Apple's management adjustments continue. Following Tim Cook's resignation as CEO, Phil Schiller, who has been in charge of App Store for a long time, also stepped down recently. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that he will not leave Apple completely but will instead take on a new role in Apple Fellow and continue to be involved in some projects.
Transferred to Fellow, still not completely leaving Apple
Schiller joined Apple in 1987 and only left for a brief period in between. Since 2015, he has taken over App Store's related affairs. Apple Fellow is usually awarded to senior individuals who have made long-term contributions to the company's technology or management.
Bloomberg reports that some insiders at Apple see this adjustment as a signal of their gradual withdrawal from management positions. However, Apple has not yet made public the specific projects he will be responsible for in the future.
App Store Daily operations are now taken over by internal executives.
With the resignation of Schiller, the daily management of App Store will be handed over to Carson Oliver. This person has been working at Apple for over 14 years and has long served in the App Store team.
The report also states that the organizational affiliation of App Store will be adjusted; it will no longer be under the market department but will be transferred to the service business department, which is overseen by Eddy Cue. This indicates that Apple is further integrating this core platform into its service business system.
Has handled litigation and payment disputes related to Epic.
During the tenure of Schiller, Apple was involved in a lengthy lawsuit with Epic Games regarding the App Store lottery mechanism. In 2020, Epic filed an antitrust lawsuit, accusing Apple of forming an illegal monopoly by leveraging App Store.
Although the court ultimately dismissed the core monopolization charges and the overall ruling was generally favorable to Apple, the court still required Apple to allow developers to guide users to use external payment methods. The related legal disputes have not yet completely concluded.
The wave of senior Apple executives leaving their positions continues
The adjustments involving Schiller are not isolated cases. Recently, several senior executives at Apple have announced their departures or retirements, including the Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, the person in charge of environmental and policy affairs Lisa Jackson, the General Legal Counsel Kate Adams, as well as Jennifer Bailey who has been responsible for Apple Pay for a long time.
With John Ternus taking over as CEO, Apple will not only have to deal with core business and organizational adjustments in the future, but also need to build a new generation of management team.
