Tail Wagging Dog? Apple Rejigs Top Ranks Amid Wall Street's iPhone Nerves

Apple seems unassailable: revenues continue to grow, its initiative in China going smoothly - and it has captured approximately 90% of the global profits in the entire mobile phone market.

Which has simply increased the paranoia of the investment community, focused as they are on whether such growth can continue. And perhaps more to the point these days, whether the company can guarantee that, because in this economic environment, any hint of uncertainty is considered tantamount to failure.

So Apple's executive reshuffle was probably less about operational efficiency than about reassuring querulous analysts that it was taking their concerns seriously. Talk about the tail wagging the dog...JL

Tim Bradshaw reports in the Financial Times:

Wall Street analysts again become anxious about whether iPhone sales can continue to grow over the coming year. Apple has seen huge growth in the scale of device production, particularly the iPhone, which grew shipments by more than a third last year.
Apple has made a series of changes to its top ranks, promoting Jeff Williams to chief operating officer, adding the head of its chips unit to its executive team and reassigning responsibility of its App Store from services boss Eddy Cue to marketing chief Phil Schiller.

The moves follow the promotion of Sir Jonathan Ive to chief design officer earlier this year, alongside other changes to the company’s senior design team.

• 
  

The reshuffle comes as Wall Street analysts again become anxious about whether iPhone sales can continue to grow over the coming year. 

Apple’s executive team has been largely stable since Tim Cook, chief executive, made sweeping changes in 2012 that saw the abrupt exit of software head Scott Forstall after the botched launch of Apple Maps. 

“As we come to the end of the year, we’re recognising the contributions already being made by two key executives,” Mr Cook said on Thursday morning.
Mr Williams is a 17-year veteran of Apple’s operations team, including most recently leading development of the Apple Watch. He took over leadership of Apple’s vast supply chain and oversees manufacturing partners after Mr Cook’s appointment as chief executive.
Since then, Apple has seen huge growth in the scale of device production, particularly the iPhone, which grew shipments by more than a third last year.
Mr Williams’ promotion fills a post left vacant after Mr Cook was made chief, and positions him as a potential successor.
The other key promotion made by Mr Cook recognises the key role played by Apple’s custom silicon unit, which produces the A9 chip used in the latest iPhones.
Analysts have called Apple’s team of chip engineers its “secret weapon”, because integration running from the guts of an iPhone all the way through to its software allows for greater efficiency and higher performance.
Johny Srouji, who becomes the 11th person in its senior executive team, will become senior vice-president of Hardware Technologies.
“Jeff is hands-down the best operations executive I’ve ever worked with, and Johny’s team delivers world-class silicon designs which enable new innovations in our products year after year,” Mr Cook said of Mr Williams’ appointment.

Apple also hired Tor Myhren, chief creative officer of advertising agency Grey New York, to run its marketing communications. Mr Myhren replaces Hiroki Asai, who is retiring after 18 years in Apple’s design and marketing team.
Adding the App Store to Mr Schiller’s role as marketing chief sees him consolidate an already central role in Apple’s top ranks, which runs from handling relations with its 11m app developers to product development.
The App Store, which spans from the iPhone to its new TV and Watch products, has been a vital source of competitive advantage. Apple remains many developers’ first choice to launch their apps despite Google’s rival Android’s much larger market share, although the gap has narrowed in recent years.
While App Store revenues have continued to increase since its 2008 launch, thanks in part to a rapid recent expansion in China, the iTunes business has been in decline as consumers switch from downloads to music and video streaming.
Apple Music experienced early teething troubles after its launch in June but by October it had quickly amassed 15m users, of whom 6.5m pay $10 a month for unlimited listening.
Apple recently secured an exclusive deal with Taylor Swift to air a movie of her 1989 world tour.