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Apple's North American Sales Head Departs, Japan Sales Chief Doug Beck to Take Over

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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple's head of North American sales, Zane Rowe, will be leaving the company, reports The Wall Street Journal. Rowe, who initially joined the company two years ago from United Continental Holdings, will be replaced by Doug Beck.

Beck already oversees sales in both Japan and Korea, and following Rowe's departure, he will take over North American sales.
Doug Beck has done a great job helping to grow Apple's business in Japan and Korea. His role is expanding to include North America sales as well," said Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet.
Click to expand...
During Apple's January earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted sales in North America were down somewhat year over year, largely due to supply/demand balance issues with the iPhone 5s. Sales in Japan, however, which were managed by Beck, Rowe's replacement, were up some 40 percent.

No reason has been given for Rowe's departure, but he joins Apple's VP of Public Relations Katie Cotton in leaving the company. Cotton's retirement was announced earlier today, following more than 18 years at the company.

The departure of both Cotton and Rowe comes just as Apple has hired a new chief of online and retail, Angela Ahrendts, who officially joined the company last week.

Article Link: Apple's North American Sales Head Departs, Japan Sales Chief Doug Beck to Take Over
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/07/apple-na-sales-head-departs/
cashville2400

cashville2400

macrumors regular
Nov 29, 2011
237
402
Everyone is leaving ...or getting fired. They are not happy with sales, thus the supposed 5s sale that is suppose to be coming up. Apple's arrogant ways are slowly taking them down....even though they could be right back to the top with all the $ they have.
 
macs4nw

macs4nw

macrumors 601
Sep 21, 2010
4,336
1,933
Next-door from the little old lady from Pasadena..
Guys, don't be so pessimistic. Cotton is retiring after 18 years of loyal service, and Rowe is a recent hire from the post-SJ era, and we, at this point, don't know if he's leaving, or being gently nudged out the door, due to disappointing performance. The sky is not falling, yet.
 
T

thelookingglass

macrumors 68020
Apr 27, 2005
2,138
633
macs4nw said:
Guys, don't be so pessimistic. Cotton is retiring after 18 years of loyal service, and Rowe is a recent hire from the post-SJ era, and we, at this point, don't know if he's leaving, or being gently nudged out the door, due to disappointing performance. The sky is not falling, yet.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see reason still exists on Macrumors. Of course, this thread will soon be overrun by armchair pundits who think they know exactly what's going on inside Apple.
 
parapup

parapup

macrumors 65816
Oct 31, 2006
1,291
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So what Tim said about sales being down due to demand supply issues is not completely true?

Why otherwise would the Japan guy who has a better sales record take over?

Or maybe the sales concerns presentation that came out during the Samsung trial was written by this guy and Tim and Phil just couldn't fathom the idea of more and more people not wanting an iPhone anymore?
 
G

genovelle

macrumors 68020
May 8, 2008
2,100
2,677
parapup said:
So what Tim said about sales being down due to demand supply issues is not completely true?

Why otherwise would the Japan guy who has a better sales record take over?

Or maybe the sales concerns presentation that came out during the Samsung trial was written by this guy and Tim and Phil just couldn't fathom the idea of more and more people not wanting an iPhone anymore?
Click to expand...
That's why sales through the roof last quarter. Far beyond Wall Street or apparently your expectations even after the fact. As far as supply demand, who do you think makes the projections for how many of each phone to make? Here a hint, he is now leaving after two years.
 
A

avanpelt

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2010
2,956
3,877
When you're in a key position and the company you're leaving says nice things about your replacement but doesn't mention you, that's a fairly strong indication that you're being shown the door.
 
Rajani Isa

Rajani Isa

macrumors 65816
Jun 8, 2010
1,161
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Rogue Valley, Oregon
avanpelt said:
When you're in a key position and the company you're leaving says nice things about your replacement but doesn't mention you, that's a fairly strong indication that you're being shown the door.
Click to expand...

In this case, yes, probably a bad fit.

The other guy though? He just wants time to enjoy all them stocks he's manage to acquire over the years.
 
parapup

parapup

macrumors 65816
Oct 31, 2006
1,291
49
genovelle said:
That's why sales through the roof last quarter. Far beyond Wall Street or apparently your expectations even after the fact. As far as supply demand, who do you think makes the projections for how many of each phone to make? Here a hint, he is now leaving after two years.
Click to expand...

So which part of the below quote FTA is confusing you?
During Apple's January earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted sales in North America were down somewhat year over year
Click to expand...
 
jonnysods

jonnysods

macrumors G3
Sep 20, 2006
8,426
6,891
There & Back Again
There is turnover in every company. We just don't read about it happening in every other companies. Just because we all love Apple but someone who is a company hopping executive or someone hoping to retire, we can't understand why they would want to leave, then people assume it's because it's not the same Apple.

People left and got fired when Steve was there too. It happens!
 
scaredpoet

scaredpoet

macrumors 604
Apr 6, 2007
6,627
342
parapup said:
So which part of the below quote FTA is confusing you?
Click to expand...

You seem to be be confused about the difference between January and April:

Quarterly iPhone unit sales reached 43.7 million, compared to 37.4 million in the year-ago quarter..."
Click to expand...

https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/23/q2-2014-apple-earnings/

But then again, making mountains out of molehills based on old, barely negative news and completely ignoring current positive information is what we do at MR these days, right?
 
J

JHankwitz

macrumors 68000
Oct 31, 2005
1,911
58
Wisconsin
Perform and produce positive results, or you're out! No different than most every other successful company in the world. They need to get government jobs where results and accountability don't seem to matter much.

----------
winston1236 said:
Sounds like everyone is abandoning ship
Click to expand...

Two out of Apple's 80,000 employees leave, and "everyone is abandoning ship"? Really?
 
parapup

parapup

macrumors 65816
Oct 31, 2006
1,291
49
scaredpoet said:
You seem to be be confused about the difference between January and April:



https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/23/q2-2014-apple-earnings/

But then again, making mountains out of molehills based on old, barely negative news and completely ignoring current positive information is what we do at MR these days, right?
Click to expand...

Oh I forgot we cherry pick the favorable data (to Apple of course, needless to say) here at Macrumors. YoY sales up - that's the important metric, oh wait YoY sales are DOWN - then how about ... say ... Jan to April sales - see it's all up!
 
scaredpoet

scaredpoet

macrumors 604
Apr 6, 2007
6,627
342
parapup said:
Oh I forgot we cherry pick the favorable data (to Apple of course, needless to say) here at Macrumors. YoY sales up - that's the important metric, oh wait YoY sales are DOWN
Click to expand...

And I quote...

"Quarterly iPhone unit sales reached 43.7 million, compared to 37.4 million in the year-ago quarter"

How does a YoY increase of 6.3 million mean sales are down? Must be that new math. But clearly, ignoring plain language to make good news look bad is yet another thing we do here at MR. :)
 
dmccloud

dmccloud

macrumors 68030
Sep 7, 2009
2,966
1,677
Anchorage, AK
parapup said:
Oh I forgot we cherry pick the favorable data (to Apple of course, needless to say) here at Macrumors. YoY sales up - that's the important metric, oh wait YoY sales are DOWN - then how about ... say ... Jan to April sales - see it's all up!
Click to expand...

The ONLY product line where sales were down in the last quarter (2Q 2014) was iPads, and even that wasn't truly significant. Overall, the company exceeded expectations and had a nice YOY gain. This departure is probably due to Ahrends' arrival more than North American sales numbers. As for the VP of Public Relations, it was probably time to take a step back after 18 years at Apple. That's a long time for anyone to stay at one company.
 
ogun7

ogun7

macrumors regular
Sep 20, 2001
187
57
Apple kremlinology dictates that having a positive press release for a replacement and no comments for the terminal employee denotes displeasure. The NA sales head was shown the door because of slowing iPhone sales (not declining), iPhone 5S vs 5c miscalculations and flat iPad sales in NA versus the American that was able to manage to grow sales of all three products in Japan predictably
 
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