AnandTech founder and EiC Anand Shimpi announced last night via a post on the site that he had decided to retire from technology journalism, but didn’t specify what he’d be doing instead. Today, Re/code reports that Shimpi will be going to Apple, as confirmed by the tech firm’s representative, though his exact role is still unknown.
Earlier this year AnandTech’s Brian Klug also left the site for a role at Apple with a focus on building mobile processors for the company’s iOS lineup. It’s possible and perhaps likely that Shimpi will be taking up a similar role in quality assurance or marketing.
Shimpi says he will continue to advise the AnandTech team on editorial matters when needed, though he will be leaving the operations of the site up to incoming editor-in-chief Ryan Smith.
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Bold move.
Good for him. He deserves it!
Wow, color me surprised. But pleasantly so. Anand Shimpi is highly regarded in the tech blogoshere for his extremely thorough in-depth reviews of processor technology. I think we can look forward to some very cool and powerful chips from Apple in the coming years. Anand wouldn’t have given up AnandTech for Apple unless he was excited about the technology he’s going to be working on. A tantalizing Apple hire for sure.
He left because Apple’s got enough $$$ to pay him what he wants. Don’t be fooled
Contrary to what the other poster thinks every I know seems to agree this guy is a self inflated diva. Lord only knows what Apple has thunk on occasion – this is right up there with the Brit who couldn’t run a store.
Ok.. anyone else get what he just typed.. I get the general idea he doesn’t like Anand, but umm.. huh?
Everyone you know, huh? Let me recommend that you start looking for people who are friendlier and more knowledgable about technology.
Free speech means I get to state my opinion without derision.
No, free speech means you get to state your opinion, and others are free to contest or deride it all they want with their own free speech.
@Dave,
No, free speech means the government (generally) isn’t allowed to prevent you from saying things. It doesn’t protect you from the societal consequences of what you say. You can see in the news everyday someone being called out by society for sexist or racist comments. Lars exercised his right to free speech and to freedom of judgment. You are not the thought police.
Almost every reaction online is that hiring Anand is a good thing, whereas it was opposite with the Dixons guy. So comparing the two doesn’t make sense. Being in the majority doesn’t make us right, but it is rather rare to have so many people agree on anything Apple does.
No, with comments like that you deserve and get plenty of derision. Free speech doesn’t preclude getting punched in the mouth.
Once again, Apple has gone after the best person out there. Congratulations both to Anand and Apple!
This is great news! I’ve always love Anand’s work. It is great for both him and Apple!
*loved. Stupid typo.
Great move by both sides. Anand has a lot of experience looking at chips specifications, understanding design trade offs and testing how those things play out in the real world. I bet he will help Apple hone their ARM SOCs, compare suppliers and they could use his industry connections as well.
What would be funny is if Anand helps set the design direction of the ARM CPUs, AnandTech benchmarks and tries to decode it, and Anand gets to read their analysis and tease them about how their wrong.
Also, hiring Anand might buy Apple a little more secrecy since he did a pretty good job digging into the A7. I wonder if the other guys will be able to dig that deep?
Evaluating products and creating new products are very, very different processes. For Apple’s sake, and Anand’s, I hope they have really thought this through and vetted each other.
I don’t think that I have ever seen Anand do something without a lot of thought about the consequences. Anand is someone that always wants to advance whatever he was working on, and learn more as he does. What Apple offered him that he didn’t have with this website was probably a much larger paycheck, not to mention not having to travel constantly like he said in his retirement piece. Constant traveling can just wear you down over time. So being able to stay home was probably the biggest incentive for him.