4 ms·

In less than a week, we've had those 'genius' ads on TV that seem to insult consumers' intelligence [1], and now the person who led CPU design for iOS devices i

by cs702 14y ago

In less than a week, we've had those 'genius' ads on TV that seem to insult consumers' intelligence [1], and now the person who led CPU design for iOS devices is leaving the company. These are not encouraging signs for Apple. [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2012/07/30/viewers-give-apples-genius-olympic-ads-a-d-for-dumb/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2012/07/30/viewers-giv...

avar 14y ago
I don't work for Apple nor do I have any stake in them, but it can be really frustrating when people make assumptions and conclusions about the company you work for based on the limited information available to them as outsiders. Do you really think that some silly advert made by the marketing department at Apple has any relevance to whatever the reasons were for the head of CPU design for iOS devices had for leaving? Things might be changing for the worse inside Apple, but taking these two datapoints and assuming that something big is going wrong in the company seems to be a conclusion that isn't supported by the facts.
- cs702 14y ago
  avar: I'm not making any assumptions that anything big is going wrong in the company. Falling short with national TV ads shown during the opening ceremony of the Olympics is a big deal for a company that until recently showed mostly amazing ads on TV. Losing a person who led CPU design for the company's fastest-growing businesses is also a big deal for a company that considered having that person a major coup. Could you imagine either of these things -- lousy ads on a major TV event, key person departing -- happening while Jobs was running the show? -- Edit: changed "only amazing" to "mostly amazing," which better reflects my views.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - furyofantares 14y ago
    The Mac vs PC ads were amazing? I found them unbearable
    - maximveksler 14y ago
      Yes they were. They were brilliant in creating a direct divide between the "old" PC generation and the new hip Apple crowd. Compare the message of PC vs. Mac to this message: "We have tools. Tools that work. Oh, and you need a genius to use them right" ?
      - pjmlp 14y ago
        > We have tools. Tools that work Not if it is XCode.
        wsc981 14y ago
        What's wrong with Xcode? Seems fine for iOS / Mac OS X development. I surely prefer it above Eclipse and it is in some ways also nicer as Visual Studio.
        pjmlp 14y ago
        Keeps crashing all the time. That is not a tool that "works".
        wsc981 14y ago
        I can't say I share your experience. For my Xcode has been pretty stable, though I will admit it's not a perfect product.
        activepeanut 14y ago
        I use the latest Xcode day to day. Xcode is not the kind of tool you can push. If you paint outside the lines, it'll crash.
  - yannickt 14y ago
    "Could you imagine [..] key person departing -- happening while Jobs was running the show?" Avie Tevanian, Jon Rubinstein, Tony Fadell and Bertrand Serlet, all key people at various points in the history of Apple, left while Jobs was still in charge. I wouldn't read too much into this.
  - girishw 14y ago
    Keller could be leaving for a whole slew of reasons. At AMD, he works for a company whose core competency is chip design - his strength. At Apple, he is just a cog in a giant wheel. If he is instrumental in an AMD turnaround, he would have made a bigger impact than if he just pushing status quo at Apple. I'm not sure this is a major impact for Apple. Firstly, I haven't seen anything groundbreaking come from Apple on the chip side. Secondly, there are plenty of talented people from AMD, Intel,HP, etc who would love to work for Apple. He can be replaced.
- dclowd9901 14y ago
  No one's calling it the end of Apple, but these are extremely ill-timed events in light of the big question mark hanging over Apple's head after Jobs' death. When you have that kind of reservation looming about a company, you need to see encouraging signs, not the recent flow of tepid-to-bad news we've been seeing lately. Between the ads, the loss of the CPU designer, the less-than-inspired iPhone 5 product image leaks (assuming they are real) and insignificant incremental product updates, one shouldn't be blamed for not ignoring the writing on the wall.
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    If you're going to go on assumed product leaks being true they launched the tear drop shaped iPhone 5 last year. Encouraging signs: * In their recent "disappointing" quarter they grew faster than Google. * Mountain Lion has just become the fastest selling version of Mac OSX ever, shipping over 3 million copies in the first 4 days (from memory, those numbers may be a little out). * The latest figures show iOS market share increasing despite the fact that the iPhone is due a refresh (which has historically meant sales are at their slowest). * In a market where PC sales as a whole are decreasing, sales of the Mac are increasing. But hell, they did some bad ads, the writing is on the wall.
  - atirip 14y ago
    If you know anything about product cycles, you should know that iPhone5 is absolutely signed off by SJ. And it is 100% certain that this phone is not the last product he signed off.
schraeds 14y ago
Apple isn't very ambitious with their CPU parts, modifying off the shelf cores, removing certain features to improve per-watt performance... I'm sure an leading figure in the field would want to move on eventually. But it's Apple, let's be sensationalist and all go on a limb that Steve Jobs was really important there and now it must all be falling apart!
CubicleNinjas 14y ago
Apple's modus operandi is change. People have watched these changes occur, and have predicted doom for them for ten years now. I'd wager they'll be okay.
melling 14y ago
"Game over, man! Game over!" Ok, who knows where Apple will go, or if and when they'll falter, but it would be really nice if we could not debate it here. This is already starting to rank up their with the Firefox rapid release cycle debate.
parasubvert 14y ago
You know, I've had at least 3 people tell me they love the new 'genius' ads. They don't work in the technology industry. Anecdotes, schmanecdotes and all that, but if one believed online enthusiasts every time Apple did something, the iPod was a joke, iPad was a flop, and iPhone 4S was an underwhelming epic fail. The actual opinion of world does not often reflect the Internet's bizarre jumble of fragmentary opinions.
snowwrestler 14y ago
It seems like every thread that references Apple on Hacker News most now include a comment along the lines of "this confirms it: Apple is dying." I feel like I'm back on Slashdot.

by cs702 14y ago

avar 14y ago

I don't work for Apple nor do I have any stake in them, but it can be really frustrating when people make assumptions and conclusions about the company you work for based on the limited information available to them as outsiders. Do you really think that some silly advert made by the marketing department at Apple has any relevance to whatever the reasons were for the head of CPU design for iOS devices had for leaving? Things might be changing for the worse inside Apple, but taking these two datapoints and assuming that something big is going wrong in the company seems to be a conclusion that isn't supported by the facts.

cs702 14y ago
avar: I'm not making any assumptions that anything big is going wrong in the company. Falling short with national TV ads shown during the opening ceremony of the Olympics is a big deal for a company that until recently showed mostly amazing ads on TV. Losing a person who led CPU design for the company's fastest-growing businesses is also a big deal for a company that considered having that person a major coup. Could you imagine either of these things -- lousy ads on a major TV event, key person departing -- happening while Jobs was running the show? -- Edit: changed "only amazing" to "mostly amazing," which better reflects my views.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- furyofantares 14y ago
  The Mac vs PC ads were amazing? I found them unbearable
  - maximveksler 14y ago
    Yes they were. They were brilliant in creating a direct divide between the "old" PC generation and the new hip Apple crowd. Compare the message of PC vs. Mac to this message: "We have tools. Tools that work. Oh, and you need a genius to use them right" ?
    - pjmlp 14y ago
      > We have tools. Tools that work Not if it is XCode.
      - wsc981 14y ago
        What's wrong with Xcode? Seems fine for iOS / Mac OS X development. I surely prefer it above Eclipse and it is in some ways also nicer as Visual Studio.
        pjmlp 14y ago
        Keeps crashing all the time. That is not a tool that "works".
        wsc981 14y ago
        I can't say I share your experience. For my Xcode has been pretty stable, though I will admit it's not a perfect product.
        activepeanut 14y ago
        I use the latest Xcode day to day. Xcode is not the kind of tool you can push. If you paint outside the lines, it'll crash.
- yannickt 14y ago
  "Could you imagine [..] key person departing -- happening while Jobs was running the show?" Avie Tevanian, Jon Rubinstein, Tony Fadell and Bertrand Serlet, all key people at various points in the history of Apple, left while Jobs was still in charge. I wouldn't read too much into this.
- girishw 14y ago
  Keller could be leaving for a whole slew of reasons. At AMD, he works for a company whose core competency is chip design - his strength. At Apple, he is just a cog in a giant wheel. If he is instrumental in an AMD turnaround, he would have made a bigger impact than if he just pushing status quo at Apple. I'm not sure this is a major impact for Apple. Firstly, I haven't seen anything groundbreaking come from Apple on the chip side. Secondly, there are plenty of talented people from AMD, Intel,HP, etc who would love to work for Apple. He can be replaced.
dclowd9901 14y ago
No one's calling it the end of Apple, but these are extremely ill-timed events in light of the big question mark hanging over Apple's head after Jobs' death. When you have that kind of reservation looming about a company, you need to see encouraging signs, not the recent flow of tepid-to-bad news we've been seeing lately. Between the ads, the loss of the CPU designer, the less-than-inspired iPhone 5 product image leaks (assuming they are real) and insignificant incremental product updates, one shouldn't be blamed for not ignoring the writing on the wall.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  If you're going to go on assumed product leaks being true they launched the tear drop shaped iPhone 5 last year. Encouraging signs: * In their recent "disappointing" quarter they grew faster than Google. * Mountain Lion has just become the fastest selling version of Mac OSX ever, shipping over 3 million copies in the first 4 days (from memory, those numbers may be a little out). * The latest figures show iOS market share increasing despite the fact that the iPhone is due a refresh (which has historically meant sales are at their slowest). * In a market where PC sales as a whole are decreasing, sales of the Mac are increasing. But hell, they did some bad ads, the writing is on the wall.
- atirip 14y ago
  If you know anything about product cycles, you should know that iPhone5 is absolutely signed off by SJ. And it is 100% certain that this phone is not the last product he signed off.

schraeds 14y ago

Apple isn't very ambitious with their CPU parts, modifying off the shelf cores, removing certain features to improve per-watt performance... I'm sure an leading figure in the field would want to move on eventually. But it's Apple, let's be sensationalist and all go on a limb that Steve Jobs was really important there and now it must all be falling apart!

CubicleNinjas 14y ago

Apple's modus operandi is change. People have watched these changes occur, and have predicted doom for them for ten years now. I'd wager they'll be okay.

melling 14y ago

"Game over, man! Game over!" Ok, who knows where Apple will go, or if and when they'll falter, but it would be really nice if we could not debate it here. This is already starting to rank up their with the Firefox rapid release cycle debate.

parasubvert 14y ago

You know, I've had at least 3 people tell me they love the new 'genius' ads. They don't work in the technology industry. Anecdotes, schmanecdotes and all that, but if one believed online enthusiasts every time Apple did something, the iPod was a joke, iPad was a flop, and iPhone 4S was an underwhelming epic fail. The actual opinion of world does not often reflect the Internet's bizarre jumble of fragmentary opinions.

snowwrestler 14y ago

It seems like every thread that references Apple on Hacker News most now include a comment along the lines of "this confirms it: Apple is dying." I feel like I'm back on Slashdot.