The iPhone 5 Was the Last Model to Receive Input from Steve Jobs

As the anniversary of the death of Steve Jobs approaches, Bloomberg Businessweek writes about the path of Apple outside of the former Apple CEO, and within the article there are some interesting tidbits from anonymous former Apple executives relating to the iPhone 5, Bob Mansfield and the relationship with Google.

With the latest iPhone 5, sources claim it is the last device to have detailed input from Steve Jobs:

…the iPhone 5 was the last model to receive detailed input from Jobs, say two people familiar with the phone’s development. The company has yet to release any products Jobs didn’t personally bless.

Apple’s Senior VP of Engineering Bob Mansfield was noted to retire at the end of June, but two months later in a press release he was to remain at Apple. According to source he was swayed by Apple CEO Tim Cook to stay on the job with a $2 million dollar per month salary:

According to three people familiar with the sequence of events, several senior engineers on Mansfield’s team vociferously complained to Cook about reporting to his replacement, Dan Riccio, who they felt was unprepared for the magnitude of the role. In response, Cook approached Mansfield and offered him an exorbitant package of cash and stock worth around $2 million a month to stay on at Apple as an adviser and help manage the hardware engineering team.

We formerly learned Steve Jobs only planned to add Google Maps to the iPhone weeks before its unveiling. As his relationship with Google soured over accusations Android was a stolen product, Jobs considered at one point removing Google Search from the iPhone:

At the time of his death, Jobs had come to loathe Google, which he felt was copying features of the iPhone while withholding a key feature of Google Maps that allows smartphones to dictate turn-by-turn directions aloud. Jobs also discussed pulling Google search from the iPhone, but figured that customers would reject that move, according to two former Apple executives.

Even though Steve Jobs is no longer running Apple, it appears the executive team seems to be doing something right as Apple is the world’s largest company. But when missteps such as Maps occur, it’s easy to say that would never have happened if Jobs was still at the helm. What do you think about Apple’s progress a year later without Steve Jobs?

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