“Dozens of high-ranking Apple staffers have departed the company for rivals this year, the latest of which is Tanya Ridd, head of Apple’s corporate PR in Europe, who last week ditched the iPhone maker for Snap,” Nicole Kobie writes for Wired. “Ridd’s move follows a swathe of Apple employees running to Tesla, including Bas Ording, Apple UI designer; Chris Lattner, head developer of X-Code; Matt Casebolt, director of product design; Sarah O’Brien, communications head; and Colin Smith, Mac communications director.”
“What this says about Apple’s own stalling car efforts, we dare not speculate. (Though ex-staffers have also gone to GoPro, eBay, Y Combinator, Waymo and more),” Kobie writes. “Is it a sign of trouble at Apple, or the simple evolution of any big corporation? Benedict Evans, of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, isn’t convinced the staff churn stems from turmoil at Apple. ‘It’s a big company, and they have turnover,’ he said in an email to WIRED. ‘I don’t think one can draw a line between a programming language developer leaving… and a PR person in London.'”
Kobie writes, “Mark Di-Toro, careers expert at Glassdoor, also doesn’t believe the executive exodus reflects wider issues.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Normal churn.
To every season churn, churn, churn…
I’d rather work for Elon Musk than Tim Cook. At least Musk knows what he is there for.
Tesla is shipping a growing line of cars, is rolling out a line of Solar Home product through Solar City sub, supplies critical components to other car makers, is developing a commercial truck.
Space X will be shortly doing it’s first manned flight and not long after will be sending humans on an orbital trip to the moon. They can launch to orbit for a fraction of the cost of any other provider and are not dependent upon Russian rocket motors.
Meanwhile Tim Cook is preparing a powered Bluetooth speaker with Siri. The Mac line is underpowered and out of date. The Apple TV is underpowered and out of date. Apple STILL does not have a streaming service and still has not fully integrated Single Sign On with the existing streaming, cable and satellite providers. Oh, and you can watch Planet of the Apps while Jeff Bezos is offering The Grand Tour in 4K.
Of everything you have listed for Tesla, only one is a reality, you picked a bad example for a comparison. whatever one thinks of Tim Cook, at least Apple products actually exist.
But… but…but Musk is going to personally build a Hyperloop transit hub on the East coast. NY to Washington, D.C. in a half hour. Try doing that with a HomePod or AppleWatch. Elon Musk is a giant among men and gods alike. Tim Cook likes men but they say all men are in love with Elon Musk. Guys gush and blush when they shake his hand.
Cars and solar roofs are BOTH realities. Musk is more like Jobs, and less like Cook. I agree with DavGreg, Musk is providing vision, Cook lacks the skill set.
I could not agree more re the dismal Apple TV…..the app oriented fragmented UI where every app is it own UI universe .. no predictibilty .. no consitancy.. no centalization of favorits and alerts for new content .. list goes on .. it sucks.
and hardware , no 4k…. and a remote that was designed with zero ergonomic consideration!……. and the embaressing content efforts ……. plus what you listed.
Add on top AI that is seriously behind competitions. From the basic spell check to Siri . Its bad… ( i hope, pray🙏🙏🙏 ios 11 will bring marked improvements )
But on the other hand
mac s are coming back to life with the new refresh and imac pro down the line.. then mac pro and displays later.
Homepod is a cool.
I expect Applewatch series 3 to be awesome.
I i expect iphonex and AR intigration to be awesome.
As for revolutionary exciting ideas brewing behind closed doors…. well no one outside a few at Apple knows. I think Apple has to start being less opaque and use their PR machine to create a bigger buzz and excitment about the future of where the company is headed. Tease us Apple.. tease the world and make us wonder about the prospects in full excitement. Nothing does not do much .
Meh. Overwrought handwringing. Apple is not perfect but they’re doing just fine.
I like Musk a lot and am excited to see what he does with his businesses. However, I can’t help but notice how much his businesses rely on Government largess, Government subsidies and Government regulations that favor his businesses. He is a shrewd lobbyist for his own businesses, as is Al Gore. Not great company to be associated with.
And yea I know he’s on the Apple BoD. One can only hope his influence is minimal.
Who needs any more high-ranking staff when Apple has Tim Cook?
Who needs any more high-ranking staff when Apple has Tim Cook?
Sure you can draw a conclusion Apple is no longer anything special without Steve Jobs it’s just a company
Quit, move, make more money, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Chris Lattner, head developer of X-Code
NOPE! Chris Lattner left Tesla. He’s still working with the open source Swift programming project supported by Apple.
Turns out that Tesla isn’t a good fit for me after all. I’m interested to hear about interesting roles for a seasoned engineering leader!
— Chris Lattner (…) 21 June 2017
Your loss Tesla.
As for much of the rest of the departure list, they’re marketing and HR. That’s fine with me as such changes are inevitable when a company devotes itself to creativity, versus stagnation.
(Not that Apple hasn’t deliberately RUINED the desktop Mac market with stagnation). 😛 🖕
I thought the article was basically “rats leave sinking ship” type of article about Apple. Really, is it a big deal nowadays that employees defect to other jobs thanks to headhunter agencies always offering to get you a better high-paying job in an excellent location. I would think nearly every company has staff coming and going on a steady basis for all sorts of reasons. If a person is talented, I’m sure they’ll get plenty of job offers with higher salaries and perks. No need to focus on Apple for that.