In case you missed this week’s newsletter, here it is.
You can subscribe using the form on the right side of this post or by visiting the newsletter sign-up page.
One of the hallmarks of great companies is stability. But the last week has shown some cracks in Apple stability. Two high profile and enormously influential senior leaders have departed.
The first was Ruoming Pang. He may not be a name many people have heard before but he led a team of 100 or so people working on Apple’s large language models. His departure is a setback for Apple’s efforts to get Apple Intelligence close to delivering on the promises made over a year ago.
Pang has left to join Alphabet on the incredible salary of USD$200M. That’s about AUD$6M per week!
The other is 27-year Apple veteran Jeff Williams who retired – the person who most saw as Tim Cook’s heir apparent. And this probably means Apple’s succession plan for the soon-to-be 65 year old Cook has been thrown into disarray.
Apple is a company in transition. It is making the shift from a hardware-centric business into one focussed on software and services. That’s evident in recent earning reports where hardware revenues only move up slowly, if they move upwards at all, and services revenues continue to rise. But Apple was caught out by the rapid ascension of AI as a service. So, that transition has been forced into a rapid acceleration.
Apple has appointed a new Chief Operating Officer to replace Williams. Sabih Khan, Apple’s senior vice president of Operations, has been shifted into Williams’ role as part of what Apple says is “a long-planned succession”. Interestingly, while Williams was largely seen as a hardware guy, having been behind the successful launch of the Apple Watch, Khan is a supply chain specialist – similar to Cook.
With Apple facing pressure to diversify its China-centric supply chain, Khan’s appointment to Cook’s right hand makes sense.
But there’s no denying the departures this week have dealt Apple a blow.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.