An ex-Apple engineer has claimed that Apple CEO Tim Cook has made a big mistake in firing Scott Forstall. Forstall was, according to Michael Lopp: “The best approximation of Steve Jobs that Apple had left”.
Lopp told Business Insider: “In my years at Apple, the Caffe Macs [Apple canteen] chatter about Forstall was that he was the only legit successor to Jobs.”
It appears that Forstall was considered a natural successor to Jobs because he was a jerk. Lopp though it was a good thing that Forstall wasn’t liked by his colleagues. He believes that is was the tension and disagreement that helped Apple innovate, claims the Business Insider report.
Lopp notes that the first sentence of the press release that announced Forstall’s departure claimed the management changes would “encourage even more collaboration” he suggests that more collaboration isn’t necessarily a good thing for Apple. “Close your eyes and imagine a meeting with Steve Jobs. Imagine how it proceeds and how decisions are made. Does the word collaboration ever enter your mind? Not mine,” he told Business Insider.
We think it’s worth noting here that Steve Jobs made Tim Cook CEO, not Scott Forstall. If Forstall was really such a natural successor to Jobs would Jobs not have recognised that.
Follow Karen Haslam on Twitter / Follow MacworldUK on Twitter
Related:
Former Apple executive blasts CEO Tim Cook in interview
Apple in-fighting: Mansfield agreed to two more years at Apple after Forstall fired
Cook receives praise for Apple’s ‘cabinet reshuffle’, will the markets react positively?
Sources claim Apple’s Forstall fired for not taking responsibility for Mapsgate
Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.