For the past few years, Apple’s main story (especially in the age of AI) has been that the company isn’t moving fast enough in the space to keep up with the competition. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurmannew Apple CEO John Ternus is reportedly pushing software chief Craig Federighi to “accelerate” Apple’s software roadmap.
At this point, there is no indication that well-known software VP Craig Federighi will leave Apple. In fact, Craig has made it a very low priority to develop a succession plan in any sense Mark Gurman. That said, Ternus still wants to see a change in how Craig Federighi thinks about Apple’s software strategy:
In recent weeks, Ternus met behind closed doors with Craig Federighi, who became Apple’s AI czar after its former AI leader was fired last year. Eager for more and frustrated by what he sees as a reluctance to embrace AI with the same urgency as competitors, Ternus pushed his software chief to speed up the company’s plan and quickly move past only essential improvements to Siri.
A big part of Federighi’s approach has been how hands-on he is, which has led to his point of view shaping how Apple’s software development goes to a large extent. This makes team members feel like they have “limited influence” on what happens:
Federighi is known for taking a particularly hands-on role in meetings and important decisions, with some employees describing a management style that can leave little room for competing ideas to gain traction. He is also known for vigorously debating opposing viewpoints, using his knowledge of technical details and ability to argue his position to push forward proposals with which he disagrees. This approach has at times frustrated members of software engineering and design teams, some of whom feel they have limited influence over product direction.
Another part is that Federighi is reportedly only planning on a 12-18 month time frame versus the year-long plans used in hardware engineering. These are some of the gaps that Apple may want to bridge in the coming years.
Mike Rockwell is also considering leaving
Separately, Vision Pro and Siri AI leader Mike Rockwell is still seriously considering leaving. Currently, the VP of Siri engineering is:
Management’s concerns go beyond Federighi. Mike Rockwell, who created the Vision Pro headset in addition to leading the development of Siri AI, continues to seriously consider his departure. That could mean he leaves his role as Siri’s vice president of engineering next year — or Apple altogether. Such a move would be a major blow, given his role in bringing the new Siri to market after an embarrassing two-year delay.
In the same message Gourmet also announced that Apple is experimenting with a new development pipeline that gives engineers 50% more time to do more coding and research and spend less time on integration as coding agents have improved.
It remains to be seen what else might change at Apple to allow for faster development schedules, though it seems likely that Craig Federighi may have to loosen his “tight grip” on the software engineering organization and instead allow some other leaders to flourish and act on their own terms.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
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