Apple's growing pains, culture of secrecy and the iPad

Fascinating - the tone of some of the fanbois here is extraordinary. Any criticism of the Greatest Company on Earth is clearly misguided. But the points made in the article are perfectly valid, at least for anybody with any understanding of the (many) factors that affect a business over its lifetime; and Apple's lifetime may well be measured by that of Steve Jobs (as Regis, in his interesting comment, suggests). Corporate culture is determined - inevitably - by those at the top. If senior management displays contempt for (or even lack of interest in) customers, suppliers, partners, associates etc., you can be sure this attitude will percolate to a greater or lesser extent down through the chain of command. It will affect middle management in particular (because their jobs are at more risk than anybody else's except sales staff), and they in turn will be very reluctant to pass comments or suggestions back up the line that might be construed as critical, negative or in any way contrary to the Great Man's thinking. This lack of feedback loop is precisely what makes latent megalomaniacs (the young Steve Jobs) into actual megalomaniacs (the older Steve Jobs). No one doubts that Steve still has lots of wonderful things to offer us - he is a genuinely gifted guy - but a lot of sensible people have grave doubts about Apple's ability to sustain a coherent strategy once the Great Man has gone. Just think back to poor ole' John Sculley (and Regis's remarks on the undermining of Gil Amelio were also revealing). Nobody's Apple-bashing here; just reflecting soberly on the real risks confronting an extraordinary but fundamentally flawed company in the near future. The intention behind this "criticism" is benign: come on, we'd all like Apple to be perfect, and Steve to be Santa Claus! It's not going to happen, of course, and plenty of other companies would love to have a Steve Jobs in charge to ramp up their sales and brand awareness in the way he's driven Apple's. Just be aware of the (human) cost, is all.

Yes, this feeling you describe had by developers is shared by pretty much every Apple Employee also. Having worked for Apple twice, once for an extended period, I can say some things about it:
1) God Help Apple When Steve Jobs Leaves: This culture, and it's Steve Jobs worship is ingrained into the very DNA of the corporate culture. You could feel the middle management sabotaging Gil Amelio's every step, until the day that Steve-o returned. One middle manager even said so directly to me.
2) Employee Treatment: I was there during Gil Amelio's time, and the only people who were treated well were developers- and they set the expected example for everyone else. No half-steps here. Extremes all the time. EVERYONE, and I do mean everyone else was "pushed to the brink of exhaustion" almost all the time. As you get closer to Apple, then you become an extended part of the company. Complaints will get you nowhere.
3) Developers, You Don't Matter: Everyone who has posted regarding this who is a developer you should know that Steve's company gets runs Steve's way because the ENTIRE FREAKING APPLE COMPANY is in his reality distortion field and exists JUST to serve him. Any Apple Employee can tell you that. He's the General Patton of the Computer Age. He cares very little about YOU. He will get around to you in his own time, if at all. He's a game-changing narcissist, not someone who cares about the people who are affected. He cares about the nature of 'game-changing' itself and salesmanship more than anything else, and subordinate processes (like you developers) only begin to matter when platforms are mature. By the way, it's all of these traits that make Steve who he is and Apple the company IT is, and therefore the expectations are higher of those in subordinate positions. Welcome to the bleeding edge, people, this is what it's like- in any field. Why would that be? Check the next point.

4) Externalized Costs: Keep in mind that almost ALL successful companies in this mature industrial marketplace make "game-changing paradigm shifts" by a) salesmanship backed by unique user 'experiences' and b) externalizing their costs. Developers were ALWAYS going to be in the front lines of that- this is the bleeding edge. Wal-Mart externalizes it's costs onto it's employees and the people who actually manufacture it's products, third-world countries, etc. and benefits financially by doing so. See storyofstuff.com for that understanding.

5) Yes, I know you don't understand what I am saying because you've been underneath this sort of leadership style since you were born. It's the Western culture.

so the one of main thrusts of this opinion piece is that Apple is screwing over developers because they are not coming forward with a hard stance on whether or not you can put iPad in the name of your app. therefore, we are seeing a large number of HD and XL names in the app store.

so?

as a developer, i would simply not put iPad in the name of my app. done and done - what's the big deal? and as a previous commenter said, many apps were rejected for having iPhone or iPod in the name, so why would you even want to take that chance?

the other thrust of the piece is that developers are panicked at the lack of communication on Apple's part as we approach the opening of the iPad store. the main reason developers are frantic about getting their content into the store on day one is that many of them remember the app store economy in the early days of summer 2008 - there were only a few apps to go around, and people wanted to spend their money. there were apps that i bought personally that i regret ($9.99 for an ebook reader that had half the functionality of the free app Stanza, for instance) and we're going to see a lot of that same thing here with the iPad.

so the people who are really panicked are the people that want to make money based on the timing of their applications, not based on the quality and content of their applications.

if you have a quality app, people will buy it. why not spend your energy making your application great, instead of bitching that you can't get something approved by day one, therefore making off with the gold rush dollar. focus on what is important, focus on your application, and the timing will work itself out.

From Gizmodo's "Sneak Preview: Inside the iPad App Store"


"Basically, if a dev could code an app within two months and is reasonably good at following directions, he's got a good chance at making launch.....

According to devs, Apple has been receptive to just about any app that met its requirements, and that was submitted before the March 27th deadline. This means straight up gimmicks, like silly face apps, standalone clocks, wallpaper apps, and endless variations on sketchpads will all be making appearances. One developer, who merely ported a second-tier game you've never heard of that can't have gotten more than a few thousand downloads, described the approval process as "fast." The app shown below, which lets you high five a video of a hand, will probably be there too"

http://gizmodo.com/5506570/sneak-preview-inside-the-ipad-app-store

snugs...for those who know, this piece is pretty dead on.

Thanks, Victor :)

-K

When did TUAW start printing editorials from PC World? While I suspect being on the bleeding edge of developing products for any Apple product isn't without pain, from the customer perspective, I have some confidence that apps will "just work". There are a few that are buggy, but whatever Apple has to do to maintain product quality...I'm all for it.
I'm sure more than a few of the readers here can recall have a Palm phone and installed apps that crippled the phone. (and there was no "Palm Genius Bar" to help fix things).
As a customer, user and a shareholder...I'm pretty damn happy.

"It is a fear generated by Apple as a byproduct of the company's own paranoia..."

Please spare us the melodrama fantasies. Have you ever heard of industrial espionage? Take a wild guess as to why this term exists!

What a load of drivel. It reads like a high school student's take on Apple based on what he has read online over the years. No hard facts, no real depth, just the usual unsupported pap that is regurgitated by Mac centric bloggers on a regular basis. If it ain't news, then title it Opinion. Opinion and facts are not even distance relatives.

Well, being "technically" HD by pixels is a long way from being hung in your living room and attached to an Apple TV.

As for iPhone OS being beta... let's just say the thing did the job but was far from "complete" by the time it launched. You remember how few people got to touch the thing when it was announced at Macworld, right? Apple pushes the envelope by releasing products that are leaps beyond others, but also bleeding edge. Just "good enough" when you are the best is still better than the rest. So it works. For now. But won't forever.

this *rant* article sounds like an unhappy gold rush guy. nobody makes you rush to get your app in first. the most profitable apps on the istore site are not the first ones in. if you want to play the gold rush game, then you take risks. history books, in my high school at least, said thousands of rushers died scrambling to get to california and the west,leaving kids and families along the way and those that got there had a small chance of success.

i would hardly compare the *emo rant* reaction of a developer who makes an app for a device to the strategy of a man who created the device, against all odds and all naysayers. mr. j. represents, in my opinion and i guess along with forbes, harvard biz school and fortune, among others, the top and most respected ceo in the u.s., if not the world.

@mentalsticks...." why I think that Apple's current success might not be sustainable. Some of the others are the closed ecosystem..." Really? A closed ecosystem that has worked virtually virus free and offers compatibility and integration between platforms unlike the others will contribute to its' downfall???

and then to say: "Remember that Steve Jobs was successful once beofre adn didn't make it." FTW??? huh??? who is writing both this post and this response. i'm sorry, but back up your guesses/hopes/fantasies with something that at least has a grain of substance.