Two of Apple's most visible executive roles are opening up at the same moment the company is changing chief executives. Phil Schiller, who has headed the App Store (Apple's built-in platform for downloading software onto its devices) and Apple's product events, is stepping down from both, Bloomberg reports. He will keep his Apple Fellow title and continue working on what Bloomberg describes as unspecified initiatives.
Schiller's record at Apple is long. He joined the company in 1987 and became head of marketing in 1997. In 2008, he helped Steve Jobs introduce the App Store. That put him among the small number of executives who were present for the platform's creation.
Apple's product events are the staged presentations the company uses to announce new hardware and software to the public. Schiller ran those alongside the App Store.
The news landed one day before a larger transition. Hardware leader John Ternus is set to take over as chief executive on September 1st, when Tim Cook steps down as Apple's CEO. The two changes are separate, but they are happening in the same narrow window.
Bloomberg did not name a successor for either role or offer any specifics on what Schiller's remaining work will involve. He stays at Apple with the Fellow title in hand.