On March 7, 2012, Apple unveiled the third version of its iPad tablet at a press event in San Francisco. Not long after, I was talking to a friend in the tech press who wondered if the event hadn’t signaled the decline of Scott Forstall, who was conspicuously missing from the event stage even though he ostensibly oversaw the operating system that ran the iPad. Forstall’s reported protector at Apple, co-founder Steve Jobs, had died five months earlier. Still, I thought my friend was being a little paranoid.
Eight and a half months later, Forstall was again missing from the stage, this time at the unveiling of the iPad Mini. And one week after that, it was announced that Forstall was out at Apple.
The lesson: Apple events aren’t just about the products being touted on stage, there’s a political subtext too, one that can sometimes be nearly as interesting as the overt news. In 1997, a disastrously aimless Macworld keynote helped doom Apple’s then CEO Gil Amelio in January, while a powerful but extemporaneous address by Jobs at the end of the Worldwide Developers Conference in May accelerated Jobs’ ascent to the top job.
There were no overt snubs or faceplants at today’s WWDC, where CEO Tim Cook, senior VP Craig Federighi, and senior VP Phil Schiller showed off new Mac and iPhone/iPad operating systems, new desktop and laptop Macs, and new online services.
But political intrigue is all about looking for intricate meaning in the most minor details. For those playing along at home, here are some dots to connect. Draw solid lines at your own peril:
- Jonathan Ive remained off stage. Apple’s longtime design chief recently took on new responsibilities at Apple, raising the question of whether he might lead an unveiling from the stage and thus bolster his public profile further. He did not.
- …but Ive’s video stole the show: The highlight of the WWDC opening event was the new, seventh version of iOS. This was unveiled not live from the stage but via a video starring Ive – a video that earned an emotional response from the crowd and, ultimately, a standing ovation. This may have been the first time a major new product was first shown via video (if not, surely you’ll correct us in the comments below). Usually Jobs or someone else would show off the new goodie on stage and Ive’s video would fill in details and backstory.
- Lots of stage time for Craig Federighi: After leaving Apple in 1999, Federighi returned in 2011 to head up OS X development. After Forstall left, he added iOS to his portfolio. For a guy who has barely been back at Apple for two years, and who at times seemed uncomfortable on stage, Federighi enjoyed plenty of spotlight at WWDC. On the other hand, this was, ostensibly, a developer’s conference, and Federighi oversees the operating systems developers care about.
For years, Ive has been Apple's man behind the scenes, a world renowned design guru who wields incredible power within his very polished world. The question remains -- will Ive be able to step into the limelight and rise further? Or will engineers like Federighi be able to use events like WWDC to steal some of his luster? Can Cook become more of a Jobs-ian showman, or will he share more and more of the stage with a parade of vice presidents?
Keep a careful eye on future Apple events to find out. And of course, feel free to add your own tenuous conspiracy theories in the comments below.
