By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit

Apple Long Knives

The Press Release is available online and a number of sites linked to that. I put it out as an early morning Tweet. It is remarkable in that it discusses the promotions first before indicating the reason; and that Browett's removal is treated as an afterthought.

It is just over a year after the death of Steve Jobs, since which everyone has been critical of Cook and his relatively quiet style of management. With two recent product release events under his belt and another profitable quarter, he came out swinging and mini-Me Scott Forestall was the main victim, with retail head John Browett (whom Cook himself had recruited from UK discount chain Dixons) the other head to roll.

In some ways both were inevitable. Forestall appeared to be arrogant, saw himself as successor to Jobs and upset other members of the team: each of which might be a reason to dispose of him. Cook doesn't do things by half and made two moves related to the end of Forestall's career at Apple that will have long-term effects on how Apple is seen and how it performs.

The first move was to remove Forestall from the position that had seen him overview iOS (including Siri and Maps) and make him report directly to Cook until the time he leaves Cupertino next year: hobbled not once, but twice. The second was a reorganisation and consolidation under Jony Ive of interface design and the inclusion of Craig Ferlinghetti and Mr Fixit Eddy Cue -- all known as reliable Apple people.

BY reporting directly to Cook, Forestall is neutralized and will be unable to join any other company at least until 2013. Despite confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements that Apple treats seriously, it might be seen as a risk of Forestall were to wander over to another company, say RIM, or Google or even Microsoft. By keeping him on a leash for a few months, he will be kept away from developments, so the secrets he does have will be diluted by the time he does get out the door. In Thai parlance he was Moved to an inactive position.

Browett was not a success and many questioned his appointment from the word go. Maybe Cook had seen something that others could not. It became apparent after a few months that things were not going right, especially when staff at the shops -- the guys Apple rely on to make those fabulous figures -- were apparent victims of hours-cutting and penny-pinching. Daniel Eran Dilger had a history of the problem on AppleInsider. Apple is not Dixons.

A personal note here, Dixons head office used to be in Edgware and the plot of land it was built on was an old bomb-site next to my junior school where, every day in pre-teen years, I would play with friends. There, another 15 nano seconds of fame.

Dixons is not Apple. I mean just look at the shops and that head office. So Browett had to go, although his head was demanded even by some normally pro-Apple press (e.g. MacDaily News) months ago. Needless to say, there was a comment from MacDaily News about the dismissal who also seemed pleased to see the departure of Forestall. One of the things mentioned was the skeuomorphic design that Forestall loved (for an example look at the faux leather on Calendar (as well as Notes and Contacts). Will we be back to clean aluminium in a few months?

The early morning saw a cascade of items and opinions on the changes at Apple and almost all were positive. Federico Viticci on MacStories listed the personnel and responsibility changes, noting that there is more to come as the effects trickle down over the next few months (and not just the aluminium finish I am sure). He also mentions how Bob Mansfield -- who recently tried to retire -- heads a new group.

I wonder if that it what triggered this. Apart from the Maps problem (more below) Cook had to work hard to persuade Mansfield to remain and it is known that both he and Jony Ive (another critical member of the upper management team) were not warm to Forestall.

Others had input on the moves with varying value levels. Simon Sharwood at The Register wondered if Siri was the problem, but as that was always stated as beta that is less likely, but Sharwood is among those approving of Cook's new Action Man image. Also on the slightly negative side of commentary was Adam Lashinsky on Fortune who is one of those who includes the nugget that Forestall had apparently refused to sign the mea culpa letter about Maps which Cook put out under his own name.

Another source to summarise the events was Nathan Mattise on Ars Technica who comments on the fallout among other things, while John Gruber. on Daring Fireball makes use of the Apple press release and other reported comments from Ive. Also commenting were two of my favourite sources, Jeff Carlson on TidBits and Kate MacKenzie on PixoBebo.

One of the strongest endorsements for Cook came from Erica Ogg on GigOM who says that this is clearly Cook's Apple now. The decisions here clearly put his stamp on the company and should lay to rest any doubts about his value as CEO. As Erica Ogg notes, "the software Forstall created is on 400 million devices. And that still wasn't enough to save his job."

I found a couple more comments and considering the sources they should be included if only for reference purposes: Serenity Cadlwell of Macworld began with the good news concerning Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi and Jon Ive, mentioned Bob Mansfield in passing, then examined the departure of the "divisive" Forestall and the departure of Browett. She also added some new information concerning an email to Apple employees from Tim Cook in which he thanked Forestall for his many accomplishments and mentioned that Mansfield is to reman for 2 years. At a rumoured $2 million a month, that is a useful bonus.

A useful article from Mike Wehner on TUAW who examines some of the process that led to Forestall's departure who, he writes, "isn't a good fit for Apple right now". Some good points here.

One more comment came from Om Malik on his own blog rather than GigaOM and it is interesting for a sentence close to the end, "Forstall forgot he was Steve's guy, not Steve Jobs".

I knew there would be Shakespeare quotes I could use: "Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself". Cook was made of "Sterner stuff."

Local users I contacted were generally happy about the changes, especially as it could lead to an iOS shakeup which some see as losing ground to Android.

A late report from Sam Oliver at AppleInsider tells us that as news spread of the departure of Forestall, there was apparently "quiet jubilation" as he "had apparently worn out his welcome at the company".

But where, pray, is a comment from Scott Forestall? I suspect we may have to wait more than a couple of years before anything other than hearsay appears.

The main winners in all this are Apple, Tim Cook and the retail staff.

Other Apple Stuff

I wrote on this recently in a couple of articles and also included a ghastly assessment of Apple on Monday from a columnist at Seeking Alpha. Fortunately, not all on that site are gnawing the same bone and I was pleased to see a comment from Scott Murray on Tuesday who has a similar view to me. Indeed, he is just as disgusted with some of the same analysts that he writes he is "frustrated with the ineptitude", adding,

. . . it has come to the point where someone needs to call out the hackery being disseminated by not only analysts, who seem to have no clue of how to estimate earnings, but also by the mainstream media, who don't understand even the most basic parts of Apple's (AAPL) press releases and guidance.

In the main body of the article he calls out more than one analyst for misleading advice and erroneous use of data. I can think of a number of so-called journalists who are cloners in the main, but think that they have become Apple experts over the last year or so.

With all the analysts predicting doom, again and again, and all the products selling out (iPad mini for example) Neil Hughes on AppleInsider has a prediction of some 102 million iPads and 194 million iPhones for 2013. From an analyst of course.

While we were told a couple of months back that there would be a new iTunes late October, there has been no sign of this and we have one day to go. November is the new October, according to Jacqui Cheng on Ars Technica. Apple needs more time to "get it right." A longer statement is in the article. The obvious assumption is that yesterday's internal changes at Apple may have had some effect on this.

I can find no new updates for OS X this morning, but a Tweet from Federico Viticci of MacStories mentions Cards which is still not available for users in Thailand.

Half and Half

We reported a week or so ago that the US Immigration service was dumping its BlackBerry phones for iPhones and the flood continues with the Pentagon reportedly buying Android and iPhone devices in addition to the BlackBerry phones it already uses, Nick Taborek reports on Washington Post. Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider also had a report on the Pentagon's new phones.

There was some interesting information about new light bulbs from Philips this week. Light bulbs? Interesting? Bear with me: there is an app for it too. Philips have released this week a new lightbulb called the Hue and it is only available at the moment from Apple stores in the US and Europe, although the app is available already in the Thai app store. Why an app? The lights are controlled from iOS devices using wifi both in terms of brightness and colour: hence the name Hue. As part of the app, users will be able to select a colour using the app -- say from a photograph -- and the light will change to that.

I have the app on my iPhone and the moment it is started it starts looking for a "bridge" -- the wifi link and offers alternatives, including a remote connection -- if it is unsuccessful. I had a look at the Philips' website for Hue which uses a Chiang Mai lanterns photo and it strikes me as a rather interesting solution. The site and the product have been well thought-out and there is a useful video. Sadly, I am told by Philips that it may be headed to Asia at best early next year although there is no concrete information as yet.

There were a couple of examinations of the new product: from Electronista, which is where I first picked it up from, and from AppleInsider.

On Monday we mentioned comments from Ballmer about the lack of a product from Apple or Google that can compete with the Surface, but thought this was typical Ballmer posturing: marketing bravura. Steven Sande on TUAW also has some comments on this and thinks that this is delusional, highlighting the point that Ballmer made: "I don't think anybody has done a product that is the product that I see customers wanting. You can go through the products from all those guys ... and none of them has a product that you can really use." The more I look at that, the worse it appears. What on earth have I been doing with my iPads -- 1, 2 and 3 -- for the last year or so? Ballmer is convinced that everyone wants the surface. We shall see. Didn't he say something similar about the Zune?

Other Matters

The Surface was stripped down by iFixit and Rik Myslewski ever grateful for points scored against Apple tells readers that it is apparently difficult to repair. No, wait, what he wrote was that with a score of 4 (out of 10) it is easier to repair than "either the iPad 2 or its follow-on iPad 3 - aka "the new iPad"" presumably forgetting that there is a newer iPad. Like Apple, Microsoft does not want amateur repairers doing the job: send it back and get a proper replacement is the meme these days. He has some interesting pictures, but they are better on the iFixit site.

Also on The Register Matt Asay suggests that the competition for the Surface is not Apple (different league, methinks) but Google and like Cringely (above) is critical of Redmond's outmoded ways.

In a related report, Rocco Pendola on The Street writes about his experiences with the Mac version of Microsoft Office, adding like many that "I was under the impression I could not live without it." I sigh when I read that sort of thing. However, a problem with the download meant he had to switch to Pages (iWork) and also tried Numbers. He needs to try Keynote: I swear by this. He was so impressed by the work he was able to do that he cancelled the Office order. My source for this was MacDaily News.

We have reported here about concerns that some western governments have about the use of Huawei products in certain situations that may concern security. They don't trust Huawei because they think the Chinese government has back doors in the devices. However, Phil Muncaster on The Register reports that the US government has opened the door slightly and is to allow the company to provide some of the equipment to upgrade the Clearwire network to LTE.

Local Items

As well as a useful map that shows branches and ATMs, there is a neat feature with the camera: I can hold it up and it will show onscreen where any branches or ATMs are. I had never seen anything like that before and count myself impressed. I wrote this up and hope to complete the review when I have the account reset.

A note: there will probably not be a Cassandra this Friday. I am being taken into the hills with a university party and have no idea if there is to be internet access where we are. There are, however, reported to be tigers and cobras in the area.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.