When Steve Jobs returned to save Apple in the late 1990s, guess which department threw up the biggest obstacles to his reforms?
I think you’ll be surprised to learn it was hardware engineering.
According to Robert Brunner, the former head of Apple’s industrial design group (and the guy who hired Jony Ive), the strongest group at Apple at the time was the hardware engineers.
I’m simplifying a bit, but, in general, new products were developed primarily by the hardware group. Late in the process, the engineers handed off their designs to Brunner’s industrial design group for “skin jobs” — they’d try to slap nice cases on them.
After Jobs returned in 1997, he ditched this process and elevated the industrial design group, which, over time, grew in power and influence and transformed Apple into a design-led company. But initially, it was often the engineering group that threw up roadblocks to new products, like the first iMac.
"When we took [the original iMac] to the engineers, they came up with 38 reasons they couldn't do it," Jobs recalled.
So it’s a little ironic that everyone is excited that Apple’s incoming CEO, John Ternus, is an engineer. As history shows, you might want to be careful what you wish for!
Of course, Apple today is a very, very different company from the one Jobs took over in 1997.
One of the biggest changes is the Apple New Product Process, a highly structured (and secretive) framework that outlines every stage of development. It identifies responsible parties, timelines and deliverables.
With that process in place, Apple currently has products in the pipeline that Ternus promises will “change the world once again.”
Maybe having an engineer in charge — and working across teams like a well-oiled machine — isn't such a bad thing.
Ternus is already hyping up Apple internally, and I gotta tell you, it’s infectious!
Also in today’s newsletter:
Apple’s got big things planned for iPhone cameras over several generations, starting this fall.
One of Steve Jobs’ core ideas was that Apple should own the primary technologies in its devices. Now Anker, the well-regarded accessory maker, has adopted this philosophy with a new AI-powered audio chip for its headphones, speakers and other audio gear. Why an AI chip? There are good reasons, and they’re pretty interesting.
I just realized there’s not one person — not one! — in my immediate circle of family and friends that’s on Android. I’m a bit surprised, frankly. But if you have the misfortune of a relative with an Android phone or Windows PC, here’s how to bring them into a FaceTime video call (if you really have to!).
🔥 DEAL OF THE DAY: Anker's Earth Day sale continues with 28% off this 140W MacBook charger that can juice four devices simultaneously and comes with a very cool color display.
Yeah, why did Apple suddenly remove a top fitness app?
Here’s the original Apple car, in case you missed it.
And here’s a great tip about scheduling text messages to send later. It’s not obvious how to do it, but after I learned how, I use the feature pretty frequently.
Don’t miss the bottom X post, in which John Ternus reveals how he’s been shaped — to a somewhat extreme degree — by Apple’s culture.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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