“From Apple’s earliest days, executives insisted that employees work from its headquarters in sleepy suburban Cupertino,” Julia Love repots for Reuters. “The thinking, championed by Steve Jobs, was that a centralized campus would put the CEO ‘within walking distance of everyone,’ said Steve Wozniak, who founded the company with Jobs.”
“That stance may finally be softening as Apple prepares to open chic new offices in San Francisco’s high-rent South of Market neighborhood, which has spawned scores of promising startups… The iPhone maker’s new office will be in about 76,000 square feet of rented space at 235 Second Street… The new office is big enough for about 500 workers,” Love reports. 
“Apple’s decision to plant a flag in San Francisco, 46 traffic-choked miles north of its headquarters, comes years after similar moves from rival tech firms such as Google and LinkedIn and marks a turning point in Apple’s willingness to accommodate workers, according to recruiters and former employees… Apple’s new San Francisco office appears to be ‘just a small adaptation’ to some tech workers’ disdain for the commute of at least 90 minutes to the South Bay, said former company executive Jean-Louis Gassee.”
“As Apple’s Silicon Valley rivals dangled perks to woo workers in the latest tech boom, the iPhone maker mostly held firm – the company still does not offer free lunch, and it was among the last companies to operate shuttles to and from the city. With rising competition for talent from a new wave of private companies with sky-high valuations – such as Uber and Airbnb – Apple must do more, recruiters and former employees say,” Love reports. “‘Apple’s attitude has always been that you have the privilege of working for Apple, and if you don’t want to do it, there’s someone around the corner who does,’ said Matt MacInnis, a former Apple employee who worked on the company’s education business and is now CEO of Inkling, an enterprise technology company. Now, MacInnis said, ‘they have to compete.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good thing Apple’s building a 2,800,000 sq. ft. $6 billion campus in the middle of Cupertino.
Nobody who wants to live in San Francisco wants to waste 3 hours per day sitting in a car on traffic-choked roads. That’s why Jony is chauffeured in his Bentley – at least he can get something done during his endless commutes. Who wants to bet Jony will be “working from the SF office today,” more often than not?
I was the executive who always opposed that [centralization], I felt that you should distribute your divisions… and let the teams think more independently. – Woz
Apple is starting this now so the spaceship can take off if the fb1 wins.
WTF is “fb1”?
As long as you’re at it, Apple, there’s lots of good office space – and great people – in San Diego, too.
Julia Love does know that Apple makes more than just iPhones, right?
The only problem with Woz’s quote is that he’s never been able to run a company on his own. And yes, the original Apple computer was terrific, but it’s development was managed by Steve Jobs (who raised the money, set up the company, came up with the marketing philosophy, supervised the external design, etc.). On his own, Woz hasn’t been able to do much of anything other than sponsor concerts and donate money. His remote control company was a failure. So it’s hard to assume his opinion on company organization is correct.