Apple executive Mike Abbott has left to work at General Motors

Mike Abbott, the former vice president of engineering for Apple Services, has departed to head up General Motors' newly created software department.

Abbott, joining as a senior leadership team member, will head up a newly-integrated software department. The department will focus on developing vehicle and enterprise software technologies and solutions.

The organization will deliver digital services and features to retail and commercial customers from start to finish.

Abbott joined Apple in 2018. In his role, he oversaw work on Apple Cloud Services like iCloud+, Mail, FindMy, FaceTime, and more.

Before working at Apple, Abbott worked at Twitter as Vice President of Engineering. At the time, he primarily focused on building out Twitter's infrastructure.

He also worked at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins as a partner on its digital team.

The cloud exec's departure isn't Apple's only recent exit. In April, Apple executive Doug Beck left the company to take on a full-time Department of Defense position.

10 Comments

sigma902 19 comments · 12 Years

About 1 year ago

Interesting that this hire is occurring after GM recently announced dropping CarPlay going forward. GM will create its own infotainment system. I could see him contributing to the infrastructure for a highly mobile, global system.

Mike Abbott was given an unusual amount of public awareness at a pre-recorded WWDC interview with the CEO of Box a couple years back. Mike was on-screen (split-screen) for 15+ minutes.

teejay2012 406 comments · 12 Years

Will the GM version will need be a lot better than CarPlay to make buyers notice? I think so. At this point, everyone has an iPhone or Android phone that can integrate with cars. I am curious what features GM would offer that would make me swoon, apart from the features of the EV model itself.

chasm 3590 comments · 10 Years

Mr. Abbott is no fool, he's going to go grab a huge cash pile while the grabbing is good.

GM's plan to replace CarPlay with a Google-designed data-mining subscription service will likely be hated by customers, because GM will be taking AWAY a choice they had. As the CEO of Ford of noted, **70 percent** of Ford buyers are Apple customers. GM buyers are similarly likely to be Apple customers, and their smartphones will soon be rendered useless in GM's electric vehicles, PLUS they get stuck with a monthly bill just so they can use their car's second-most important feature.

I predict a LOT of buyers bringing their new EVs back for a refund because they can't use CarPlay. I also predict Mike Abbott will be back at Apple, or at least have separated from GM, within five years.

bakerzdosen 185 comments · 16 Years

teejay2012 said:

Will the GM version will need be a lot better than CarPlay to make buyers notice? I think so. At this point, everyone has an iPhone or Android phone that can integrate with cars. I am curious what features GM would offer that would make me swoon, apart from the features of the EV model itself.

At this point, it won't matter. Unless GM does a complete and very public about-face (by listening to their customers...) many people won't even give the new system a try (myself included.)

They have received nothing but bad press about this, and every single time GM is mentioned, this issue comes up.

The only people that will be willing to consider their EVs will be people who really don't understand what CarPlay or Android Auto is - and frankly, those people aren't going to be considering EVs yet.