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Businesses Apple Technology

Profile of Apple's Eddy Cue, Who Oversees Company's Internet Software and Services (theinformation.com) 40

The Information (paywalled) reports: In 2012, Mr. Cue took on even more responsibility when Mr. Cook fired Scott Forstall, then a senior vice president of the iOS software powering iPhones. Mr. Forstall had overseen the launch of Apple Maps, which was panned due to misplaced landmarks, distorted satellite images and other problems. With Mr. Forstall gone, Mr. Cue took over Apple Maps and Siri, the intelligent assistant that launched as a major feature of the iPhone 4S the prior year. From the moment he gained responsibility for Siri, Mr. Cue seemed to lack much interest in it, according to people who worked on the project. When Siri team members presented Mr. Cue with technical data around the performance of the assistant -- an area of frequent criticism of the technology -- Mr. Cue appeared bored and seemed to fall asleep in at least two meetings, said a former Apple employee who was present.

[...] One obstacle for Mr. Cue, in his meetings with television executives, was that he didn't encounter the kind of desperation that made it possible for Apple to sign all the major record labels, then being ravaged by piracy, to iTunes. Cord-cutting -- people dumping their cable and satellite subscriptions -- had not yet emerged as a problem. "Apple kept wanting to use the same playbook, and it's not going to work in the video world," said a former Apple executive who worked on video. Around four years ago, Mr. Cue oversaw development of a version of Apple TV that could integrate with cable services, with the goal of replacing set-top boxes distributed by the likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, said a former Apple employee. The Apple TV box -- with a coaxial cable port for plugging into cable networks and software to handle the combination of live and on-demand video -- never launched due to disagreements with the potential cable partners. Apple engineers involved in the product were dispirited, said a former employee.
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Profile of Apple's Eddy Cue, Who Oversees Company's Internet Software and Services

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    From the moment he gained responsibility for Siri, Mr. Cue seemed to lack much interest in it, according to people who worked on the project. When Siri team members presented Mr. Cue with technical data around the performance of the assistant -- an area of frequent criticism of the technology -- Mr. Cue appeared bored and seemed to fall asleep in at least two meetings, said a former Apple employee who was present.

    And that's exactly how I feel about Siri. I live in a small town where there's basically no int

    • Maybe Apple should have a few dozen employees in smaller towns and cities in countries all over the world, because I'm sure they have a pretty skewed view of what people want/need.

      • Yes, because Apple has to absolutely care what a minority of the population wants. It should do so at great expense! Come on. Small towns in little shithole flyover states don't matter. Why would they? Apple has enough to focus on actual cities that aren't a stop light and a bunch of rednecks jerking each other off over Donald Trump and the Confederacy days. "This doesn't work for me" is an entitlement mentality.
        • And you think "I don't care about cities with less than a million people crammed in it" is a healthy way to think?

          And I'm also talking about other countries, where there's maybe only a fww big cities and the majority of the population does not live inside these crammed megapolis.

          I have no idea why you had to add your anti-Trump point of view into your comment, most of the world does not really care about your orange-tinted asshat-in-chief.

      • by AuMatar ( 183847 )

        Given that 80% of the US lives in cities, the US isn't even close to the most urban country in the world, and that money concentrates in urban areas- no that's a waste of time and money.

  • coaxial cable port with no cable card slot or usb port needed to link the SDV tunner for SDV cable systems.

    • coaxial cable port with no cable card slot or usb port needed to link the SDV tunner for SDV cable systems.

      That's not a given. The article doesn't indicate anything about the technical aspects of the device; CableCARD tuners and set-top boxes still need a coax line.

      I wouldn't be surprised if it had to do with other things. Cable providers know their end users would likely flock to an Apple STB, which they would own outright and cost them tens of millions of dollars in rental fees every year if even a fraction of subscribers moved over to them...and trying to charge the same money for the CableCARDs would draw re

      • and when the cable co said to apple that you must make each tv have an full box with cable card rent + outlet fee. Apple pushed back.

        tivo has patents so they can get away with it (min boxes stacked off the main box).

      • event PPV can go to phone orders with added fess loadded with ad's says you know with our box you can order with your remote with no added fees & an cable card can in some system cost $1 less then a full box when you add outlet + card rent + SDV tuner rent

  • by Anonymous Coward

    It was not the passing of Steve Jobs that ruined Apple. Scott Forstall had been developing the core OS since the days of NeXT. There are no high level Apple executives left that have full comprehension of the architecture. Granted, his personality was problematic, because he is not Steve Jobs, though it is obvious Jobs never had a problem with it, probably saw Mr. Forstall as a smarter, younger version or himself. In the new regime, there was no room for a personality like Forstall, always rocking the boat.

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