Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of Mac Software Engineering, and Dan Riccio, vice president of Hardware Engineering will be promoted to senior vice presidents and join the chief executive Tim Cook's inner circle, according to the company.
Apple also announced that Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of hardware engineering, who planned to retire in June, will instead stay on with the company, reporting directly to Cook and working on new products, Apple said in a press release.
Federighi will still handle the OS X and fill the spot last held by Bertrand Serlet. Riccio, who handled iPad hardware engineering, will now handle all Apple devices including the iPhone.
This does seem to be the biggest change in Tim Cook's role as CEO, and promoting two "influential" executives to his inner circle, but because they are internal candidates, they are expected to bow to the Apple status quo, according to MacWorld.
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Do the recent moves mean that the Apple vision is alive and well? It would seem that Cook's moves are keeping the executive team enveloped in the Apple culture. John Browett, chief of Apple's retail who recently came under fire for Apple store layoffs -- which have since been reversed -- was an external hire. Perhaps Cook decided the team couldn't take another chance on an outsider.
