This is Technology Bytes, episode 144 for December 7th, 2025.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
It feels like the last few weeks I’ve been talking about things that I really don’t have any knowledge of.
Well, see, last week I talked about coding, I’ve done some of that, so that might not be true.
But it just feels like this podcast has been full of opinion.
It always is full of opinion.
But today I’m going to talk about stuff that I really have no concept of, and that’s the Apple exodus.
And what does that mean?
Well, it seems like this week or the last couple weeks we have seen a lot of top executives leaving Apple.
And then I’ve heard the pundits that I listen to talking about what does it mean to them, and I thought I would weigh in, although I don’t have anywhere near the amount of information that the people I listen to have about Apple as a company.
I haven’t been covering them as long.
But let me see what I can do just to empty my brain of these thoughts, whether anyone listens or not.
Many of the exits feel to me like it’s time.
You know, I think that there are some where it feels like it’s just time for them to go.
You know, the AI chief that they hired from Google, you know, it’s interesting because everyone knows that Apple’s relationship with AI has not been super, and many would say they’re behind in that technology.
And many that I listen to say they have time.
But regardless of that, they brought in someone who they thought was kind of top of his class in that arena, and yet that hasn’t shown itself to be an improvement in what Apple does.
So that loss to me feels vaguely unimportant because what has been happening in Apple and AI has not been good.
And they’ve lost others who are not necessarily, you know, they call them C-suite, right?
The people at the top and out of the AI group.
But I still think that is something that Apple has to look at because those people have been maybe underperforming or maybe Apple’s culture makes them underperforming.
It’s really hard to know.
But then you look at people like Alan Dye, who’s part of their software design and human interface.
And many would say that, you know, Apple has been falling down in that area as of late.
I don’t see that really.
But then some inside Apple things that I’ve read are like they’re kind of glad this guy is gone.
They’re bringing in a guy that’s been with Apple for a very long time.
And people are really looking forward to working for him directly and having him be in charge of that part of the Apple design world.
And so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes over the next periods of time.
Other losses are people leaving.
And the thing is that’s so interesting is that Apple hasn’t fired anybody.
Now, some may say they have shown people the door and let them leave gracefully.
But no one has been fired for cause or because they just don’t fit inside of Apple.
And in fact, Apple has already hired another AI person from Microsoft who spent a bunch of time at Google.
It’s interesting that they’re doing that because the first one didn’t work out all that well.
So we’ll see how that goes.
But there’s more talk about who’s leaving than who they’ve brought on.
And a lot of times that is Apple’s way, especially with top executives, because they want them to leave gracefully.
They want them to be able to leave with honor.
They want them to feel like they are leaving on their own terms.
And I like companies who do that for top executives, even when they may be underperforming.
You’re not pointing a rosy picture about their performance at your company, but you are saying they are worth having respect for.
They have put in time here at my company and we need to treat them with respect as they choose to walk out the door.
And regardless of where they’re going to work, regardless of the rest of their path in their professional career or life, Apple feels like they owe them that level of respect.
Others that have been leaving are in the general counsel department and they’ve already got replacements lined up for them.
It just feels like many are walking out as their time with Apple has come to an end.
Like I said, I don’t know.
Is Apple pushing some of them out the door?
Well, it’s a possibility that can happen.
But then today, as I was preparing to do this podcast, I saw a news pop up in my feed that surprised me a little bit.
And it was talking about Johnny Soruji leaving Apple potentially.
And he’s their chief chip design person.
And that one feels weird to me.
Because with the success of Apple Silicon, he’s actually been on the screen a lot when Apple Silicon came on board talking about how the design worked and what they did to make the chips better over time and all the work that went into that.
And it just feels, that one feels off to me.
I don’t know why he would feel like it’s time for him to leave Apple for another company.
I don’t know if he feels disrespected.
I don’t know if he feels like they don’t appreciate what he’s done.
But man, they talk a lot about the power of Apple Silicon compared to the rest of the world.
We’ve seen the power of Apple Silicon compared to the rest of the world.
They don’t even have to talk about it.
We know it from performance, from example, from what we’ve seen on our devices.
So is that all he has?
Is that the only thing that’s there?
And now that he’s created this chip, it feels like there’s nowhere else to go?
I don’t know.
If he’s not leaving just because he’s wore out, which could be because a lot of work in that design world, this one feels different to me.
It’ll be interesting to see over the next months how this looks.
Maybe the rumor has come out just to, I don’t know.
It doesn’t feel like he needs that to strengthen his position with Apple.
I feel like they think so highly of him and what he’s done with their design chips and in that world.
And now they’ve brought in the modem chip and they’ve brought in their own Wi-Fi chip and things like that get put into iPhones and computers and iPads.
I don’t know.
I see a lot of growth potential in that department.
I see a lot of good things coming from that department.
I’m not sure why Johnny would want to leave at this point.
It just doesn’t feel right.
All the other ones I can pretty much wrap my head around and decide that’s okay.
Apple will go through that one.
Head of chip design, that one makes me nervous.
Well, that is all I have for today.
If you have any comments, questions, suggestions, you can reach me at technologybytes at marigfamily.com.
As always, I look…
Oh, sorry about that.
I didn’t say that right.
Thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes microcast and I look forward to the next time we are together taking another bite of technology.
