Apple today announced that Bertrand Serlet, senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering, will be departing the company in order to "focus less on products and more on science", although his specific destination remains unknown. Serlet joined Steve Jobs at NeXT in 1989, and transitioned to Apple in 1997 when NeXT was acquired and Jobs brought back to lead Apple.
"I've worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering.
Craig Federighi demoing Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Reuters)
Serlet will be replaced by Craig Federighi, currently Apple's vice president of Mac Software Engineering and who has led Mac OS X engineering for the past two years. Federighi is another former NeXT and Apple employee who spent ten years at Ariba before returning to Apple in 2009. Serlet notes that the transition should be seamless given Federighi's role in leading the current Mac OS X team.
"Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release and the transition should be seamless."
Serlet has occasionally appeared at Apple keynote and media events over the years to introduce Mac OS X-related features, and thus well known to longtime Apple followers. Federighi has made a couple of on-stage appearances since his return to Apple, demoing Mac OS X Snow Leopard at WWDC 2009 and showing off some of the features of Apple's forthcoming Mac OS X Lion at last October's "Back to the Mac" event.
Following nearly two years of rumors about a fourth-generation iPhone SE, The Information today reported that Apple suppliers are finally planning to begin ramping up mass production of the device in October of this year. If accurate, that timeframe would mean that the next iPhone SE would not be announced alongside the iPhone 16 series in September, as expected. Instead, the report...
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
Wednesday July 24, 2024 9:06 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today shared alleged specifications for a new ultra-thin iPhone 17 model rumored to launch next year. Kuo expects the device to be equipped with a 6.6-inch display with a current-size Dynamic Island, a standard A19 chip rather than an A19 Pro chip, a single rear camera, and an Apple-designed 5G chip. He also expects the device to have a...
The upcoming iPhone 16 models that we're expecting to see in September are going to be quite similar to the iPhone 15 models, but rumors suggest that Apple is making big changes in 2025. We've been hearing hints of an all-new device in the iPhone lineup, and it may be the most expensive iPhone Apple has offered to date. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. New 'Slim'...
Apple released the fourth beta of iOS 18 today, introducing small changes to a number of features throughout the operating system. There are no big additions in this beta, but Apple is continuing to refine existing settings and design choices. Apple plans to continue updating iOS 18 over the next few months, with the update set to be released this fall. We've rounded up all of the changes...
The fourth-generation iPhone SE will offer a series of major upgrades over the current model, the leaker known as "Ice Universe" claims. The information was listed in a post on Weibo, which also detailed the specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup. As previously rumored, the fourth-generation iPhone SE is expected to feature Face ID and USB-C, marking a major upgrade from current and previous ...
Thursday July 25, 2024 5:43 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple is planning to release at least one iPhone 17 model next year with mechanical aperture, according to a report published today by The Information. The mechanical system would allow users to adjust the size of the iPhone 17's aperture, which refers to the opening of the camera lens through which light enters. All existing iPhone camera lenses have fixed apertures, but some Android...
To me Serlet has more knowledge than Craig. He actually includes information about under the hood stuff and the nice new UI features. Craig just says "beautiful" "very natural". I will remember Serlet as the father of Leopard -- Apple's best release IMO and Craig with Lion, a release that really has nothing that exiting. Again just my opinion.
I KNEW something was going on with Apple with regards to Bertrand.
All the amazing benefits both with speed, less HDD space usage on a clean install, OSX in general (Darwin) and even server or core shells we owe to Bertrand Serlet; not this dingle berry kiss-arse.
I worry that OSX will go complete IOS with a larger screen & storage.
Bertrand Serlet ... you will be solely missed and I HOPE you still get to fiddle with Darwin in each open source iteration.
Now if this guy is not leaving to retire. Then RIP Apple. Seriously, if Apple thinks I want my computer to resemble an overgrown iPad then they can loose my money and I'll be buying an Alienware. Microsoft seem to be the only ones that still get computers? Apple has done brilliantly as well but I really do worry that they have an itch to dumb them down to ridiculous levels!!
Then again...... perhaps the man is leaving because he just is not comfortable with the talk from other employee's about where they want to take Apple after Mr Jobs leaves which is no doubt going to be very soon. I have a feeling they want to go in an entirely new direction..
IMO you don't leave a massively successful company after 22 years without a reason unless your retiring.
Dang, Federighi has large shoes to fill. His Lion demo was so-so. Serlet has been on the Mac OS X team since day one if I remember right, and has always seemed to understand where it needed to go next.
I wonder if the departure has anything to do with Mac OS X transitioning away from a traditional desktop OS towards a more touch-centric, "no-fuss" one. Would be interested in Serlet's opinion on this.
