Apple’s top retail exec to leave amid sales slowdown

Apple’s top retailing executive is stepping down amid a slowdown in iPhone sales that has raised doubts about the company’s future growth prospects.

The shake-up announced Tuesday ends Angela Ahrendts’ five-year stint overseeing Apple’s 506 retail stores and e-commerce operations. She is being replaced by Deirdre O’Brien, a longtime Apple executive who also runs the company’s human-resources department. Ahrendts will remain with Apple until April. During her 30 years at Apple, O’Brien also helped gauge product demand. That issue has become a problem now that customers are holding onto their current iPhones longer instead of buying the latest models. It’s one reason Apple posted disappointing iPhone sales during the past holiday shopping season.

Although Apple sells iPhones and other products such as the iPad and Mac computer through a wide variety of merchants, its own elegantly designed stores have become a pivotal outlet, especially during the first few weeks after a new device hits the market.

“It was clear that Apple needed new strategies and a potential change on this front to catalyze demand in and outside the all-important retail stores,” Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives.

Apple didn’t give a reason for Ahrendts’ departure, saying only that she is leaving “for new personal and professional opportunities.” (AP)