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Apple: Losing Out On Talent and In Need of a Killer New Device (theguardian.com)
mspohr writes with a link to an interesting (and rather dour) take at The Guardian on the state of Apple, which holds that: "Despite its huge value, Silicon Valley developers are turned off by [Apple's] 'secretive, controlling' culture and its engineering is no longer seen as cutting edge." From the article: "Tellingly, Apple is no longer seen as the best place for engineers to work, according to several Silicon Valley talent recruiters. It's a trend that has been happening slowly for years – and now, in this latest tech boom, has become more acute. ... Or as Elon Musk recently put the hiring situation a little more harshly: Apple is the "Tesla graveyard." "If you don't make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple," Musk recently told a German newspaper. The biggest issue for programmers seems to be a high-stress culture and cult of secrecy, which contrasts sharply with office trends toward gentler management and more playful workdays."
Other issues aside with displays, you know Apple doesn't make their displays, right? The only thing they had to do with "retina" was the marketing term retina. Their displays are made by LG and Samsung. Apple doesn't do any LCD or OLED research, they just buy what the display makers can sell them.
He's still officially an Apple employee, and earns 120,000$ a year. You know, he made the Apple 1 and 2, did many other interesting and creative things, but I really wonder if he still would have any real technical impact on the work floor.
He took a company with a monopoly and the world at its feet and ensured that they succeeded at nothing for a decade. Satya is working hard to change the revenue model to a sustainable flow for MS, but in doing so, he's creating enough backlash that companies are abandoning MS products. Had Ballmer had an iota of intelligence, he would have migrated MS to the subscription model when he started. At that time it likely would have succeeded and MS would have much more than doubled its revenue in his tenure.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.