I’m glad Tim Cook is trying new things like this, involving Jony Ive in Human Interface design and becoming more involved in charity. I just wish they’d shitcan the lawsuits and get on with making products. Hopefully the HTC licensing agreement is the beginning of the end of SJ’s “thermonuclear” tantrum.<p>The only way to beat the competition is to make products that are too difficult and costly to replicate – they already use fairly exclusive materials for their hardware, sophisticated designs and have an unmatched retail chain - now they need to step up in the software department. They have the money but need the inspiration.
Google's 20% time was great while I was there. Not everyone takes advantage of it (which is a good thing in many cases - you shouldn't force someone to). But it won't be very beneficial at a company as internally locked down as Apple. It only works when there is open communication of ideas internally. Google, for instance, has internal career fairs where you can check out less-well-known projects for 20% or full time opportunities.
Best of luck to the ones "affected" as everyone that I know who works at Apple are already overworked, stressed and being asked to work while on vacation.
We talked about doing this at my last job, and never did. When I read "...gives a small group of employees 2 weeks or ‘a limited amount of time’ to work on a project outside of their normal responsibilities at Apple", it made me think of the same attitude- the inability to commit to full-on innovation and creativity. Tim Cook, you are a great CEO, but you don't know how to take sufficient risk to get the reward. <i>Everyone</i> should get the 20% time. Don't do anything half-assed, ever. Even better would be to 1-up Google and say that you don't give a flying fuck what your employees do as long as they are innovating for the company and doing what they love to make people's lives better.
This concept of Bootlegging[1], isn't "Google's" and dates back to the late 1960s. I always think of Post-it notes as the pre-digital poster child for this sort of internal, yet personal, innovation.<p>[1] - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootlegging_(business)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootlegging_(business)</a>
Apple is blatantly and abjectly stealing from Google. This is an egregious and shameless flaunting of the thousands of hours of tireless effort and innovation that went into crafting Google's unique and beautiful culture. Pathetic.<p>/sarcasm
I am coming too late into this article (one day old already...), but here's an observation that stood out for me that I wanted to share here.<p>Whenever there is discussion on Apple and "invention", I am reminded of this (somewhat) contrarian opinion piece by Gladwell:--<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/16/110516fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all" rel="nofollow">http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/16/110516fa_fact_...</a><p>Punchline towards the end: <i>Then Starkweather had a scheme for hooking up a high-resolution display to one of his new company’s computers. “I got it running and brought it into management and said, ‘Why don’t we show this at the tech expo in San Francisco? You’ll be able to rule the world.’ They said, ‘I don’t know. We don’t have room for it.’ It was that sort of thing. It was like me saying I’ve discovered a gold mine and you saying we can’t afford a shovel.”<p>He shrugged a little wearily. It was ever thus. The innovator says go. The company says stop—and maybe the only lesson of the legend of Xerox PARC is that what happened there happens, in one way or another, everywhere. By the way, the man who hired Gary Starkweather away to the company that couldn’t afford a shovel? His name was Steve Jobs</i>
Instead of version, I think it would be more accurate to say 3.8% time (two out of fifty-two weeks). 20% time would be over ten weeks by my arithmetic. Although I think it's a generous gesture for a mega cap like Apple, I think this is a little silly. At a big company such as Apple can't you gain or lose 3.8% of your day simply by shuffling around your coffee break or gratuitous meeting schedule?
I think all companies should encourage this. When I read this, Bell Labs comes to mind. Bell Labs had a recipe for brilliant innovation and I think all companies should take note!
Good for the people who work there but to me this looks like yet another sign where apple is becoming like the "other companies". No longer think different.