Break down and rebuild
I’m pretty impressed by the leadership shuffling that Tim Cook has pulled off at Apple. It sounds like he’s fixed some mistakes and built up a recipe for serious progress across the board.
Siri and Maps are of course causing Apple the most trouble in terms of user satisfaction and Eddy Cue is set to step in there after summoning iCloud out of the mud and ashes left behind by .Mac and MobileMe.
Jony Ive who is an unquestionably brilliant designer is taking over Human Interface which really is just the bits-and-pixels version of industrial design. Lots of people have complained about the interface of several recent Apple apps - Calendars, Contacts, Podcasts, Notification Center, and the iPod nano OS. Hopefully Ive will be able to enforce some consistency across Apple software design and push more nothing less than exceptional interfaces.
I can’t speak as much to Bob Mansfield’s roll, but wireless tech is obviously going to continue to be huge in Apple products. LTE, WiFi, Blue Tooth - everyone wants more speeds, more reliability, and lower power consumption. I imagine the team that Mansfield builds in the next two years will be just as important as the hardware.
As for Craig Federighi, how can you expect anything but awesomeness from a guy who rocks that haircut and calls himself Hair Force One on GameCenter? Seriously that is one of my favorite Apple Keynote moments. But really, I can see great things coming from more collaboration between the OS X and iOS teams. Not because I think the two will merge, but because they need to work together seamlessly for a truly great user experience. More and more people are going to switch rapidly among a computer, a tablet, and a phone. The easier it is to access your work and get things done on all of your devices the better.
The next two years will be interesting at Apple. It could mean great things, but really I just want a better UI for Calendar and Contacts. Seriously those are pretty terrible.
