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Ex-Apple SVP Scott Forstall is now a producer on a Broadway musical

scott

Less than 24 hours after a report surfaced revealing Scott Forstall began serving as an advisor to Snapchat last year, the former iOS chief has announced via his Twitter account an unrelated project: a Broadway musical.

I’m thrilled to be co-producing the Broadway musical Fun Home opening this Sunday. Bravo to the phenomenal team!

The announcement is especially notable as it marks the first time the former Apple executive has surfaced in public since his ousting at Apple under current CEO Tim Cook in late 2012.

Forstall’s Twitter bio has also updated to reflect his post-Apple endeavors. The once-verified account with more than 53,000 followers now includes the following bio: “Entrepreneur. Philanthropist. Inventor. Producer.”

Given the nature of the project — producing a Broadway performance rather than anything particularly technology related — the news may cause a few raised eyebrows. While the @forstall Twitter account was once verified (and unused) during his tenure at Apple, it’s currently unverified by Twitter. However, Scott Forstall and The Forstalls appears as a credit for the musical on various sources.

Forstall’s departure from Apple in 2012 signaled a shift in Tim Cook’s leadership and a change in the structure at the top of the company. Forstall lead iOS development under Steve Jobs, successfully shipping the software that powered the iPhone in 2007 and later the iPad in 2010.

A botched Maps rollout prompted a public apology from Tim Cook in late 2012, however, just a month before the chief executive announced Forstall’s firing. Cook’s executive shuffle represented an effort to increase collaboration between the various teams at Apple including hardware, software, and design. Both iOS and OS X have since seen a major user interface redesign gaining features that connect to two platforms as Design head Jony Ive lead the software redesign with Engineering lead Craig Federighi leading both mobile and desktop software groups.

In late 2013, over a year since the former iOS chief left Apple, a report surfaced claiming Forstall had spent his year advising startups, investing an philanthropic groups, and traveling abroad. Add to that list now: producing a Broadway musical.

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Comments

  1. Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

    Producer “of” not “to.”

  2. rnc - 9 years ago

    That shirt… Seems familiar :)

  3. bubffm - 9 years ago

    So what? whether he’s producing a musical or p**sing on the street – it’s all pretty irrelevant

    • charilaosmulder - 9 years ago

      Considering he’s had a very important role at Apple it’s interesting to see what he does now, just like Tony Fadell. Scott is especially interesting because he was a close friend to Steve and he was the skeuo king, which was one of the founding layers that made iOS the unpredicted behemoth it is today.

  4. therackett - 9 years ago

    That’s his WWDC shirt from 2012, right?

    I always thought that iOS was terrible to look at (but used it anyway). I never liked Aqua either which was all Forstall. I think he was a good OS guy in on the technical side, and no doubt was good for Apple for a very long time, but it makes sense that the company changed beyond him. I’d guess he was so entrenched in his belief regarding OS design (because it was a wave that treated him very well), fake buttons, materials etc that he was incapable of seeing what should come next and probably became difficult to work with, stubborn etc.

    • spanky2112 - 9 years ago

      His os was still better than the sh@t that is iOS 7 or 8.

      You didn’t brick a device as easily as now. You didn’t crash springboard as often, and red fonts meant problems.

    • Steffen Baensch - 9 years ago

      He is not just a technical guy. He is also an UX guy. Have you ever heard a discussion between a UX guy and a visual designer like Jony? Forstall was fired other UX guys left voluntarily.

  5. ilyasyurdaon - 9 years ago

    Outsider!

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.