SHAKE-UP AT APPLE
Company vet Williams named COO, Schiller to head App Store,
The appointment of its first chief operating officer in four years is important, but Apple’s move to name a head of its growing App Store might prove most intriguing.
Thursday, Apple placed global marketing chief Phil Schiller in charge of the App Store, which powers the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and a host of other platforms.
Apps were managed by Eddy Cue, who also handles Apple Pay and other services. Creative Strategies analyst Tim Bajarin suggests the move could allow Cue to “devote more time on TV deals,” such as reportedly scrapped plans to launch a streaming TV service.
Although Apple’s mobile App Store continues to flourish — downloads across all platforms have reached 100 billion — developers appear to be fleeing the app hub for Macs.
There has been increasing frustration among developers over Apple’s sometimes lengthy review times to get apps up, its restrictive policies and lack of upgrade pricing in the Mac app store.
The most recent exit was from Bohemian Coding, the makers of the app Sketch, which claims the Mac App Store “is not in the customers’ best interest right now.” The company is instead opting to sell directly to customers.
“The customer experience on the Mac App Store hasn’t evolved like its iOS counterpart,” read a statement from Sketch this month.
Golden Hill Software pulled its Google data backup app CloudPull from the store last year after Apple rejected a version of the app.
Owner John Brayton says he’s “hopeful that Apple’s change means that the company is starting to take developers’ concerns about the App Store seriously.”
Even with Schiller at the helm, though, he says “at this time, I have no interest in returning to the Mac App Store.”
The Mac App Store “is not in the customers’ best interest right now.” Bohemian Coding, makers of Sketch