Tag: Tim Cook

Jeff Williams to hand COO reins to Sabih Khan, the man behind Apple’s global engine

CUPERTINO: Apple’s long-serving chief operating officer Jeff Williams is stepping aside later this year, with Sabih Khan—the supply chain mastermind born in Moradabad, India—set to take charge as COO in a long-planned succession.

Khan, currently senior vice president of operations, will assume the role later this month. Williams will remain through the end of the year, continuing to oversee Apple’s design team and health initiatives, including Apple Watch. After his departure, the design team will report directly to CEO Tim Cook.

Williams, who joined Apple in 1998, was instrumental in the launch of the iPod, iPhone and Apple Watch, and helped craft Apple’s health strategy.

“Apple wouldn’t be what it is without Jeff,” said Cook. “Jeff and I have worked alongside each other for as long as I can remember, and Apple wouldn’t be what it is without him. He’s helped to create one of the most respected global supply chains in the world; launched Apple Watch and overseen its development; architected Apple’s health strategy; and led our world-class team of designers with great wisdom, heart, and dedication. I am and will always be beyond grateful for his numerous contributions to Apple over the years and his loyal friendship. Jeff’s true legacy can be seen in the amazing team he’s created and, while he’ll be greatly missed, he leaves the work of the future in incredible hands.”

Khan’s journey began in Moradabad, western Uttar Pradesh. After attending school in Singapore, his family moved to the United States, where Khan went on to earn a dual bachelor’s degree in economics and mechanical engineering from Tufts University, followed by a master’s in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

He joined Apple in 1995 from GE Plastics, starting in procurement. Over the past three decades, Khan has played a central role in shaping Apple’s global operations—from logistics and manufacturing to supplier responsibility and green manufacturing. Under his leadership, Apple’s carbon footprint has shrunk by over 60 per cent.

“Sabih is a brilliant strategist who has been one of the central architects of Apple’s supply chain,” said Cook. “While overseeing Apple’s supply chain, he has helped pioneer new technologies in advanced manufacturing, overseen the expansion of Apple’s manufacturing footprint in the United States, and helped ensure that Apple can be nimble in response to global challenges. He has advanced our ambitious efforts in environmental sustainability, helping reduce Apple’s carbon footprint by more than 60 percent. Above all, Sabih leads with his heart and his values, and I know he will make an exceptional chief operating officer.”

Williams, marking his twenty seventh year at Apple and fortieth in the industry, plans to spend more time with family. “Sabih is the most talented operations executive on the planet,” he said. “I leave Apple’s future in very capable hands.”

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July 9, 2025
Greg Joswaik replaces Phil Schiller as new marketing head for Apple

NEW DELHI: Apple Inc long term marketing head Phil Schiller has been replaced by Greg Joswaik on Tuesday. Schiller will be leaving his post as senior vice president of worldwide marketing to become an Apple Fellow but will retain leadership of the app store. Whereas Joswiak, who previously handled the marketing of Apple’s products will take over for Schiller as senior vice president of worldwide marketing.

Schiller who is often seen on-stage introducing new Apple products, will continue to oversee Apple’s event.

Schiller has been associated with Apple for the last 30 years and has witnessed the company’s struggles in the mid-1990s and its ascendance after the return of co-founder Steve Jobs in 1996. Apart from Apple’s marketing, Schiller also guided the company’s products and served as one of the few public faces authorized to speak freely for the company.

“I’ll keep working here as long as they will have me. I bleed six colours, but I also want to make some time in the years ahead for my family, friends, and a few personal projects I care deeply about,” Schiller said in a statement.

Lately, the company has come under criticism from developers who say its fees and rules create an uneven playing field to compete with the iPhone maker. Schiller has overseen the App Store since 2015.

Joswiak who is replacing Schiller comes with over 2 decades of experience and has been a veteran of Apple. He was handling the marketing for the original iPod and iPad. He will report to chief executive Tim Cook.

August 5, 2020
Nokia Networks’ Ashish Chowdhary to lead Apple India ops

MUMBAI: Ashish Chowdhary, the chief customer operations officer of Nokia Networks has been appointed as Apple India head. He will take over as Apple India head from January next year.

Nokia, confirming his departure, said that Chowdhary will be leaving “at the end of 2018 after 15 successful years”.

Nokia also said, “Chowdhary will continue to lead customer operations and remain a member of the Nokia Group leadership team until the end of 2018. He will then leave Nokia to take a leadership position in another company.”

Chowdhary has 25 years of international experience in the enterprise and telecom side. With Nokia he was in charge of its sales and operations worldwide. Before that, he was the head of Asia Middle East and Africa and earlier, head of Global Services Business Unit.

On 1 November, Apple CEO Tim Cook had admitted that his business was sluggish in the country and would like to do something about it. Just after that, came the appointment of Chowdhary.

“I am a big believer in India. I am very bullish on the country and the people and our ability to do well there,” said Cook.

Apple India is currently under Michel Coulomb who took over from Sanjay Kaul in December last year.

November 13, 2018
Apple India’s three senior executives quit

MUMBAI: Adding to the turbulent journey of telecom giant Apple in India, three senior executives have decided to quit the company. Apple India head of national sales and distribution Rahul Puri, national sales head of telecom Manish Sharma and head of operator business and iPhone sales Jayant Gupta are all set to leave the company.

The senior sales executives are said to be leaving Apple as the company is struggling to sell its products in India and with further arrangements made to its distribution system by the company’s new head of India operations Michel Coulomb.

Coulomb wants to discontinue three of its distributors in India by March 2019 and continue with only two national distributors, out of the five the company has.

Even though India is the world’s second largest smartphone market, the iPhone maker is struggling with sales in India and accounts for only two per cent market share in the country. In 2017, Apple managed to sell only 3.2 million iPhones.

Michel has been reported to be struggling with his new job in making business relationships in the Indian market as it continues to remain a market where people still prefer/can afford a mid-range handset.

Apple’s new India chief Michael Coulomb is taking steps to change Apple’s pricing and sales strategies in India. The new India head has decided on blacklisting and cutting off supply to small scale retailers that buy the products from wholesalers to eventually sell it at a discounted price.

July 17, 2018
The impact of the iPhone battery fiasco on brand Apple

MUMBAI: Ever since Steve Jobs launched his company decades ago, the now ubiquitous Apple stands at the epitome of technology, especially when it comes to laptops and smartphones. For over a decade, users of the iPhone have not only cherished the Apple product as their most prized possession but also one that is worth every penny paid. For Rs 60,000-90,000, you get luxury combined with sleekness, unbeatable hardware and a lifelong association.

Apple sold 6.1 million first-generation iPhone units over five quarters and over 51 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2014. The iPhone became the best-selling technology product of 2017, selling more units than Samsung Galaxy8 and Nintendo Switch combined. In December 2017, Apple took a risk in introducing three new iPhones, the most expensive iPhone ever, the $999 X.

But avid iPhone lovers around the world felt angered when the news of Apple deliberately slowing down the battery of older versions was leaked early December last year. Although it was rumoured for the longest time that Apple slows down the earlier models, it was nothing less than a betrayal or shock for most of its ardent devotees as they felt it was a coercive move to get them to ditch the older ones for the latest expensive ones. They felt cheated and resorted to social media to criticise the company for beguiling them about throttling CPU performance of older models.

On 28 December 2017, the company was quick to issue an appropriate and well-crafted response on its website, acknowledging the effect that old batteries have on the iPhone’s performance. The company offered $29 (Rs 2000) battery replacements as a solution which would otherwise have cost $79.

In a media statement, Apple said, “To address our customers’ concerns, to recognise their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple’s intentions, Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by Rs 3900 from Rs 5900 to Rs 2000 — for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, available worldwide through December 2018.”

Early in 2018, Apple will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their phone battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance.

Stressing the fact that Apple will need to do a lot more than this, brand strategy specialist Harish Bijoor believes that Apple needs to fight the bad image it has accrued after all these decades with the latest controversy. “The brand is scarred for now on that count. Let’s remember, this is a politically correct world we live in. Something like this is considered a breach of trust with the gullible customer,” he points out.

While this turned out to be a good PR move for Apple to resolve the issue, it would mean that more iPhone users would now take the offer instead of upgrading to a newer device. Though Apple will gain some revenue with the battery replacement program, it will be nowhere close to the margins the company would have enjoyed on a brand new iPhone sale.

Barclays’ analyst Mark Moskowitz estimates that 77 percent of iPhone users are among those eligible to upgrade the batteries. “10 per cent of those 519 million users take the $29 offer, and around 30 per cent of them decide not to buy a new iPhone this year. This means around 16 million iPhone sales could be at risk, creating a negative (-) 4 percent downside to our current revenue estimate for C2018,” he says.

Bijoor emphasises that there is a need for strict actions to be taken against such companies and consumer compensation is a must which needs to be more in terms of brand positive strokes rather than money.

Indiantelevision.com tired seeking a response from Apple India’s spokesperson to understand the company’s point of view on the same but they did not respond to our message till the time of publication.

Only time will tell whether the move will further help brand Apple in restoring its image or not. But for now, as Apple says in its advertisements, “If you don’t have an iPhone, well you don’t have a (slow) iPhone!”

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Jio-Apple strike a win-win deal as Airtel plans aggressive 4G offer

January 9, 2018
Jio-Apple strike a win-win deal as Airtel plans aggressive 4G offer

MUMBAI: Even as Reliance Jio is giving a tough fight to the market leader Airtel, and other leading incumbent operators Vodafone and Idea, it is making significant tie-ups with cell-phone makers to up its 4G gameplan. Substantial investments are being made in high-speed telecom networks in India, said Apple CEO Tim Cook citing Reliance Jio’s 4G roll-out although he admitted its smartphone has “not done as well” in the country.

Airtel meantime is reportedly planning to launch aggressive 4G bundled offers to take on Reliance Jio as India’s No 1 mobile carrier struggles to boost penetration and revive its slowing data revenue growth amid competition. Bharti Airtel managing director – India & South Asia Gopal Vittal agreed that it’s difficult to compete with a free services offer as it expects Jio’s full-fledged price launch to take place in December. Vittal said it will approach the regulator to clear any confusion over interconnection points (PoIs) as it has provided more PoIs to Jio than any other telco.

Reliance Jio was the first of its kind all-IP network in India with 4G coverage in 18,000 cities and 200,000 villages, Cook said in the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. He said Apple is partnering with Reliance Jio, which is offering a free year of service to purchasers of new iPhones, to ensure “great iPhone performance” on their network. “Our iPhone sales in India were up over 50 per cent in fiscal 2016 compared to the prior year, and we believe we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of this large and growing market opportunity,” Cook said.

He, however, noted that Apple’s smartphone has “not done as well” in India in general and one of the key reasons for that is the “(high-speed telecom networks) infrastructure hasn’t been there”. The Apple head was optimistic on the efforts being made by the Narendra Modi-led government to create jobs and develop infrastructure.

Whether India could in future be as big of an opportunity as China for Apple, Cook said it is important to look not only at per capita income in India but also the number of people that are or will move into the middle class over the next decade. He said this class will “really want a smartphone, and I think we can compete well for some percentage of those.

“I think it’s clear that the population of India will exceed China sometime in probably the next decade or so. I think it will take longer for the GDP to rival it, but that’s not critical for us to have a great success there,” he said.

October 27, 2016
Jio-Apple strike a win-win deal as Airtel plans aggressive 4G offer

MUMBAI: Even as Reliance Jio is giving a tough fight to the market leader Airtel, and other leading incumbent operators Vodafone and Idea, it is making significant tie-ups with cell-phone makers to up its 4G gameplan. Substantial investments are being made in high-speed telecom networks in India, said Apple CEO Tim Cook citing Reliance Jio’s 4G roll-out although he admitted its smartphone has “not done as well” in the country.

Airtel meantime is reportedly planning to launch aggressive 4G bundled offers to take on Reliance Jio as India’s No 1 mobile carrier struggles to boost penetration and revive its slowing data revenue growth amid competition. Bharti Airtel managing director – India & South Asia Gopal Vittal agreed that it’s difficult to compete with a free services offer as it expects Jio’s full-fledged price launch to take place in December. Vittal said it will approach the regulator to clear any confusion over interconnection points (PoIs) as it has provided more PoIs to Jio than any other telco.

Reliance Jio was the first of its kind all-IP network in India with 4G coverage in 18,000 cities and 200,000 villages, Cook said in the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. He said Apple is partnering with Reliance Jio, which is offering a free year of service to purchasers of new iPhones, to ensure “great iPhone performance” on their network. “Our iPhone sales in India were up over 50 per cent in fiscal 2016 compared to the prior year, and we believe we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of this large and growing market opportunity,” Cook said.

He, however, noted that Apple’s smartphone has “not done as well” in India in general and one of the key reasons for that is the “(high-speed telecom networks) infrastructure hasn’t been there”. The Apple head was optimistic on the efforts being made by the Narendra Modi-led government to create jobs and develop infrastructure.

Whether India could in future be as big of an opportunity as China for Apple, Cook said it is important to look not only at per capita income in India but also the number of people that are or will move into the middle class over the next decade. He said this class will “really want a smartphone, and I think we can compete well for some percentage of those.

“I think it’s clear that the population of India will exceed China sometime in probably the next decade or so. I think it will take longer for the GDP to rival it, but that’s not critical for us to have a great success there,” he said.

October 27, 2016
U2 partners with Apple for a new album

MUMBAI: The veteran Irish rock band U2 revealed that they partnered with Apple for the release of their latest album. Titled Songs of Innocence, the album is available for free on iTunes till it’s officially released on 14 October this year.

The surprise announcement was made at a California event where Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the firm’s latest iPhone and a new smartwatch. This is the first album in five years an U2 album has been offered for free to the 500 million users of Apple’s iTunes service.

The said album has 11 songs, which includes the lead single ‘The Miracle’ which the group performed in the Apple event.

Talking at the event launch, U2 lead singer Bono said, “From the very beginning U2 has always wanted our music to reach as many people as possible, the clue is in our name I suppose – so today is kind of mind-blowing to us. The most personal album we’ve written could be shared with half a billion people… by hitting send. If only songwriting was that easy.”

“It’s exciting and humbling to think that people who don’t know U2 or listen to rock music for that matter might check us out. Working with Apple is always a blast. They only want to do things that haven’t been done before – that’s a thrill to be part of,” he added.

Despite the group’s unprecedented move to give it for free, Songs of Innocence will not be eligible to be nominated for the next Grammy Awards.

U2’s last album, No Line on the Horizon, hit the top spot in the UK charts in 2009 and eventually surpassed the five-million-sales mark worldwide.

The Irish band is famed for producing some of the landmark albums of the 1980s and early 1990s, including The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby.

September 10, 2014
Apple to acquire Beats Music to strengthen mobile segment

NEW DELHI: iPhone maker Apple today announced a $3 billion deal to acquire subscription streaming music service Beats Music and Beats Electronics.

Apple will expand Beats Music subscription service and Beats headphones, speakers and audio software to more markets through the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores and select Apple authorised resellers.

Currently, Beats is more popular in the United States. Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dre will join Apple, as part of the acquisition.

“Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world,” he added.

The acquisition of Beats will assist the device vendor to spruce up its music offerings, from free streaming with iTunes Radio to subscription service in Beats.

In five years since launch, the Beats “b” has become the brand of choice in the music and sports worlds, and is the market leader in the premium headphone market, said Apple in a statement.

Music superstars including Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj have designed their own customised Beats headphones and speakers.

Fashion designers and street artists such as Alexander Wang, Futura and Snarkitecture collaborated on special limited products, while athletes including LeBron James, Serena Williams and Neymar use Beats as a critical part of their training and game day process.

May 29, 2014
Steve Jobs doc released following ‘Jobs’ this month

MUMBAI: With Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher released in cinema’s this month, there has been a surge of interest in Steve Jobs’ life as people seek to understand what made one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of the 20th century tick.

Having experienced success with their recent release William and Kate: A Royal Arrival, Electric Sky has acquired another Future Sight Entertainments doc, Steve Jobs: His Story. The doc will include insight from the people who knew him best; his close friends, family and colleagues at Apple and Pixar.

Electric Sky already have early interest having released a promo screener last week and the doc includes contributions from Apple and Pixar heavyweights; John Lasseter, Tim Allen, Tim Cook, John Sculley and Steve Wozniak. Further big names to share their thoughts about Jobs include Ashton Kutcher, Owen Wilson, Bill Gates and Tom Hanks.

Steve Jobs: His Story, will be available to deliver very soon to coincide with the continued international release of the movie later this year.

August 28, 2013