Apple = NeXT

CobraBoy (tbyars@earthlink.net)
Wed, 5 Feb 1997 07:26:38 -0800


Can beautiful black hardware be far behind?

Apple Reorg

At noon I got a call from Guerrino De Luca, who until today
was president of Claris, Apple's
commercial software subsidiary. He told me about the
reorganization that Apple is announcing in a few
minutes, and asked for an embargo until 1PM, which I agreed to.

Tevanian, Rubenstein

-> The new structure of Apple is streamlined, according to De
Luca, with a two-part R&D organization;
system software reporting to Avie Tevanian, the top software
guy from Next; and Jon Rubenstein, in
charge of hardware product development.

-> Rubenstein is a new hire, coming to Apple from FirePower
Systems, http://www.firepower.com/. These
two executives will report to Apple chairman Gil Amelio.

-> Ellen Hancock, the former Chief Technical Officer of Apple,
will have lesser responsibilities in the new
organization. Apple's advanced technology group will report
to her, as will Apple's chief scientist and
Apple Fellows.

Marketing concentrated

All Apple marketing functions will be concentrated under a
new Vice President of Marketing, and (drum
roll please) that man is Mr. De Luca. All Apple marketing
activities report to him, including product
marketing, developer relations, marketing communications. We
had an interesting chat about Apple's
marketing priorities and found we agreed on many points.

http://product.info.apple.com/pr/bios/deluca.html

Other changes

Marco Landi, formerly Apple's COO, will now head up worldwide
sales and support. George Scalise
will run operations, Fred Anderson runs Finance and
Administration.

-> Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak will play a more active role
in setting Apple's direction; both will serve as
members of Apple's Executive Committee, a group consisting of
Amelio's direct reports.

It ain't over until the fat lady sings.

It seems like a simpler organization now. Changing the focus
to marketing is a good idea; Apple has been
shy to sell the benefits of the Mac for a very long time.
There's upside here.

It also seems like a bad time for Apple to be internally
focused. Let's hope they get thru this quickly, and
emerge a more focused entity, better able to work with other
product developers and platform vendors to
assure that the Macintosh has a strong future.

Dave Winer

--

I got two turntables and a microphone...

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