Apple is reshuffling its executive ranks as incoming CEO John Ternus prepares to take over from Tim Cook. Longtime executive Phil Schiller has reportedly stepped back from overseeing the App Store and Apple’s product launch events, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the transition. Apple has not publicly announced the change.
What’s Changing
Schiller will remain at Apple as an Apple Fellow, reportedly focusing on “unspecified initiatives,” per Bloomberg’s reporting. It’s a significant step back for one of the company’s most publicly recognizable figures, who stepped down as senior vice president of marketing back in 2020 but remained a mainstay of Apple’s product events and App Store leadership.
Eddy Cue, who currently leads Apple’s services division and ran the App Store before Schiller took over in 2015, will reportedly regain oversight of the App Store. Day-to-day leadership will fall to Carson Oliver, one of Schiller’s App Store deputies, who Schiller had already tasked with overseeing the App Store two years earlier. Ann Thai, who oversees app distribution tools and third-party marketplaces, will now reportedly report to Oliver, as will Apple Arcade head Alex Rofman.
On the events side, Nola Weinstein, Schiller’s deputy for product launches, will reportedly take over leading Apple’s events team, which falls under communications and public relations chief Kristin Huguet Quayle. Her first event in that role is expected to be Apple’s September 9 product launch.
Schiller’s Legacy at Apple
Schiller has been one of Apple’s defining public figures for decades. Alongside Steve Jobs, he helped create the App Store and played a central role shaping devices including the iPhone and iPod. As App Store chief, he was also the public face of Apple’s dealings with developers, including the long-running legal battle with Epic Games, and oversaw revenue-share policy changes made in response to court rulings and new regulations.
Why It Matters
This reorganization is one of the clearest early signals of how Apple’s leadership structure is evolving under John Ternus. Handing App Store oversight back to Eddy Cue, a veteran executive who previously ran it, suggests continuity rather than a dramatic strategic pivot, at least in the near term. For developers and companies that interact with the App Store’s approval and policy processes, a change in leadership at the top could eventually influence how aggressively or flexibly Apple approaches ongoing regulatory and antitrust pressure around App Store commissions and external payment rules.
What Happens Next
The transition comes just ahead of Apple’s September 9 event, its first major product showcase under both new CEO leadership and a new events chief. How that keynote is run may offer the first public signal of how these organizational changes translate into Apple’s public-facing operations.
For continuing coverage of Apple leadership changes and product announcements, keep following Tech News Reports for ongoing updates.
