Apple executive team shakeups causing multiple projects to be put on hold

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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Changes in personnel and organization at Apple have been so dramatic in recent times that the company has had to pause multiple projects, a report indicated on Monday.

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The holds were instituted so that managers could "reassess priorities," the Wall Street Journal said, citing multiple sources. The people didn't identify specific projects, or even what fields they are related to.

Regardless, workers accustomed to Apple's stability are "rattled" by the changes, since leadership went mostly unchanged for a period of about five years, the Journal continued. Some recent shifts include the replacement of retail head Angela Ahrendts, the appointment of John Giannandrea as senior VP of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, and the removal of Siri leader Bill Stasior.

The company also recently cut over 200 people from its self-driving car team.

More of Apple's resources are shifting towards services, the Journal noted. Eddy Cue, senior VP of Internet Software and Services, has reportedly focused most of his engineering team on the company's upcoming video platform, which should be revealed March 25. The offering should mix original movies and TV shows with third-party subscriptions.

Apple is known to experiment with many ideas that never see the light of day. One of its more concrete projects, though, is believed to be an augmented reality headset. In fact the company recently appointed its first senior director of worldwide product marketing for augmented reality, Frank Casanova.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 30
    ihatescreennamesihatescreennames Posts: 1,976member
    At Apple the only constant is change. I used to hear that or something similar all the time. My guess is these employees are not particularly rattled. 
    lolliverStrangeDayschasmnetmagejbdragonmichelb76docno42
  • Reply 2 of 30
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,411member
    About time.

    But it's disappointing to hear that Cue is not on that list.
    mazda 3sSpamSandwichlkruppdavgreg
  • Reply 3 of 30
    dneesleydneesley Posts: 13member
    Predicting this means no change to the non-functional iPad iOS that is universally denigrated with respect to the awesome hardware.
    caladanianelijahg
  • Reply 4 of 30
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,927member
    Workers are rattled? Ya, I don’t think so. Most workers will continue to do their normal day to day jobs. 
    lolliverjbdragon
  • Reply 5 of 30
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,453member
    dneesley said:
    Predicting this means no change to the non-functional iPad iOS that is universally denigrated with respect to the awesome hardware.
    Yeah, I'm sure the iOS dev teams are totally sitting on their thumbs. /eyeroll
    AppleExposeddelreyjonesStrangeDaysracerhomie3edredrandominternetpersonnetmagejbdragonelijahg
  • Reply 6 of 30
    Dave KapDave Kap Posts: 60member
    Apple Insider is turning into forbes.. 

    How do you know that workers are “rattled” ?
    SpamSandwichAppleExposedmwhitelkrupprandominternetpersonnetmagejbdragonelijahgdocno42
  • Reply 7 of 30
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Dave Kap said:
    Apple Insider is turning into forbes.. 

    How do you know that workers are “rattled” ?
    Agree. That’s what Scott Adams calls “mindreading” and whatever is being speculated on can pretty much safely be ignored.
    edited February 2019 racerhomie3netmageelijahg
  • Reply 8 of 30
    ihatescreennamesihatescreennames Posts: 1,976member
    Dave Kap said:
    Apple Insider is turning into forbes.. 

    How do you know that workers are “rattled” ?
    To be fair, this article is based on a report in the Wall Street Journal and the word “rattled” is in quotes and followed almost immediately by a link to the article. AI is just repeating what WSJ said, so your question should be aimed at them or their sources. 
    anantksundaramchasmgatorguyuniscapeelijahg
  • Reply 9 of 30
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,610member
    Dave Kap said:
    Apple Insider is turning into forbes.. 

    How do you know that workers are “rattled” ?
    You should probably try reading the article more closely, it will improve your comprehension. AI didn't say the workers were rattled -- it was in quotes, indicating that that specific description comes from the WSJ report.

    I can remember when the WSJ did a decent job covering tech, but this last couple of years Murdoch Syndrome has set in, and now it just fabricates tech stories based on the misinterpretation of rumours.
    flyingdprandominternetpersonminicoffee
  • Reply 10 of 30
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,610member
    And Dneesley goes onto the troll block list for not having the slightest clue what they are talking about.
    bonobobnetmage
  • Reply 11 of 30
    davidmalcolmdavidmalcolm Posts: 403member
    I think this video service is going to end up being embarrassing for Apple, in large part because of their insistence on "family friendly" content. While I'm totally fine with not having GOT levels of nudity and violence. Limiting your show roster to stuff that could air in Prime Time with nothing to differentiate it aside from a higher budget is a recipe for disaster. Writers simply won't do a good job when they live under a ton of restrictions. I'll be happy if I'm wrong, but I suspect that critics will pain their shows, and Apple will pivot into allowing writers and directors more freedom but it'll have already tainted their image. Actually I think this could be the thing that really kills Apple as a "cool brand". I feel like their design prowess will save them. But I think the brand's value will probably take a big hit from this video service. iTunes and Apple Music were safe because none of those reflected on Apple's creativity, Apple wasn't picking the music ... aside from that one awful U2 experiment. I don't think people realize how much of a risk this is. Even if they give away the video content, this service is probably going to cost them way more than the billion they spent on content in the long run. At least CBS All Access had a great Star Trek and a Good Wife spin off (if literally nothing else). Apple is launching without any known quantity franchises. Literally every show has the potential to be a bust.
    mobirdanantksundaramdavgregelijahgdysamoria
  • Reply 12 of 30
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,103member
    davidmalcolm said:
    I think this video service is going to end up being embarrassing for Apple, in large part because of their insistence on "family friendly" content. While I'm totally fine with not having GOT levels of nudity and violence. Limiting your show roster to stuff that could air in Prime Time with nothing to differentiate it aside from a higher budget is a recipe for disaster. Writers simply won't do a good job when they live under a ton of restrictions. I'll be happy if I'm wrong, but I suspect that critics will pain their shows, and Apple will pivot into allowing writers and directors more freedom but it'll have already tainted their image. Actually I think this could be the thing that really kills Apple as a "cool brand". I feel like their design prowess will save them. But I think the brand's value will probably take a big hit from this video service. iTunes and Apple Music were safe because none of those reflected on Apple's creativity, Apple wasn't picking the music ... aside from that one awful U2 experiment. I don't think people realize how much of a risk this is. Even if they give away the video content, this service is probably going to cost them way more than the billion they spent on content in the long run. At least CBS All Access had a great Star Trek and a Good Wife spin off (if literally nothing else). Apple is launching without any known quantity franchises. Literally every show has the potential to be a bust.
    How much nudity was there in Lost? Downton Abbey? How much violence is there in Better Call Saul? Legion? Star Trek? etc etc.. You’re a fool if you believe only HBO-style blockbusters can produce good content. 

    That being said, we have no idea what their stuff will look like. 
    racerhomie3netmagerandominternetpersondavgregelijahgfastasleepdocno42
  • Reply 13 of 30
    yojimbo007yojimbo007 Posts: 1,165member
    Yet Eddy still lingers around.. continuing his mastery in convolution.
    asdasddavgreg
  • Reply 14 of 30
    racerhomie3racerhomie3 Posts: 1,264member
    I love Eddy Que . He has done a great job at Apple. I hate that there is so much pointless hatred poured at him. 
    n2itivguynetmagerandominternetperson
  • Reply 15 of 30
    irelandireland Posts: 17,800member
    Can we really trust WSJ on a story like this? Seems like hype over nothing major to me. Business as usual for Apple. Buying Beats was far more rattling for Apple employees than this. This is just part of life, and typical of Apple to pause projects to asses priorities and move engineering over to an area in preparation for a release.
  • Reply 16 of 30
    irelandireland Posts: 17,800member
    I love Eddy Que . He has done a great job at Apple. I hate that there is so much pointless hatred poured at him. 
    It’s surely overblown, but not fully unwarranted when people are so frustrated by lack of progress in some areas. Schiller took over App Stores and I believe it’s no coincidence that within two years we saw completely new iOS and Mac app stores with more features and better design improvements than we saw under years of Cue’s management. At times Cue seems like one of the least focused Apple employees. Perhaps he’s done enough and should retire and enjoy his life? I don’t know.
    edited February 2019 elijahg
  • Reply 17 of 30
    LatkoLatko Posts: 398member
    So what specific projects are on hold ? On the scale of 100k employees in a $ trillion company, I would expect Airpods in 25 colors and 10 variants to have been spun out a year ago. And AirPower, MacBooks, iMac variants on a 1/2 yearly basis. With or without Angela Ahrendts or whomever may (not) succeed Cue, Gianndreaeae or even Cook
    edited February 2019 elijahg
  • Reply 18 of 30
    leavingthebiggleavingthebigg Posts: 1,291member
    If WSJ knows projects were put on hold, why didn’t it name the projects or provide the number of projects that were put on hold?
    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 19 of 30
    leavingthebiggleavingthebigg Posts: 1,291member
    ireland said:
    I love Eddy Que . He has done a great job at Apple. I hate that there is so much pointless hatred poured at him. 
    It’s surely overblown, but not fully unwarranted when people are so frustrated by lack of progress in some areas. Schiller took over App Stores and I believe it’s no coincidence that within two years we saw completely new iOS and Mac app stores with more features and better design improvements than we saw under years of Cue’s management. At times Cue seems like one of the least focused Apple employees. Perhaps he’s done enough and should retire and enjoy his life? I don’t know.
    Sure Schiller upgraded the UI of the App Store, but it was Cue who made it possible for Schiller to have such an “easy” effort. Cue helped build the infrastructure that links all the App Stores together. 
  • Reply 20 of 30
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    This sounds like the, “hurry up and write some dribble about how Apple is doomed” following the report that they are launching 11 new products this year. Can’t let those investors get too comfy...
    netmagebadmonk
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