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Jeff Williams Named Apple COO, Phil Schiller Takes Over App Store Leadership
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I'd say the latter. I wouldn't call it a demotion, but he did have a lot to handle.... probably too much given all the new services (Apple Music, iAd, Cloud services, Apple Pay, etc.). I think moving the App Stores into Schiller's camp makes perfect sense, and frees up resources in Eddy Cue's team to work on their projects more efficiently (iTunes Store makeover anyone??). A win-win all around I think.
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I think that moving Eddie to a position of Chief back room shady deal maker would be best. He is very good at that from what I hear. I like Phil and i hope to hear him say, "fragmented app stores, my ass" very soon. The new COO I do not know, but I would love to see him do as Tim did and just buy all the memory and displays capacity for a few years essentially killing the competition. They certainly have the money to do it.
*some comments are tongue in cheek. Please comment with that in mind.
*some comments are tongue in cheek. Please comment with that in mind.
The app store needs major help to build it into something sustainable. The days of developers living off 99 cent apps is over - developers need better communication channels with their customers, customers deserve better from developers (meaning being able to trial software and not have to either buy outright or try a limited lite version and just guess if the software will work for them.)
Maybe some less restrictions for Mac Apps too. I mean, they are reviewed after all
Still waiting to hear about Ive's retirement since all the smart people put his promotion in quotes and said he was on his way out the door. Interesting that Schiller wasn't made CMO.
Williams has been the most senior operations officer since Tim Cook was promoted to CEO. Likely what this means is that he'll play a larger role over strategy, and will have authority to delegate more of his operational activities to others.
As for Schiller, this is a shakeup. Apple's App Stores, particularly the Mac App Store, have struggled as of late. Expect to see some changes. Whether this portends to looser restrictions on the Mac App Store (e.g. tiered pricing for upgrades), or the development of "sub" App Stores for products like the iPad Pro remains to be seen.
Good luck to Schiller, he's going to need divine intervention to fix the app stores mess. Two "flagship" apps, the iOS App Store and iTunes, just make me angry whenever I try to use them -- total crap.
The App Stores are all about marketing. How do you sell someone on buying an app. It's 100% marketing. Make the apps as appealing to people as possible, provide them with the information they need to make an informed purchase. All marketing.
Most large companies don't have a Chief Design Officer, though. Perhaps Tim Cook doesn't want the C-suite to get too crowded. My guess is that he eventually sees the next spot going to Angela Ahrendts (it would likely be some created position such as "Chief Retail Officer").
App developers can charge whatever they want for their app. Don't like your profits? Get a job in the private sector.
Except Schiller has been at Apple since forever and is well known public face of the company. What's more curious to me is Dan Riccio's role. Jeff Williams leads Apple Watch hardware engineering and now we have another SVP of hardware.
Say goodbye to an awful lot of people who made the iPhone and the Mac, then.
Honestly, this forum. What are the mods doing all day if they're not keeping the blindly negative people out?
Time to move 100% of my time to 9to5mac.
I agree. One economist here in Ireland suspects along with Apple Pay, they are keeping all that wealth to enter the banking industry one day. Sounds mad, but it's not exactly beyond possibility.
The app stores are flippin' databases, not the useless, soft-grey themed video games that Apple seems to think users prefer these days. Outsource the job to someone like Jim Rea at ProVue and you'll have apps that work.
I don't agree with you. Even if people are negative, they have a right to post their opinion.
I think some people here are getting Johhny confused with Jonny Ive... reading comprehension fail.
I'm pretty sure you don't want to be on a forum where every comment is rainbows and sprinkles about Apple. Differing opinions is the raison d'etre for forums. Sounds like you're looking for a fansite. That's totally different.
Well at least with a marketing guy at the helm, the quality of the new pop up ads should be pretty darn good.
MAS is in atrocious state right now. Truly pathetic, especially considering the money/resources Apple sits on - how they manage to neglect so many things / services and even entire product lines is beyond me.
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Still trying to work out how my brain momentarily read the headline as "William Shatner to take over App Store leadership"!
I think it makes sense to split the App Store off from the other entertainment units. Both are going to need some special attention. The App Store on the Apple TV is going to need some help, as well as getting more developers of professional apps for the iPad Pro and establishing higher price points for quality apps. On the other side, Apple Music seems to be doing ok but not great. They probably want to redouble their efforts there.
I think overall this is a good move, having no COO in place for a number of years probably didn't help Apple, and having a unified App store philosophy will be a good thing