In this episode of “comings and goings in Cupertino”, Apple hired, and also lost, talents from the Mac App Store and in the communications sector, respectively. In addition to her hometown, Ma will also have a new name to lead her operations in India, as we will see below.
India operations
At the end of last year, Ma's head of operations in India underwent a reorganization after the price increases of the company's products in the country. Since then, Ma's sales in the region have not been positive and forecasts for the number of devices sold there this year are also not the best.
As part of its restructuring plan, the company appointed the Nokia executive Ashish Chowdhary as the country's new chief of operations, as disclosed by the The Economic Times. Chowdhary to take over the national management of Apple in India in January 2019; currently, this position is occupied by Michel Coulomb, who said he was facing difficulties in his position.
At Nokia, Chowdhary served as business director. He has extensive knowledge in the smartphone market in Asia and especially India. The company confirmed the executive's departure in a statement provided to the The Economic Times.
Mac App Store
The former editor of Wirecutter (from the company The New York Times) and Macworld Dan Frakes became the newest editor of the Mac App Store, as disclosed by himself on Twitter. According to Frakes, his focus will be on helping Mac users discover and make better use of the apps on the store, from articles promoting the new apps from the Ma store for Macs added on macOS Mojave 10.14.
Some job news (thread): After 4 (!) Amazing years at @wirecutter, Im leaving for a new editorial position at Apple (Mac App Store Editor!) Focused on helping Mac users discover and get more out of great Mac apps. (Its like Mac Gems redux)
– Dan Frakes (@DanFrakes) November 2, 2018
Some employment news (thread): After 4 (!) Incredible years on @wirecutter, I'm moving to a new editorial position at Apple (Mac App Store Editor!) Focused on helping Mac users discover and get more out of the latest Mac apps. (As a version of Mac Gems)
The hiring, although positive for Ma, raised concern about the Daring Fireball. According to editor-in-chief John Gruber, this "is not good for Apple's media universe".
The talent bank that writes about Apple products and platforms outside the company's walls is becoming noticeably shallower. And on a personal level, this trend is not good for me, because I cannot link to articles from the App Store, because they are not on the web. They only exist within the App Store applications. I can't create links to some of the best parts that are currently being written about apps indie for iOS and Macs and this is a little weird.
In addition to the aforementioned problem, these great talents now write anonymously since texts published in stores do not bring credit to the respective authors. Oh, well
Communications
The head of communications for Apple products and services Laura Newell recently left the company to take on the communications leadership of Collective Health, based in San Francisco (in the United States), as published by PRWeek.
At Ma, Newell led communications for products and services such as iOS, iCloud, Apple Pay, CarPlay and Apple News for five years. Out of curiosity, Collective Health provides a health insurance management system for companies; founded in 2013, the company already has several important clients, such as Palantir, Red Bull, eBay and Pinterest.
via 9to5Mac, AppleInsider
