Apple's 'Master Negotiator and Product Resuscitator' Eddy Cue Profiled

MacRumors · Oct 31, 2012, 01:04 PM

With Apple's management changes announced earlier this week, several current executives have seen expansions of their responsibilities. Among those is Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president for Internet Software and Services, who is seeing Siri and Maps added to his portfolio.

Cue's responsibilities have grown substantially throughout during his 23 years at Apple, from the company's online store to the iTunes Store to the App Store. More recently, Cue has added the iBookstore, iCloud, and iAd to his responsibilities, and just over a year ago he was promoted to the senior executive team.

CNET today published a profile of Cue, offering an interesting glimpse of the executive who has reportedly played a crucial role in holding Apple's content services together in a landscape that involves frequently contentious negotiations with third parties.

Quote:

The 48-year-old Cuban-American played a major role in the creation of Apple's Web store, iTunes, and iPods. And as Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, he's kept the peace with key partners and helped fix product messes. Few people know that five years ago, he helped prevent the relationship between Apple and the large record companies from collapsing when the sides almost "went nuclear." When MobileMe, the division that oversaw Apple's Web services and software, appeared to run hopelessly off track, it was Cue who salvaged the operation and transformed it into iCloud.

The entire lengthy profile is a solid background on the challenges faced by Cue and how his calm temperament served as a bridge between Steve Jobs and media executives involved in negotiations.

Quote:

"If you were going to be successful with Steve you couldn't compete for oxygen," [former Warner Music executive Paul] Vidich said. "You had to allow him to be him and shine in the greater glory that Steve sought for himself, and Eddy had this calm demeanor. He never said: 'Hey look at me,' to anyone. He just did a great job."

"Eddy doesn't care about those other guys, the flashy executives who want the spotlight," said an executive who has negotiated with Cue. "He's the kind of person who is happy to be in the engine room making sure that everything is clicking along."

Cue certainly remains busy, not only maintaining the ever-increasing stable of licensing agreements with content providers across music, movies, books, and more, but also taking on the more recent challenges of building out iCloud and now fixing Siri and Maps.

Article Link: Apple's 'Master Negotiator and Product Resuscitator' Eddy Cue Profiled

mankar4 · Oct 31, 2012, 01:08 PM

Looking forward to Eddy's development of maps and the new radio service!

FlameofAnor · Oct 31, 2012, 01:09 PM

Competence trumps ego.

thelonelylimo · Oct 31, 2012, 01:11 PM

thanks for the iPad mini Eddy.

nikhsub1 · Oct 31, 2012, 01:13 PM

Much respect for Eddy, that's for sure.

Junipr · Oct 31, 2012, 01:13 PM

You might say Eddy forstalled the collapsed between Apple and music corps with an approach that was on cue.. :sorry:

Small White Car · Oct 31, 2012, 01:16 PM

I never knew much about Cue which I took as a sign that he was a good guy. No news is good news for this kind of thing.

Looks like that was the actual case.

Mykbibby · Oct 31, 2012, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junipr

You might say Eddy forstalled the collapsed between Apple and music corps with an approach that was on cue.. :sorry:

Ive never seen such terrible puns in my life.

east85 · Oct 31, 2012, 01:20 PM

A photo with Rupert Murdoch usually makes people look like corporate slime,
but not Eddy!

CausticPuppy · Oct 31, 2012, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junipr

You might say Eddy forstalled the collapsed between Apple and music corps with an approach that was on cue.. :sorry:

Ive got to agree with you.

numlock · Oct 31, 2012, 01:22 PM

am i missing how transforming mobileme into icloud (as it is now) is some work of genius?

WestonHarvey1 · Oct 31, 2012, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by numlock

am i missing how transforming mobileme into icloud (as it is now) is some work of genius?

Yes.

Mac Fly (film) · Oct 31, 2012, 01:24 PM

He always knows where to place his cue.

Small White Car · Oct 31, 2012, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by numlock

am i missing how transforming mobileme into icloud (as it is now) is some work of genius?

I'm assuming they're comparing early MobileMe to now which, yes, was pretty unreliable. Later MM worked better but I guess that's attributed to Cue too.

highdough · Oct 31, 2012, 01:26 PM

Kind of off topic, but I've never understood the hyphenation of people whose parents are from "ethnic" countries. Nobody is ever described as a British-American. Or even an Australian-American.

cmichaelb · Oct 31, 2012, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junipr

You might say Eddy forstalled the collapsed between Apple and music corps with an approach that was on cue.. :sorry:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mykbibby

Ive never seen such terrible puns in my life.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CausticPuppy

Ive got to agree with you.

well done! Glad he got those deals worked out, or his goose would have been Cooked.

farmboy · Oct 31, 2012, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by east85

Image

A photo with Rupert Murdoch usually makes people look like corporate slime,
but not Eddy!

Always carry Purell with you. And holy water.

Battlefield Fan · Oct 31, 2012, 01:27 PM

Siri and maybe maps have great potential. Let us hope he can bring that out.

krravi · Oct 31, 2012, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by numlock

am i missing how transforming mobileme into icloud (as it is now) is some work of genius?

It isn't to someone who just logs in to iCloud. But it is, to all the people behind the scenes that made it happen.

Popeye206 · Oct 31, 2012, 01:29 PM

It will be interesting to see the fruits of these changes.... It seems as though Tim Cook is not happy with some of the recent mistakes and how the changes on the retail side have affected the customer experience and the employee morale.

I think these changes overall will be good for Apple.

numlock · Oct 31, 2012, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WestonHarvey1

Yes.

thanks. now i get it

Quote:

Yeah, he savaged the disaster and got it turned around quickly.

into what exactly?

i see the disaster that was mobileme but the not the huge success of icloud

east85 · Oct 31, 2012, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by numlock

am i missing how transforming mobileme into icloud (as it is now) is some work of genius?

The company didn't fall behind the curb and managed to implement a cloud that was more useful for the average person and geared towards convenience. Just look at how iOS and OS X have integrated the cloud to make your life that much easier. Whether that's genius to you or not, that's your own call. I'm pretty impressed personally.

WestonHarvey1 · Oct 31, 2012, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krravi

It isn't to someone who just logs in to iCloud. But it is, to all the people behind the scenes that made it happen.

A better title for MobileMe was "Contacts and Calendar Database Ruiner". Even when it worked correctly it didn't offer much of a value proposition to customers.

iCloud, besides fixing the problems MobileMe had, is now central to the OS X and iOS experience. The way you can bootstrap an iPad or iPhone or new Mac right out of the box just by entering your email address is a great leap forward.

Documents in the cloud and key/value storage for app developers is also great.

JAT · Oct 31, 2012, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junipr

You might say Eddy forstalled the collapsed between Apple and music corps with an approach that was on cue.. :sorry:

Is the "sorry" for the spelling error or the puns? Either way...you should be!

red kiosk · Oct 31, 2012, 01:36 PM

on Cue, as always.

Oct 31, 2012, 01:11 PM	#4
thelonelylimo macrumors 6502 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Athens, OH	thanks for the iPad mini Eddy. __________________ 27" iMac \| 17" MacBook Pro \| iPhone \| iPad \| iPad mini \| Time Capsule \| AirPort Extreme \| AirPort Express \| Apple TV
	6

Oct 31, 2012, 01:13 PM	#5
nikhsub1 macrumors 65816 Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: mmmm... jessica.'s beer...	Much respect for Eddy, that's for sure. __________________ Laptop --> 17" Hi-Res AG 2.3 Sandy Bridge / 16GB RAM / Crucial M4 SSD 512GB / 10.8 iPhone --> 64GB White iPhone 5 iPad --> White 64GB AT&T LTE Desktop --> The Beast
	3

Oct 31, 2012, 01:20 PM	#9
east85 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Jun 2010	A photo with Rupert Murdoch usually makes people look like corporate slime, but not Eddy! __________________ 13.3" MacBook Aluminum \| 2.4GHz \| 8GB RAM \| 160GB SSD \| OS X 10.8.2 iPhone 4 \| 8GB \| Factory Unlock \| iOS 6 My Twitter
	3

Oct 31, 2012, 01:27 PM	#18
Battlefield Fan macrumors 6502a Join Date: Mar 2008	Siri and maybe maps have great potential. Let us hope he can bring that out. __________________ 15" Macbook Pro Hi-Res, 2.3 GHz i7 QC, 16GB RAM, 480 GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G Xbench score: 426; 27" TB ACD; 27" MDP ACD; Black iPhone 5 64GB; White iPad 3 32GB LTE
	2

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Oct 31, 2012, 01:08 PM	#2
mankar4 macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: USA	Looking forward to Eddy's development of maps and the new radio service!
	7

Oct 31, 2012, 01:09 PM	#3
FlameofAnor macrumors regular Join Date: Feb 2011	Competence trumps ego.
	22

Oct 31, 2012, 01:13 PM	#6
Junipr macrumors newbie Join Date: May 2011	You might say Eddy forstalled the collapsed between Apple and music corps with an approach that was on cue.. :sorry:
	29

Oct 31, 2012, 01:16 PM	#7
Small White Car macrumors G3 Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Washington DC	I never knew much about Cue which I took as a sign that he was a good guy. No news is good news for this kind of thing. Looks like that was the actual case.
	2

Oct 31, 2012, 01:22 PM	#11
numlock macrumors 6502 Join Date: Mar 2006	am i missing how transforming mobileme into icloud (as it is now) is some work of genius?
	0

Oct 31, 2012, 01:24 PM	#13
Mac Fly (film) macrumors 6502 Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Ireland	He always knows where to place his cue.
	4

Oct 31, 2012, 01:26 PM	#15
highdough macrumors regular Join Date: Sep 2008	Kind of off topic, but I've never understood the hyphenation of people whose parents are from "ethnic" countries. Nobody is ever described as a British-American. Or even an Australian-American.
	8

Oct 31, 2012, 01:29 PM	#20
Popeye206 macrumors 68020 Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: NE PA USA	It will be interesting to see the fruits of these changes.... It seems as though Tim Cook is not happy with some of the recent mistakes and how the changes on the retail side have affected the customer experience and the employee morale. I think these changes overall will be good for Apple.
	4

Oct 31, 2012, 01:36 PM	#25
red kiosk macrumors member Join Date: Jul 2010	on Cue, as always.
	0