Apple Copland Case Summary
Apple Copland OS
Copland was a project at Apple Computer. The main goal of this project was to develop an updated version of Mac OS. Copland was an OS meant to add new technologies, while keeping compatibility with the previous system, on the way to fully protected and multiprocessing OS named Gershwin. Apple promised a Beta version release by the end of 1995, and the final release by mid-1996. The target for Apple was to beat Microsoft to market their Windows95 project.
Apple was struggling with good leadership in 1995. The CEO John Sculley had appointed two teams Blue and Pink to work on different projects. The blue team succeeded and developed the system 7, but the pink team suffered with their project. So, the engineers on pink, jumped ships to work on blue team, abandoning their own project. The same thing happened with Copland. The developers in Apple started abandoning their own projects in order to work on the new system. This was the time when John Sculley resigned and a new CEO Gil Amelio took over. He hired Ellen Hancock from National Semiconductor and put her in charge of the project. …show more content…
Ellen realised that the project was going nowhere and it was best to cancel the project outright and look for a suitable third-party solution for the system.
The project was closed in August 1996, and after a small search, Apple announced that they are buying NeXT, to use their NeXTSTEP OS as a base for the new Mac OS. The best part about this project was that Apple got back Steve Jobs back in an advisory role.
In 2008, PCWorld magazine named Copland to a list of the biggest failures in IT history. The project was a failure because, it was just a collection of separate pieces, each being worked on by different teams, which were expected to somehow magically come
together.
References:
1. Apple 's Worst Products and Biggest Failures | Digital Trends. 2014. Apple 's Worst Products and Biggest Failures | Digital Trends. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/apples-worst-products-and-biggest-failures/#!zVjKW. [Accessed 13 March 2014]
2. IT 's biggest project failures -- and what we can learn from them - Computerworld. 2014. IT 's biggest project failures -- and what we can learn from them - Computerworld. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9116470/IT_s_biggest_project_failures_and_what_we_can_learn_from_them?taxonomyId=73&pageNumber=3. [Accessed 13 March 2014].
3. The Long View. 2014. The Long View. [ONLINE] Available at: http://basalgangster.macgui.com/RetroMacComputing/The_Long_View/Entries/2011/2/26_Copland.html. [Accessed 13 March 2014].
Copland was a project at Apple Computer. The main goal of this project was to develop an updated version of Mac OS. Copland was an OS meant to add new technologies, while keeping compatibility with the previous system, on the way to fully protected and multiprocessing OS named Gershwin. Apple promised a Beta version release by the end of 1995, and the final release by mid-1996. The target for Apple was to beat Microsoft to market their Windows95 project.
Apple was struggling with good leadership in 1995. The CEO John Sculley had appointed two teams Blue and Pink to work on different projects. The blue team succeeded and developed the system 7, but the pink team suffered with their project. So, the engineers on pink, jumped ships to work on blue team, abandoning their own project. The same thing happened with Copland. The developers in Apple started abandoning their own projects in order to work on the new system. This was the time when John Sculley resigned and a new CEO Gil Amelio took over. He hired Ellen Hancock from National Semiconductor and put her in charge of the project. …show more content…
Ellen realised that the project was going nowhere and it was best to cancel the project outright and look for a suitable third-party solution for the system.
The project was closed in August 1996, and after a small search, Apple announced that they are buying NeXT, to use their NeXTSTEP OS as a base for the new Mac OS. The best part about this project was that Apple got back Steve Jobs back in an advisory role.
In 2008, PCWorld magazine named Copland to a list of the biggest failures in IT history. The project was a failure because, it was just a collection of separate pieces, each being worked on by different teams, which were expected to somehow magically come
together.
References:
1. Apple 's Worst Products and Biggest Failures | Digital Trends. 2014. Apple 's Worst Products and Biggest Failures | Digital Trends. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/apples-worst-products-and-biggest-failures/#!zVjKW. [Accessed 13 March 2014]
2. IT 's biggest project failures -- and what we can learn from them - Computerworld. 2014. IT 's biggest project failures -- and what we can learn from them - Computerworld. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9116470/IT_s_biggest_project_failures_and_what_we_can_learn_from_them?taxonomyId=73&pageNumber=3. [Accessed 13 March 2014].
3. The Long View. 2014. The Long View. [ONLINE] Available at: http://basalgangster.macgui.com/RetroMacComputing/The_Long_View/Entries/2011/2/26_Copland.html. [Accessed 13 March 2014].