Apple SVP of Providers Eddy Cue. Picture credit score: Re/Code
In a brand new interview Eddy Cue has spilled the beans on what his day by day use {hardware} is, what Apple execs really do, and like probably the most.
Cue was quizzed about what Apple gear he makes use of in his day-to-day work to perform his duties. His present arsenal consists of an iPhone 15 Professional Max in white with no cowl, the 15-inch MacBook Air for on-the-go, the Mac Studio at house, and the 12.9-inch iPad Professional.
Along with supervising the groups that handle all these totally different companies, Cue spends a whole lot of time utilizing the companies, together with watching the output of Apple TV+. “I consume a lot [of Apple’s] TV and movies. I even get to watch that for work, which is crazy.”
“I never thought that was going to happen — when I was doing my computer science degree — that I’d get to watch movies and TV for work, that’s the best,” Cue mentioned.
What Apple’s executives really do
Along with protecting a supervisory eye on Apple TV+’s content material, he additionally famous that one among his favourite duties is “getting to see the new products, and help decide what those new products are.”
Cue mentioned that he felt his skill to rent good individuals — and be taught from them — was a think about his success.
“What I try to do is is to create an environment where they can excel,” Cue mentioned. “They’re generally the experts at what they’re doing,and then I’m there to help.”
Cue famous that he has many staff beneath him that do many of the routine work in protecting Apple’s disparate companies working easily. On the high, nonetheless, Apple is “still organized like if we were a small company,” protecting the highest stage of executives as a small and tight-knit group of colleagues.
“The beauty of Apple is not just in services, but it’s in [the fact that] we work really like one cohesive team, so what’s the hardware team doing what Craig and the OS team are doing and what are we doing with our apps and services and so we get to do that together,” he mentioned.
“There’s not divisions [at Apple], so there’s not an iPhone division or whatever. I was at our executive staff meeting where we have Craig running software, we have John Ternus running hardware, Johnny Srouji running the chips. I know all their priorities, they know my priorities, [and] we know where we need each other.”
“We’re highly dependent on each other in a way, we’re accountable to each other too,” Cue mentioned. “I don’t want to let them down and they don’t want to let me down.”
“If you’re lucky enough to find something you’re passionate about then it’s great because it’s not work most of the time. You don’t want to go through life feeling like it’s ‘oh I get up in the morning, I have to go to work,'” Cue added. “I get up in the morning [and] I was excited about was meeting one of my teams this morning.”
Apple Music and Apple TV+
One space that Cue was particularly requested about was Apple Music and it is related companies. His solutions might additionally apply to lots of the companies Apple gives, as in comparison with the way in which the corporate’s high rivals — Google, Spotify, Meta, and Microsoft — deal with companies.
“At the end of the day everyone pretty much has all the same songs,” Cue admitted. “But that doesn’t mean that you can’t innovate and that you can’t do special things, and that’s the mistake that people think well then there’s really not much to do.”
“If you look over the last few years we’ve innovated in [the] quality of the music. In the history of music, there’s really been two formats — mono and stereo. Now, with our surround sound you put a set of airpods on, you’re moving your head and the music — it’s like you’re sitting on the stage with the band exactly how they were hearing it when they’re singing it.”
Cue added that “as much as we love technology, and we use it tremendously, there’s still an aspect of people that’s critical to us. We do live radio shows with real DJs, and the playlists that we’re creating, some algorithmic, but always with a personal touch to it.”
Over time, Cue grew to become conscious that the Classical music expertise was fairly unhealthy in Apple Music. He and his groups subsequently developed a brand new software strictly for Apple Classical, addressing the distinctive specifics of the format.
“I’m incredibly proud of the team, because we’re always thinking of new ideas that make the service better for our customers and listeners, and I think there’s a lot more to do,” Cue mentioned. “It’s part of the DNA of Apple.”
Cue was requested concerning the Apple TV+ service in relation to the numerous different streaming choices accessible. “I think people will always subscribe to more than one [streaming service], but we we we felt like there was a place to not be the most but be the best.”
“You have to remember we didn’t know a lot about making TV shows and movies, but we’ve put together what is I think one of the best teams in the world today. In the five-year period starting with zero movies, zero TV shows, [and] no library I’m really proud of the work that they’ve done from ‘Severance’ to winning a Best Picture Oscar for Coda, and obviously ‘Ted Lasso.'”
“Right now I think one of the best shows we’ve done is on right now with ‘Presumed Innocent.’ The team’s done a a really incredible job for me personally, I’d say [our mission] has been quality over quantity.”