Steven Sinofsky, formerly of Microsoft, had an interesting Twitter thread a few days ago that was complimentary of Apple and its ability to ship their own Apple silicon. I read through the thread, and at one point he explains the sort of focus it takes for a company of Apple’s size to pull this off.
13/ Watching today’s WWDC you can see a clear and relentless prioritization of that multi-year strategy across a MASSIVE product development team. It is really amazing to see and I really believe under appreciated. I am fond of the expression “don’t ship the org chart”…
— Steven Sinofsky (@stevesi) June 23, 2020
Then later, he makes a point that hit me right between the eyes.
15/ It is incredibly clear that everyone at Apple puts strategy requirements above anything “local”. When you wonder why there isn’t more new in Notes or why Mail is missing stuff it’s because supporting a multi-year strategy trumps individual teams and that’s a good thing.
— Steven Sinofsky (@stevesi) June 23, 2020
Within hours of Apple announcing that they were moving all Macs to their own silicon within two years, I was on a podcast whining about the lack of a share button in Apple Mail.
I get Sinofsky’s point, but I don’t have any regrets whining about the Mail app, iOS tag support, or any of the other friction points I face every day as an Apple customer that could be solved with better software.
Make no mistake, this week was monumental in the evolution of the Mac. There is a reason that after so many years the macOS now goes to number 11. Apple silicon Macs are going to change the way we use our Macs significantly. I’m not sure if any of us appreciate how much these changes will resonate into the platform’s future.
Still … it sure would be nice if Apple added a share button to Mail on the iPhone and iPad.