“A little over a year ago, Apple had a problem: The iPad Pro was behind schedule. Elements of the hardware, software, and accompanying stylus weren’t going to be ready for a release in the spring. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and his top lieutenants had to delay the unveiling until the fall,” Brad Stone, Adam Satariano, and Gwen Ackerman report for Bloomberg Businessweek. “That gave most of Apple’s engineers more time. It gave a little-known executive named Johny Srouji much less.”
“Srouji is the senior vice president for hardware technologies at Apple. He runs the division that makes processor chips,” Stone, Satariano, and Ackerman report. “The original plan was to introduce the iPad Pro with Apple’s tablet chip, the A8X, the same processor that powered the iPad Air 2, introduced in 2014. But delaying until fall meant that the Pro would make its debut alongside the iPhone 6s, which was going to use a newer, faster phone chip called the A9… The iPad Pro was important: It was Apple’s attempt to sell tablets to business customers. And it would look feeble next to the iPhone 6s.”
“When the original iPhone came out in 2007, Steve Jobs was well aware of its flaws. It had no front camera, measly battery life, and a slow 2G connection from AT&T. It was also underpowered. A former Apple engineer who worked on the device said that while the handset was a breakthrough technology, it was limited because it pieced together components from different vendors, including elements from a Samsung chip used in DVD players,” Stone, Satariano, and Ackerman report. “‘Steve came to the conclusion that the only way for Apple to really differentiate and deliver something truly unique and truly great, you have to own your own silicon,’ Srouji says. ‘You have to control and own it.'”
Tons more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: As usual, Steve Jobs was right.
SEE ALSO:
Newly-minted Apple SVP Johny Srouji nets $9.6 million in Apple stock – December 29, 2015
Apple’s executive changes hint at an even greater level of vertical integration to come – December 19, 2015
CEO Cook shakes up Apple’s management – December 17, 2015
The iPad Pro is still not ready for prime time.
I would argue that nothing Cook has released is up to par, as far as hardware and software “it just works” quality goes!
In the 5-years since he took over, my wife and I have only bought a Mac Mini 2012, and a few iPhones and iPads. I won’t replace the Mini or our 2010 Macbook Pro, because Cook’s products are simply horrible; and both machines are running okay right now!
I only upgraded to the Air 2 because when you drop an Air (I broke two of them), unlike older iPads, they just shatter!
As far as Apple Music, the Macbook, Mac Pro, ATV 4, iPad Pro… all utter junk! The iMac line lost its quality and Cook barely even updates product hardware in the Mac line, just shameful.
The iPad is not selling because its never been allowed to reach its potential, because Cook is lazy, incompetent, and focused on matters that don’t pertain to carrying out his duties as CEO.
I REFUSE to buy another Apple product until he’s gone!
I disagree with your take. They are not all utter junk. They aren’t perfect and the Mac Pro has certainly fallen behind, I still believe that Apple provides the best experience out there. We just don’t have Steve’s reality distortion field anymore to contend with.
What we are seeing now is not so much the horizontal buildout of products and devices but more vertical integration as the number of device opportunities dwindle because Apple is sticking to its core values and not trying to end up like the Apple of the mid 90’s.
this guys (mr news flash) is just a trolling turd!
best to ignore!
Anyone can look at Apple’s hardware today and see that is much, much more refined and advanced than it has ever been.
You’re obviously letting some personal agenda affect your reasoning – more than likely you’re a homophobic single-minded tool.
One of the WONDERFUL things about living in America is that you have such amazing choice of things to buy.
Please let us know how it goes with the superb Android and Windows products you’ll be buying.
nothing
simply horrible
lost its quality
just shameful
all utter junk
is not selling
lazy, incompetent
I REFUSE
I’m going to pout, stomp my foot and hold my breath.
Subtle signs that you just MAY be reading a post from a troll. (/s)
I’m not going to be as hard on Cook as you, but I am very hard on him most of the time. I don’t think he’s right to lead Apple, but right now that’s what we have to deal with.
The problem I found with the iPad Pro is it has no built in multi-angle stand. The Surface Pro shows that this is a game changer. So the iPad Pro is limited out of the box and you’ll need to buy a stand/keyboard. And none come close to being as good as what’s built into the Surface. The Apple branded keyboard and stand is a joke: no degrees of freedom.
The other issue I’ve found with the iPad Pro is it’s sluggish. Go to BestBuy or wherever and run it through its paces and you’ll see what I mean. Watch as you jump from one App to another, open and close windows, etc. There’s a stutter and this stutter is that the processor and GPU are having to move so many pixels it overwhelms them.
This isn’t quite as bad as the iPad 3 when a new iOS came out: it was horribly sluggish and stuttered all over the place. But the issue is there and I can see with any significant software updates to iOS, this first version is going to be dated fast.
Finally, the iPad Pro is a toy. Anyone who does any serious Web development, software development, creative work like design, photography, video editing, etc. isn’t going to be using this to replace their desktops and laptops. This is a delusional, ridiculous proposition. A person would quickly put themselves out of business because the iPad Pro doesn’t enable a professional to use professional tools and process things fast. The software applications are shadows of their desktop counterparts. To drive the point home, there are severe constraints on things like the maximum megapixels for a photo a person can edit, and RAW photos CANNOT be manipulated in iOS.
iPad Pro is a deadend for any real professionals. 1) Professionals need power. 2) They need huge screen real estate. 3) And they need powerful applications. The iPad Pro does not provide for any of these latter three things.
I hate to say this, but the Surface provides for power and professional Apps because it’s running laptop/desktop grade silicon with massive storage options up to 512 GB, etc. Real Photoshop, Illustrator, Go Live, etc. runs on it. The Surface is also flawed but the point remains.
Bye, Felicia.
Prepare for insults and name calling galore, News Flash!
When you speak the truth in these parts, you get assaulted by legions of lemmings who think things are going just fine with the once great company.
Your review of what has happened under Tim Cook is 100% on target. It is a shame what has happened to the Mac, nearly abandoned by the Apple Phone Company.
Have the guts to post under your own identity instead of sock puppets.
We all know you are News fizzle.
I think you need to sit back and think about the flaws of Apple during Jobs tenure. It seems that so many like to think that Apple was a perfectly executing company during that time, when the fact is, it wasn’t. You’re obviously a simpleton that’s allowed yourself to become brainwashed by Steve’s RDF.
And whether you like it or not, Apple makes 60% of its money ($150 billion last year) from the freaken iPhone, WHAT COMPANY ON EARTH WOULDN’T WORK EXTRA HARD TO KEEP THE PRODUCT MOVING FORWARD???? You’re a moron and I certainly hope you’re not running a company.
Thanks for the support, Jay.
I concur wholeheartedly. Apple is unrecognizable, and this clown they call a CEO is nothing short of reprehensible.
My phone company (ATT) informed me that I was eligible for an early upgrade to a 6S, but why in the world would I ever do that?
For all intents and purposes, it’s not even a meaningful upgrade from my 6 Plus… what a joke, no compelling reason to upgrade whatsoever.
It’s only a matter of time before lazy Cook milks the iPhone dry, and then what will Apple do?
They need to act now and fire this incompetent joke!
Another trollboy.
Most who post here and other Apple Sites are trolls. Some are organized, daily, anti-Apple trollers. It is also likely that some are paid by “PR” Firms to dump on Apple every day.
And the rest are what exactly…? 🙂
Oh, I don’t know…
My disposition is not exactly “MDN friendly”, I surely don’t count among the ‘fans’ of Apple. Quite the opposite actually.
Still, I don’t get totally crucified. There’s good dialogue with some.
MDN… As great as Steve jobs was… He was not always right… Had his share of Goofups. Many.
To namec one massive one….he was against the App store… Which ended up truly setting appart the iphone from the competition …
He was also against small tablets, and hired Scott Forstall