AnandTech Publisher Anand Shimpi Headed to Apple

http://recode.net/2014/08/31/veteran-tech-journalist-anand-shimpi-headed-to-apple/

by mstolpm • 12 years ago

140 48 12 years ago

recode.net

blutoot• 12 years ago

I know what his title will be - Chief Benchmarking Officer - CBO...

akuma73• 12 years ago

Except Apple really doesn't do much to call out benchmark results. Maybe that will change going forward.

reitzensteinm• 12 years ago

Just because they don't focus on benchmarks in their marketing does not mean that there isn't some serious behind the scenes effort going on.

If you want your end result to run smoothly, your internal engineering metrics are probably looking a lot like the guts of an in depth Anandtech article.

I bet they know exactly what their maximum frame delay, FPS, load times etc while loading and using their core apps are across every revision of the hardware and software, probably even using an automated system.

For what it's worth, I doubt he'll be so specialized - my guess is some kind of consumer advocate focusing on a higher level (of which performance would be just one part). Essentially reviewing products before they're released, probably even while they are still hypothetical or in prototype phase.

dblohm7• 12 years ago

Unless it favors them.

flomo• 12 years ago

In the not too distant past, Apple released benchmark reports for major new Mac lines: G4, G5, Intel.

arrrg2• 12 years ago

That’s marketing. Maybe Anand was brought on for that, but I really don’t think so.

I find it very easy to believe that Apple cares a lot about measuring the performance of their products internally and also about making the right trade offs. And that’s also exactly what Anand was looking into and writing about, always the whole industry in view. It seems quite easy to believe that he was brought on to do something similar to that, only internally at Apple and with actual power to change products during the design process.

I really hope that Apple won’t go more benchmark-heavy in their marketing. It’s unnecessary and unhelpful. Anand wrote for a niche. His writing had never mass appeal and it’s the wrong way to market products.

Also, marketing will never show you the whole picture, just because when you selectively leave things out your product looks better. It’s not exactly lying, but I still believe it’s not something Anand would ever want to do. It’s a business reality, sure, but it doesn’t seem like his business. He wants the whole picture, and the only place I can see him doing that at Apple is internally. To critically look at their products while in development.

mwfunk• 12 years ago

Just because companies don't emphasize benchmarks in their marketing doesn't mean their engineering processes aren't driven by them. Benchmarks have as much or more value to the people that make the stuff as they do to the people that buy the stuff.

dmishe• 12 years ago

I would think it's not benchmarking, perhaps not all of it. I think it's about his experience of what users look at, how they use it and what are they complaining about in nowadays consumer tech. Like "No way guys, this iphone antenna will be obstructed 90% of the time" type of thing.

I'm sure they a bunch of people like that already, but still.

JohnBooty4• 12 years ago

I'm embarrassed to admit that my heart sunk when I read this, because I imagined thousands of dedicated dislikers-of-Apple immediately declaring, "See! He favored Apple all along!"

It's ridiculous, of course. I always felt he and his staff were extremely objective and by volume, the vast majority of AnandTech's coverage was non-Apple in nature.

The whole idea of "picking sides" is so silly anyway...

psbp• 12 years ago

I haven't seen anyone do that. It's truly an indefensible position given Anand's track record.

phaus2• 12 years ago

I agree, now if it were the Boy Genius or one of the folks from the verge, it would be easily defensible.

Anand was a great hardware reviewer. The only other reviewer I think of that compares to him would be Lisa from mobiletechreview.com. Her reviews aren't as technical, but not everyone needs that. What's important is that she's got integrity.

nizmow• 12 years ago

Unfortunately it's what all of the pro-Android Apple-haters at my office immediately said. I don't think he was in any way biased, just passionate. If his reviews of Apple products were in any way more detailed than those of Android products (which I'm not sure they were), I'm certain it was simply due to the frequency of releases and that Apple products tend to be much more interesting technically.

mtdewcmu4• 12 years ago

I never sensed that type of bias on anandtech. The present career change does seem a bit like selling out.

As the downvotes are starting, I feel like pointing out that I don't blame him for accepting the offer. My point is that it's a point that can legitimately be made, whereas claiming that he was in Apple's pocket all along seems to me baseless.

gress2• 12 years ago

How on earth can you make that point?

whyenot• 12 years ago

The present career change does seem a bit like selling out.

Why? To quote wikipeida, "selling out is the compromising of integrity, morality, authenticity or principles in exchange for personal gain, such as money." That seems like an awfully strong accusation considering how little information there is on what he will be doing and what he will be getting in return for it.

simonh• 12 years ago

It's a bit sad when actually helping make new and interesting stuff is considered selling out, compared to just writing about it.

JohnBooty4• 12 years ago

  > The present career change does seem a bit like selling out.

Anandtech, by all indications, seems to be continuing to grow and be very profitable. All indications are that Anand is quite financially secure.

So I can't see him making this move unless it's something he really wants to do, as opposed to being lured by the money.

Can you blame him? After writing about technology for so long, surely he's gotten the itch to play a more direct role in its creation.

Imagine if you were a fan of baseball your entire life, and had been covering it for years, and you had a chance to actually go and play for a major league team. It could be a dream come true.

ksec• 12 years ago

This is so true. These days is like even Publisher have to pick a side. (Is that because America's culture just like doing it this way? Much like their news report on political issues. Please dont take it as offense, i am genuinely wondering.)

Most site are either Pro Apple or Pro Droid. Bashing one of them is easier and attack on one side.

You can read the iPhone 5S article, on a Droid user switching to iPhone for weeks experience.

It perfectly capture the essence and explain the "reason" behind certain design decisions from Apple. You may not agree with it, hence you can choose a different platform. But there is certainly nothing wrong with the "decision" in itself. And people are just keep bashing Apple and bashing sake.

Being Apple, there must be a reason they do things in certain way. Be it cost? Performance? Battery Life etc? All these technical details Apple just wouldn't explain to you because Apple think you shouldn't care about the technical side of things and you should concentrate on the experience. But being geek as we are, Anandtech will go deep and dig out all the information they can, then try to explain it, explaining the "reason" behind all these decisions.

I mean the rivalry, especially the hate from FansDriod these days are getting insane. I dont see this with AMD and Intel. Heck even AMD fans would admit Intel have better products.

And in my view Anandtech reviews lots of Android phone as well. So i dont understand why people would label him as an Apple servant.

JohnBooty4• 12 years ago

  > Is that because America's culture just like doing it this way?

I live in America, but I haven't lived in any other countries, so I can't compare.

I see two reasons for everybody "picking sides" in America. The second one might be somewhat unique to America.

1. We have lots of advertising where one brand talks negatively about the other brand. People see these ads and think they have to "pick a side." But I think this is true everywhere in the world, right?

2. In America most people are stuck with their mobile phones for 2 years. The mobile phone providers mostly want to sign you up to 2-year contracts and pay for your phone slowly over those 2 years. There are ways around this but most people wind up stuck with their phones for 2 years and so sometimes they feel like they have to "defend" the phone they picked.

I think "picking sides" is dumb. I use Linux, OSX, and Windows pretty equally. I like my Android tablet and my iOS phone.

I also had Sega Genesis AND Super Nintendo as soon as I could afford both. I believe that if you are truly a fan of technology... why wouldn't you want to try/use them all? :)

e15ctr0n• 12 years ago

Is Apple hiring him for his experience with digital publishing or his extensive knowledge of the hardware industry?

chucknelson• 12 years ago

No evidence of course, but I'm going to think most people will say his knowledge of hardware (and his connections).

karl_gluck• 12 years ago

Besides the fact that his public goodwill and expertise is valuable, Anand has been behind the scenes at many of Apple's competitors.

His extensive knowledge of the competition's 4-year product timeline is well worth whatever extraordinary concessions Apple must have made for him.

judk• 12 years ago

Does he have nonpublic knowledge of those product lines?

Steko2• 12 years ago

A 12 year old could tell you what the competition's 4 year product timeline looks like.

curtis17• 12 years ago

Apple could have big plans for their ARM64 platform. Anand could be part of it.

passive• 12 years ago

I'm pretty sure after the iPhone 5s announcement, when he was floored by the 64-bitness of it, I posted something along the lines of "it would be really clever for a mobile company to hire Anand".

Maybe it was just in my head, but nonetheless I think Anand will be an awesome addition to the Apple team. Anyone want to start a pool on when we will see him onstage in a turtleneck? ;)

qq662• 12 years ago

Perhaps they're hiring him to be their "taster" - the guy who tests a prototype and says "it's perfect" or sends the team back to the drawing board. Jobs was famous for this role and Anand would be great at it, having spent 15 years doing it.

Steko2• 12 years ago

I doubt they'd hire someone externally for that and I doubt Anand's taste really aligns with what Apple is going for. I imagine he's going to be taking over a lot of what Katie Cotton used to do.

I also imagine maybe (big maybe) he could be a presenter in keynotes, which Katie didn't do. I think we could eventually (probably not next week) see him doing demos similar to what Bertrand Serlet would occasionally do but more often. Anand won't really be a hardware guy at Apple, just a bridge guy who explains the hardware to the press.

Down the road when Anand comes on stage and tells you that the new SOC is twice as fast as last year's, that's going to hold a lot more credibility with the press than when Phil Schiller says the same thing.

amrrs• 12 years ago

Admit that. Anand explaining the SoC of new Apple Processor that too if they're ditching Samsung for a new Chip maker, it has to gain some traction. Anand will be perfect for that and he knows how Android makers manipulated Benchmark results. He'll be a great taster/tester and also a big plus on stage if Tim Cook brings him on stage.

eevilspock• 12 years ago

Except that Apple presenters (and all execs) seem to also be chosen for their physical charisma. Anand, at least from the articles one photo, doesn't seem to fit Apple's bill.

jeswin• 12 years ago

Just to improve my understanding of how things work, would anyone here be able to shed light on how his compensation might be structured? I'm only looking at examples, not in what exactly Anand makes.

kayoone2• 12 years ago

why does it matter? He will certainly be very happy with his compensation but considering how well Anandtech is running, i am not sure money is a big motivator for him at this point.

guelo• 12 years ago

Kind of amazing that he would go to the one place where you're not allowed to write publicly.

yuhong• 12 years ago

Yea, I hope Apple is fixing the secrecy. I have wished for a Mac version of oldnewthing for a while now.

brisance• 12 years ago

It makes sense. Anand built a site which became a brand and a community that rallied around it. Angela Ahrendts built Burberry as we know it. Dre… beats. Who is next, Alex Ohanian? :D

kayoone2• 12 years ago

Read his Mac Pro review and you will understand that Anand really gets it while others either just love or hate everything Apple does.

wycx• 12 years ago

http://www.anandtech.com/print/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013

sireat• 12 years ago

What kind of financial/other incentive could there be for Anand be to go to Apple?

It seems so much more limiting to be working at a company like Apple than running your own show.

The reddit thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/2f1jze/anand_from_... refers to him buying a Ferrari at 17 in 1999(2-3 years after starting Anandtech and at the high of the dotcom craze of late 90s).

Presumably, the site has been doing quite well since then thanks to the excellent quality of articles like the famous SSD series.

We know Apple of Steve Jobs would not pay any super salaries at Apple.

Has that changed or maybe Anand is doing it just for the challenge?

jonknee• 12 years ago

What kind of financial/other incentive could there be for Anand be to go to Apple?

They're a $600,000,000,000+ company, there's a lot they can incentivize with.

Presumably, the site has been doing quite well since then thanks to the excellent quality of articles like the famous SSD series.

Quite well is quite relative. Remember that they just paid $3b for a headphone company. Beats was also doing "quite well" and then Apple happened.

We know Apple of Steve Jobs would not pay any super salaries at Apple.

For people who are replaceable the salaries are not good. It's a different story for people who are not or who represent Apple in public. For example, Apple's executives are extraordinarily well paid. Steve Jobs richly rewarded his friends and Tim Cook similarly doesn't have a problem handing out buckets of cash.

AnandTech Publisher Anand Shimpi Headed to Apple

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