14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has announced some major changes within its executive ranks, including the upcoming departure of Scott Forstall, the company’s current senior vice president of iPhone Software. John Browett, Apple’s newly-appointed head of retail, is also packing his desk.
The Cupertino company has posted a press release to announce “Changes to Increase Collaboration Across Hardware, Software & Services.” However, some important tidbits are mentioned further below the headline and the subtitle.
One of those tidbits is the fact that “Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim.”
Another, mentioned only at the end of the announcement, “John Browett is leaving Apple. A search for a new head of Retail is underway and in the interim, the Retail team will report directly to Tim Cook.”
Reporting directly to the CEO, Forstall leads a team that has been directly responsible for delivering the software found at the heart of Apple’s entire iDevice lineup, including iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
This includes the user interface, applications, frameworks and the operating system itself. All of these responsibilities will be shifted to Jonathan Ive, Apple said.
“Ive will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design,” according to the press release.
Forstall joined Apple in 1997. He is touted as one of the original architects of Mac OS X and its Aqua user interface. Some say he was also next in line for the CEO role. Needless to point out, Apple is losing a key figure next year.
John Browett, currently Apple's senior vice president of retail, also reports to CEO Tim Cook. He serves on the company's executive team and oversees Apple's retail strategy and the continued effort to expand Apple retail over the globe.
He joined Apple in April 2012 from European technology retailer Dixons Retail.
