Apple to unite internet teams under one roof at 1 Infinite Loop - report

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Apple is planning to unite many of the teams working on its disparate internet services, relocating them to its Cupertino headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop, a report said on Thursday.









At the moment, those teams are scattered across office parks in other parts of Cupertino and in the nearby town of Sunnyvale, Bloomberg said. Sources for the publication explained that teams for Siri, Maps, iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple News, and parts of iTunes and Apple Music will be a part of the unification effort.



The company is also said to be shifting its cloud infrastructure onto a single Apple-made platform codenamed "Pie," giving it more control and potentially some speed boosts. Parts of Siri, Apple News, and the iTunes Store are already being moved over, and the company has developed a photo storage system -- "McQueen" -- meant to reduce dependence on Amazon and Google servers. A full transition to Pie could take several years.



Meanwhile, the current workforce situation is said to be responsible for bugs and slower product development. Apple is allegedly interested in improving the growth of its cloud services, and better competing with Amazon and Google.



The plan is said to be contingent on the transition of other people at 1 Infinite Loop to Campus 2, Apple's much larger ring-shaped headquarters still under construction. The first move-ins there aren't scheduled until sometime in 2017.



One source noted that a committee of Apple managers recently decided that Campus 2 will see thousands more workers located there than the 13,000 it originally intended, forcing them to reallocate office space in the new building. To get a formal office, people will now have to be at the VP level or higher, rather than just a senior director.



Two sources commented that for average employees, much of the workspace will make use of bench seating, long tables, and open cubicles.
ai46

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    Apple should think of SIRI as an OS, not internet feature. Let someone who's great at OS oversee it instead of Eddie Cue, or forces Cue to watch "Her" 3 times a day.
    edited October 2016 caliSpamSandwichcanukstormpatchythepirate
  • Reply 2 of 16
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    matrix077 said:
    Apple should think of SIRI as an OS, not internet feature. Let someone who's great at OS oversee it instead of Eddie Cue, or forces Cue to watch "Her" 3 times a day.
    Cue has no clue. I find myself wondering if he actually uses Apple products these days.
    patchythepiratetallest skil
  • Reply 3 of 16
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,695member
    matrix077 said:
    Apple should think of SIRI as an OS, not internet feature. Let someone who's great at OS oversee it instead of Eddie Cue, or forces Cue to watch "Her" 3 times a day.
    Agreed. Making Siri into a platform, not a feature.
  • Reply 4 of 16
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,695member
    matrix077 said:
    Apple should think of SIRI as an OS, not internet feature. Let someone who's great at OS oversee it instead of Eddie Cue, or forces Cue to watch "Her" 3 times a day.
    Just to add, I don't think Apple needs an "OS" person to lead the services team but someone who's great at AI.
    matrix077calirhonin
  • Reply 5 of 16
    Agree. Someone who knows it's potential and has a vision, not a guy that's used to be great at negotiation with record labels. 
  • Reply 6 of 16
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    It's great that they're organizing in one campus but they need new leadership at the top. Let Cue focus on content and give internet services to someone else. I always see these charts showing Apple's growth in "services" but what it mostly represents is more App Store downloads as a result of an expanding user base. Is that really a service in the way Wall Street thinks of services?
    patchythepirate
  • Reply 7 of 16
    mjtomlinmjtomlin Posts: 2,673member
    I'm thinking some of you people are clueless at what Eddie Cue actually does and has done? You seem to be forgetting that he ran the iTunes Music store, one of the largest digital media distribution services on the planet for years before being given the task of revamping MobileMe and turning it into something far better, iCloud. 

    Eddie is not going to run the Siri team, or the Maps team, etc. What he's going to do is make sure that whatever they develop and produce, it can be served to Apple's users (accessed by their devices) with as little issues as possible.

    Putting all of Apple's cloud services under one organization makes a lot of sense when it comes to making sure the infrastructure and technology is there for delivering those services to a billion+ devices around the world.
    watto_cobracaliRayz2016Soliai46fastasleeplollivercityguide
  • Reply 8 of 16
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,258member
    matrix077 said:
    Apple should think of SIRI as an OS, not internet feature. Let someone who's great at OS oversee it instead of Eddie Cue, or forces Cue to watch "Her" 3 times a day.
    Hmmm... I'm not sure what you mean by that, but I'm guessing that someone who spends their time thinking about traditional OS stuff (like efficiently scheduling processes on a traditional CPU) is not the right person for this job. 

    However, I can see how perhaps in the near future there will be a hardware platform that is rather different from the traditional hardware platform and requires a rather different OS, and that rather different OS could be a descendent (at least in spirit) of SIRI. For example, suppose that there is a computer in the future that is built on silicon that more closely resembles IBM's TrueNorth than Intel's Core (or Apple's Hurricane). A descendant of SIRI could be the OS for that computer. 




    matrix077ai46
  • Reply 9 of 16
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    matrix077 said:
    Apple should think of SIRI as an OS, not internet feature. Let someone who's great at OS oversee it instead of Eddie Cue, or forces Cue to watch "Her" 3 times a day.
    Apple should hire will.i.am already. His voice assistant he built from the ground up is amazing.  He's also not a hater like Google and Samsung, he mentions Apple positively during interviews, demos etc. 
    lostkiwipatchythepiratelolliver
  • Reply 10 of 16
    blastdoor said:
    However, I can see how perhaps in the near future there will be a hardware platform that is rather different from the traditional hardware platform and requires a rather different OS, and that rather different OS could be a descendent (at least in spirit) of SIRI. For example, suppose that there is a computer in the future that is built on silicon that more closely resembles IBM's TrueNorth than Intel's Core (or Apple's Hurricane). A descendant of SIRI could be the OS for that computer. 


    I think Apple already had a vision for future computer when Steve Jobs said in the future instead of you learning how to use computer, The computer itself will learn about you to serve you. 
    The vision was clear. I just don't think the man who's overseeing SIRI has as big a dream, or ever has a dream. Got this from twitter


    Don't think Cue will know "what's wrong with this picture?".
    edited October 2016 rmusikantowpatchythepirateSpamSandwich
  • Reply 11 of 16
    holyoneholyone Posts: 398member
    matrix077 said:
    Apple should think of SIRI as an OS, not internet feature. Let someone who's great at OS oversee it instead of Eddie Cue, or forces Cue to watch "Her" 3 times a day.
    Would that help ? I think the issue is that these guys who where around since before even Steve's return are now so comfortable and confident in their positions that I can't see how they could possibly be motivated to excel beyond just being better than their worthless competition, I kind of feel like the biggest difference between Tim and SJ is that Steve could probably fire any of the top ecxecutive with out a second though and they all knew it, it kinda forced everybody to not just be good but go beyond that, I can't imagine a situation that wasn't a complete shit storm that could force Tim to asses the value each of his ecxecutive brings to the table, I thing Eddy might be a little too comfortable
  • Reply 12 of 16
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    matrix077 said:
    blastdoor said:
    However, I can see how perhaps in the near future there will be a hardware platform that is rather different from the traditional hardware platform and requires a rather different OS, and that rather different OS could be a descendent (at least in spirit) of SIRI. For example, suppose that there is a computer in the future that is built on silicon that more closely resembles IBM's TrueNorth than Intel's Core (or Apple's Hurricane). A descendant of SIRI could be the OS for that computer. 


    I think Apple already had a vision for future computer when Steve Jobs said in the future instead of you learning how to use computer, The computer itself will learn about you to serve you. 
    The vision was clear. I just don't think the man who's overseeing SIRI has as big a dream, or ever has a dream. Got this from twitter


    Don't think Cue will know "what's wrong with this picture?".
    At least those are in the same area. I hate when I use Maps to find a common, local place by its name and it throws into me into some place with that same in another state, or country.


    PS: I don't blame Cue.
    edited October 2016 lolliver
  • Reply 13 of 16

    mjtomlin said:

    I'm thinking some of you people are clueless at what Eddie Cue actually does and has done? You seem to be forgetting that he ran the iTunes Music store, one of the largest digital media distribution services on the planet for years before being given the task of revamping MobileMe and turning it into something far better, iCloud. 

    Eddie is not going to run the Siri team, or the Maps team, etc. What he's going to do is make sure that whatever they develop and produce, it can be served to Apple's users (accessed by their devices) with as little issues as possible.

    Putting all of Apple's cloud services under one organization makes a lot of sense when it comes to making sure the infrastructure and technology is there for delivering those services to a billion+ devices around the world.
    Well said!

    At the moment, those teams are scattered across office parks in other parts of Cupertino and in the nearby town of Sunnyvale, Bloomberg said. Sources for the publication explained that teams for Siri, Maps, iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple News, and parts of iTunes and Apple Music will be a part of the unification effort.
    I suspect that Apple Pay, parts of iTunes and Apple Music involve payment processing and the superior transaction processing capabilities of FoundationDB.  I suspect that Apple acquired FoundationDB specifically for this purpose -- but I wish they would make it available to developers, and offer it as a Cloud Service (doesn't necessarily need to be part of iCloud).
    The company is also said to be shifting its cloud infrastructure onto a single Apple-made platform codenamed "Pie," giving it more control and potentially some speed boosts. Parts of Siri, Apple News, and the iTunes Store are already being moved over, and the company has developed a photo storage system -- "McQueen" -- meant to reduce dependence on Amazon and Google servers. A full transition to Pie could take several years.
    I suspect that McQueen (another Steve?) is for more than just synching and storage of photos -- could easily include: notes; calendars; mail, etc.  It could even include incremental backup ala TimeMachine.

    The Big 4 providers of Cloud services are:  Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Google.  Reportedly, MS told Apple that they could not handle the projected Apple capacity.  Apple could certainly expand its use if IBM Cloud services -- at least until it fleshes out its own world-wide cloud capacity.  

    There are real advantages to this:
       • the breadth and depth of IBM services to enterprise
       • currently over 2,000 IBM Cloud packages
       • the availability of cognitive services such as Watson
       • the current MobileFirst partnership
       • IBM providing/promoting the use of Macs, iDevices to enterprise
       • IBM Internet Cloud Tools for Swift -- allowing local development and testing of both client and server on a Mac, before deployment of the server to the Cloud
       • the commitment to Swift by both IBM and Apple

    Apple and IBM could even offer ApplePay and FoundationDB services through the IBM Cloud.

    That leaves Amazon and Google -- both competitors to Apple -- frenemies, atbest.  Apple would bulk up its own cloud services (iCloud and IBM Partner) -- rather than paying Amazon and Google to bulk up theirs -- and sell the capability to Apple at a higher cost.

    And, no -- I don't think Apple should Acquire IBM... yet!


    fastasleeplolliver
  • Reply 14 of 16
    holyoneholyone Posts: 398member

    And, no -- I don't think Apple should Acquire IBM... yet!


    Why not ? seems logical with all the good points you made, I know IBM's probably a bit pricy but couldn't Apple borrow and pay it off over time by pausing buy backs for a little bit
  • Reply 15 of 16
    holyone said:

    And, no -- I don't think Apple should Acquire IBM... yet!


    Why not ? seems logical with all the good points you made, I know IBM's probably a bit pricy but couldn't Apple borrow and pay it off over time by pausing buy backs for a little bit   

    I don't think financing is the issue.  I worked for IBM (1964-1980) and with Apple (1978-1989) and the cultures were quite different.

    Today's Apple culture appears to be much the same.  It appears that IBM's culture is moving towards Apple's -- though, not there yet!

    Also, each company has its own markets and areas of expertise -- there's a synergy -- why encumber one's with the other's.

    I suspect that the current Apple/IBM partnership is very successful, and will be expanded into different areas.  At some time, in the next few years, opportunities will present themselves -- that will best be addressed by combining the two companies.

    Also, there are anti-trust considerations.
  • Reply 16 of 16
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member
    I am still baffled as to why Apple continue to buy ready built Servers from HPE instead of designing and making it themselves. You can only get the best efficiency in DC by designing everything from DC to Server. Not to mention the cost saving in building yourself.

    That is not to say Apple 's DC are inefficient, but I dont think they are anywhere near OVH or Google. Apple's solution is, instead of spending time designing it to perfection, much like their other products or Campus. They throw huge money into it. By building huge solar panel and getting those energy very cheap, reselling those excess energy. 
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