Even though Instagram was named App of the Year by iTunes in 2011 (despite being released in 2010), at least one senior Apple executive has soured on the iconic photo-sharing application that was acquired for approximately $1 billion earlier this month by Facebook.
Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Marketing, apparently ditched the service after Instagram expanded to Android shortly before the Facebook sale, according to a report from 9 to 5 Mac.
When emailed by 9 to 5 Mac for a confirmation that he did indeed terminate his @Schiller account with Instagram, Apple’s marketing chief apparently replied with the following:
Instagram is a great app and community.
That hasn’t changed.
But one of the things I really liked about Instagram was that it was a small community of early adopters sharing their photographs.
Now that it has grow(n) much larger the signal to noise ratio is different.
That isn’t necessarily good or bad, it’s just not what I originally had fun with.
Sounds more like sour grapes to us. Yet Schiller is not the only industry heavyweight chafed about Instagram and its dealings with Facebook and Android. Twitter co-founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey also has noticeably stopped sharing photos via Instagram since the Facebook acquisition. Twitter was also reportedly trying to buy the company.
