Apple has announced that Phil Schiller will retire from the front line, to continue as a reference and offer advice and wisdom whenever they deem it necessary.
The expression "Apple Fellow" (Fellow applies in many contexts, as a team member, friend, colleague, etc.) that Phil Schiller uses to describe his new role, is an elegant way of saying that he leaves without leaving. . Schiller will continue to lead the App Store team and Apple events.
It's like saying that Jonathan Ive continues to advise Apple on design matters or that Steve Wozniak continues to work for Apple because he has a payroll.
Seven years ago I wrote an article The New Apple: Tim Cook's Apple explaining which stamp Tim Cook was printing on Apple. After nearly a decade, what he said is still one hundred percent valid, even more accentuated if possible.
But in the article he included an illustration, of Apple's magnificent seven, who were the public faces who defended keynote after keynote Apple's new products.
Seven years later, a large part of the team has deserted in search of new stimuli (Ive) or simply to enjoy life (Ahrendts).
Of those magnificent seven, in addition to the three victims, Dan Riccio, although still on the board of Apple, has completely disappeared from Apple's "public" life, so I was tempted to put the symbol of the fallen on him too ... even if it belonged to another color.
Phil Schiller joined Apple in April 1997 and previously was Vice President of Product Marketing at Macromediam Director of Product Marketing at FirePower Systems; IT Director at Nolan, Norton & Co and was also a programmer and systems analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Phil Schiller received a bachelor's degree in biologist from Boston College in 1982.
Says Phil Schiller. “I started working at Apple when I was 27, this year I'm 60 and it's time to make some planned changes in my life. I will continue to work here as long as they love me, my blood is six colors, but I also want to find time for my family, my friends and some personal projects that are very important to me ”.
I had the opportunity to personally interview Phil Schiller in 2003 (you can read the interview here), on the occasion of an Apple Expo in Paris. As he says in his recall statement, he has the blood of six colors (a reference to the well-known multicolored Apple logo) and exuded passion and knowledge of all aspects of the product.
I also dealt with his role in this article: Phil Schiller, the loneliness of the eternal supporting actor, when he replaced Steve Jobs in some keynotes. Anyone who has seen Schiller in his latest introductions knows he looked, if not tired, then deflated, as he does when it's finally time to show the work.
The debt Apple owes to Schiller is priceless (albeit very well paid) and it will be difficult to find someone who has absorbed Apple's DNA from the inside and with such a long cooking. Apple's longtime executive era is likely to be over, and every four to five years from now on there will be a facelift in every position.
Greg (Joz) Joswiak, one of the executives within the Product Marketing organization, will join the executive team with the same title as Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing. In terms of character, Joz is the exact opposite of Schiller: speaking slowly and calmly, he will have to be seen when he takes on the role of public face at the unveiling of the new iPhones in September.
Goodbye, Phil. Thanks for the trip
