A former Apple developer posted some details on how Apple is working. Taking the opportunity of the question “Why Apple hasn’t updated its iOS Remote app?”, Sachin Agarwal, explains that Apple is like a very big start-up. “Apple doesn’t build large teams to work on every product they make. Instead, they hire very few, but very intelligent people who can work on different projects and move around as needed.
One day you might be working on the Remote app, and the next day you might get pulled on to another project that needs your help. The engineers on the Mac OS and iOS teams move back and forth between the two projects based on release cycles and what’s needs to ship next. Even on Final Cut Pro, team members were sometimes asked to work on the other pro applications if they needed help to ship on time.
An engineer at Apple can’t just assume they will be working on one project forever. And teams at Apple won’t grow to sizes beyond what is absolutely necessary,” Agarwal explains. He also said that Remote app was created by one developer that now is busy doing other things. “Yes, the Remote app is due for an update. But here’s why it hasn’t been updated: the person who wrote it is busy working on other things. Yes, the person, not the team. (He’s a good friend of mine),” Agarwal said.
Last month, two former Apple employees
talked about the culture at the company, measures the company is taking to prevent leaks, and how projects that Steve Jobs is involved moving a lot faster.
