest, Tim; the one labelled 'Shark Pool'.
Not like we're ever going to find out, but I would like to know what the rest of the Executive Team at Apple thinks of this hire.... or if they were even given a heads-up beforehand.
I myself was pretty shocked at the news, for many of the reasons that Gruber wrote about, as well as some commentary expressed here by dreyfuss2 amoung others.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post here on AI breaking down the abilities of the current exec's in key leadership positions at Apple, and why I thought... and still think... that Tim Cook was/is still the only logical choice of CEO at Apple. HOWEVER... I think we're all witnessing fairly fast the limits of TC as CEO of the most innovative tech company on the planet. He is a process management/logistics/spreadsheet genius to be sure, but does he know tech? Does he know instinctively where Jony Ive's, Bob Mansfields, Eddy Cue's work is leading Apple? This is called "The Vision"... and as we all know, SJ had it in spades... as did even Bill Gates, even IF he couldn't execute it correctly.
What I'm curious about, is since TC doesn't have "The Vision"... is he trying to buy it with a hire like this, which on paper and in a pro/con spreadsheet... doesn't look half bad? Lynch does have Geek-Cred for sure, amoung other things looking like Bill Gates little brother. It also appears he likes to dabble in just about everything without focusing on getting it right (ADD?). Because yes, I point to not only Flash... but the terrible leadership that he displayed at Adobe over the last 5-7 years. Either he is a brainiac and was surrounded by incompetent engineers, or he is a squeaky power-hungry geek that likes the drama and pitting his engineers against each other.
Either way: is he a leader fit for Apple? My answer is no. I say this as a person that has made their 29+ year career using Apple's, Macromedia's and Adobe's products... each from day one.... or in the case of Photoshop, 6 month's before the official Day 1. All of the products under this guy's leadership have continuously failed, not only to innovate, but to keep pace with the hardware that they are placed upon and used. Let's not forget: Apple is a HARDWARE company... then a software and ecosystem company. I can't even imagine this guy sitting in the same room with Bob Mansfield, and even coming close to having a "colleague-to-colleague" discussion on the same level as BM. Quite obvious, because Lynch never understood the hardware problems that made Flash an absolute "no-go" on mobile devices.
But he was pretty good at [URL="cheese-ball-bashing"[/URL] ... nah... he was horrible at that too! :no:
Edit; changed 25+ to 29+... damn I'm getting OLD!!!!!!!!!
Hate to say it, but this may be a case of "would this have happened if Jobs were still there".
If he's reporting to VP Tech, there's a product over the horizon that involves graphical functionality. iDesk?
Please! Lynch is certainly not needed to integrate graphic functionality at Apple! Considering his "graphic functionality" and "user experience" roles at Adobe, and the very lack of consistency within Adobe's products... he would be the very LAST person I would even ask for an opinion on the subject. Well.. save for the folks up in Redmond.
And speaking of graphics... well you shouldn't get me started is a fair warning to ya. Because while Adobe is seen by the media and even the graphic design/printing industry as being the "industry leader", they (Adobe) have caused more real pain and suffering over the last 5-7 years than they have added to our professions. From their purchasing and killing off of software like Freehand, and then leaving users with upgrade products (CS6) that REMOVE the abilities to convert files (CS5 and 5.5 had this)... to their absolute lack of hardware understanding in ALL of their products causing untold grief, cost, and unnecessary downtime for incidentally, many an Apple design professional... well I'll close this run-on sentence with: "Thank You so much Kevin Lynch for your stellar leadership as former CTO at Adobe" /s
My only hope now is that Adobe finally finds someone capable of taking on "The Suits and Bean-Counters", and they finally fix the bugs, and integrate the Suite as it should be. Also, before Bob Mansfield gives up in frustration from dealing with this pip-squeak day-to-day and retires, he whispers in Tim Cook's ear on the way out the door, "Fire him. It was a mistake. Please let this sad trend of yours stop here!"... that is if it hasn't been done already.
I don't see anything that Kevin Lynch has touched over a long period of time, to be ANYTHING worthwhile to Apple. Yes...Period.
I still say the guy they should be courting every single day, is Paul Irish. Apart from really pushing the Webkit experience and programming, he also happens to be a huge Apple-fan using it exclusively for development. That's a heck of a lot better than hiring someone that took to hyperbole and blended, diced, fried, and steamrolled an iPhone... dontcha think?
PS. The following link (if anyone cares) takes you to Adobe's Illustrator Forum, where designers... many of them Mac users... are questioning why Illustrator not only doesn't work, but why no matter how much computer power, RAM, disk space you throw at it, it's slower to perform simple tasks that were split second responses over 15 YEARS AGO with discontinued software, as well as recent competitor software. Observation 169 + 170
@[B]ThePixelDoc[/B] and you others that are wringing your hands over this, [I]including Gruber[/I], may I remind you that you [I]don't know anything[/I], and may I also suggest that you sound like a gaggle of gibbering gossips? You don't know anything!
Tim Cook may be starting on a systematic campaign to subvert Apple's retrograde competitors by hiring rather than acquiring. How do you really kill Flash and [I]all it stands for[/I]? Hire its last public advocate, put him to work on something useful.
For all we know, this could be the beginning of an anti-Android or anti-Chrome strategy, the best possible because it's so underhanded. The Khazar khans used to work this way, through strategic alliances, and they outfoxed the three other empires in their midst for hundreds of years.
The last thing I would do is assume that I know the Silicon Valley business and technology landscape better than Tim Cook. Here's your mantra: "I don't know anything."
Adobe's Cloud is just a gimmicky name for pay-by-month software delivered via the Internet to your own computer. The apps do not reside in the cloud for use on any computer.
@ThePixelDoc and you others that are wringing your hands over this, including Gruber, may I remind you that you don't know anything, and may I also suggest that you sound like a gaggle of gibbering gossips? You don't know anything!
It's perfectly valid to judge someone by the products that were produced under him in his previous role.
If Tim hired people by their products he wouldn't have hired Browett.
The whole question is silly. He will be working under Bob Mansfield and Bob Mansfield has already retired once and hen came back when his replacement wasn't the right guy. Whether it's a smart move or a dumb move, it seems pretty clear to me that this guy is Bob's new (possible) replacement or at least second in command.
A software guy cannot be a hardware guy's clear replacement.
Can someone explain why this guy would be a good replacement for Mansfield? Mansfield is a hardware guy. What does this guy know about silicon, silicon, semiconductors, SOCs, wireless, etc.?
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelligent
A software guy cannot be a hardware guy's clear replacement.
Comments
The best part about this is all the people wondering why he was hired. Then next year Apple will announce something and people will go "aaahhhh, so that's why he was hired."
I'm sure Apple has a good reason to hire him. Browett was an anomaly. If you're looking to hire software developers, LCD engineers, antenna designers or microprocessor specialists it's pretty straightforward to look at their résumé and skill sets to see if they're qualified. However, retail and marketing are different. You can't have them write a "test" to see if they know bough for the job. It's not an exact science. You can't take Browett not fitting in and assume that people hired for completely different positions are going to also be the wrong person for the job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dmarcoot
As a stock holder this is really the first thing Cook has done that makes me question how long I should keep my investment. This guy seems like an ass clown. The Maps apology was a mistake (they never should have. it certainly didn't have the intended effect of softening the media coverage did it?) But this guy brings nothing. His track record at adobe is proof of that. If he replaces Mansfield, Im selling.
And you have proof this guy brings nothing? And you're going to sell shares based on your complete lack of knowledge of him and why he was hired?
Young folks might not realize that many old folks have followed Apple from the very beginning. The very start.
One thing almost all old Apple folks can agree on is that sometimes Apple simply goes Crazy Eddie.
If you don't know what Crazy Eddie is, google it.
I hope Apple just buys Adobe and takes all those graphic/media industry-standard pieces of software under their protective wing. But you never know with Apple. Every now and then, Apple simply goes Crazy Eddie.
He won't be groomed for Bob's position. He'll be tasked with a new hardware product line. My guess is that he's there to take his experience and education to new products:
Quote:
Lynch studied interactive computer graphics at the University of Illinois, working with artists and engineers in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory. While he was in school, the first Macintosh was introduced, and Lynch began at his first startup as vice president of product development. He developed and shipped some of the first Macintosh applications, including a graphical adventure game in 1984, a 3D graphics package in 1985, and a desktop publishing application in 1987, which introduced user interface elements in common use today.
There is a whole lot of hardware and consumer end product experience in his background. He'll work with the Television and future collaboration projects that Apple has received patents on.
I've got a bad feeling about this. Both Apple and Adobe have a "My way or the highway" attitude to their customers. The difference is that, with Apple, I'll go with My Way, because they generally give the issues a lot of thought and make each decision with care and economy, resulting in products with a price in money and in karma that I'm prepared to pay. With Adobe, it's definitely the Highway for me: their products are at odds with the systems on which they run, cruft-encrusted, and seem to be out to damage my pocket book, my patience or my soul at every opportunity. None shall pass. I greatly fear the appearance of Adobe's attitudes in Apple's products.
I've got a bad feeling about this. Both Apple and Adobe have a "My way or the highway" attitude to their customers. The difference is that, with Apple, I'll go with My Way, because they generally give the issues a lot of thought and make each decision with care and economy, resulting in products with a price in money and in karma that I'm prepared to pay. With Adobe, it's definitely the Highway for me: their products are at odds with the systems on which they run, cruft-encrusted and seem to be out to damage my pocket book or my soul at every opportunity. None shall pass. I greatly fear the appearance of Adobe's attitudes in Apple's products.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee
The best part about this is all the people wondering why he was hired. Then next year Apple will announce something and people will go "aaahhhh, so that's why he was hired."
I'm sure Apple has a good reason to hire him. Browett was an anomaly. If you're looking to hire software developers, LCD engineers, antenna designers or microprocessor specialists it's pretty straightforward to look at their résumé and skill sets to see if they're qualified. However, retail and marketing are different. You can't have them write a "test" to see if they know bough for the job. It's not an exact science. You can't take Browett not fitting in and assume that people hired for completely different positions are going to also be the wrong person for the job.
An opinion from TechCrunch:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/19/departing-adobe-cto-and-cloud-guru-kevin-lynch-joining-apple-to-become-vp-of-technology/
Browett and Forstall demonstrated the same destructive trait: they were more concerned with collecting feathers for their caps than for the company as a whole. Nothing wrong with ambition, but in Forstall's case this led to Maps being not up to snuff when it was released. Browett was worse; he tried to make his name by turning the world's most profitable retail chain into a series of cut-price electricals outlets.
WIll this chap do the same? Possibly, but he as already taken a demotion to work at Apple, so perhaps he's more focussed on the effecting technological change than from sitting in the CEO's chair. Time will tell, but if it is a mistake then at least we know that Cook doesn't have a problem with correcting it ... harshly if necessary.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer
He won't be groomed for Bob's position. He'll be tasked with a new hardware product line. My guess is that he's there to take his experience and education to new products:
There is a whole lot of hardware and consumer end product experience in his background. He'll work with the Television and future collaboration projects that Apple has received patents on.
Right, cautiously optimistic, but keep your finger on that big red button on your armrest, Tim; the one labelled 'Shark Pool'.
I myself was pretty shocked at the news, for many of the reasons that Gruber wrote about, as well as some commentary expressed here by dreyfuss2 amoung others.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post here on AI breaking down the abilities of the current exec's in key leadership positions at Apple, and why I thought... and still think... that Tim Cook was/is still the only logical choice of CEO at Apple. HOWEVER... I think we're all witnessing fairly fast the limits of TC as CEO of the most innovative tech company on the planet. He is a process management/logistics/spreadsheet genius to be sure, but does he know tech? Does he know instinctively where Jony Ive's, Bob Mansfields, Eddy Cue's work is leading Apple? This is called "The Vision"... and as we all know, SJ had it in spades... as did even Bill Gates, even IF he couldn't execute it correctly.
What I'm curious about, is since TC doesn't have "The Vision"... is he trying to buy it with a hire like this, which on paper and in a pro/con spreadsheet... doesn't look half bad? Lynch does have Geek-Cred for sure, amoung other things looking like Bill Gates little brother. It also appears he likes to dabble in just about everything without focusing on getting it right (ADD?). Because yes, I point to not only Flash... but the terrible leadership that he displayed at Adobe over the last 5-7 years. Either he is a brainiac and was surrounded by incompetent engineers, or he is a squeaky power-hungry geek that likes the drama and pitting his engineers against each other.
Either way: is he a leader fit for Apple? My answer is no. I say this as a person that has made their 29+ year career using Apple's, Macromedia's and Adobe's products... each from day one.... or in the case of Photoshop, 6 month's before the official Day 1. All of the products under this guy's leadership have continuously failed, not only to innovate, but to keep pace with the hardware that they are placed upon and used. Let's not forget: Apple is a HARDWARE company... then a software and ecosystem company. I can't even imagine this guy sitting in the same room with Bob Mansfield, and even coming close to having a "colleague-to-colleague" discussion on the same level as BM. Quite obvious, because Lynch never understood the hardware problems that made Flash an absolute "no-go" on mobile devices.
But he was pretty good at [URL=
Edit; changed 25+ to 29+... damn I'm getting OLD!!!!!!!!!
If he's reporting to VP Tech, there's a product over the horizon that involves graphical functionality. iDesk?
Please! Lynch is certainly not needed to integrate graphic functionality at Apple! Considering his "graphic functionality" and "user experience" roles at Adobe, and the very lack of consistency within Adobe's products... he would be the very LAST person I would even ask for an opinion on the subject. Well.. save for the folks up in Redmond.
And speaking of graphics... well you shouldn't get me started is a fair warning to ya. Because while Adobe is seen by the media and even the graphic design/printing industry as being the "industry leader", they (Adobe) have caused more real pain and suffering over the last 5-7 years than they have added to our professions. From their purchasing and killing off of software like Freehand, and then leaving users with upgrade products (CS6) that REMOVE the abilities to convert files (CS5 and 5.5 had this)... to their absolute lack of hardware understanding in ALL of their products causing untold grief, cost, and unnecessary downtime for incidentally, many an Apple design professional... well I'll close this run-on sentence with: "Thank You so much Kevin Lynch for your stellar leadership as former CTO at Adobe" /s
My only hope now is that Adobe finally finds someone capable of taking on "The Suits and Bean-Counters", and they finally fix the bugs, and integrate the Suite as it should be. Also, before Bob Mansfield gives up in frustration from dealing with this pip-squeak day-to-day and retires, he whispers in Tim Cook's ear on the way out the door, "Fire him. It was a mistake. Please let this sad trend of yours stop here!"... that is if it hasn't been done already.
I don't see anything that Kevin Lynch has touched over a long period of time, to be ANYTHING worthwhile to Apple. Yes...Period.
I still say the guy they should be courting every single day, is Paul Irish. Apart from really pushing the Webkit experience and programming, he also happens to be a huge Apple-fan using it exclusively for development. That's a heck of a lot better than hiring someone that took to hyperbole and blended, diced, fried, and steamrolled an iPhone... dontcha think?
PS. The following link (if anyone cares) takes you to Adobe's Illustrator Forum, where designers... many of them Mac users... are questioning why Illustrator not only doesn't work, but why no matter how much computer power, RAM, disk space you throw at it, it's slower to perform simple tasks that were split second responses over 15 YEARS AGO with discontinued software, as well as recent competitor software. Observation 169 + 170
Tim Cook may be starting on a systematic campaign to subvert Apple's retrograde competitors by hiring rather than acquiring. How do you really kill Flash and [I]all it stands for[/I]? Hire its last public advocate, put him to work on something useful.
For all we know, this could be the beginning of an anti-Android or anti-Chrome strategy, the best possible because it's so underhanded. The Khazar khans used to work this way, through strategic alliances, and they outfoxed the three other empires in their midst for hundreds of years.
The last thing I would do is assume that I know the Silicon Valley business and technology landscape better than Tim Cook. Here's your mantra: "I don't know anything."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flaneur
@ThePixelDoc and you others that are wringing your hands over this, including Gruber, may I remind you that you don't know anything, and may I also suggest that you sound like a gaggle of gibbering gossips? You don't know anything!
It's perfectly valid to judge someone by the products that were produced under him in his previous role.
If Tim hired people by their products he wouldn't have hired Browett.
Apple has lots of ground breaking products in the works, including non-hardware platform products.
Kevin Lynch lead research and product design at Adobe and Adobe puts out so very nice products.
...So Kevin looks like a good fit for Apple.
He is a cup of Eddy Cue mixed with 1 cup of Craig Federighi and 1 cup of Jonathan Ive.
A perfect addition for Apple.
Time will tell.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
The whole question is silly. He will be working under Bob Mansfield and Bob Mansfield has already retired once and hen came back when his replacement wasn't the right guy. Whether it's a smart move or a dumb move, it seems pretty clear to me that this guy is Bob's new (possible) replacement or at least second in command.
A software guy cannot be a hardware guy's clear replacement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogifan
Can someone explain why this guy would be a good replacement for Mansfield? Mansfield is a hardware guy. What does this guy know about silicon, silicon, semiconductors, SOCs, wireless, etc.?
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelligent
A software guy cannot be a hardware guy's clear replacement.
I'm with these guys.