Phil Schiller Becomes Apple Fellow

**Phil Schiller Moves Upstairs: A Deep Dive into His Career and Role at Apple**

In a recent discussion, Phil Schiller’s upcoming transition within Apple was discussed in detail. Known for his long-standing role as the head of marketing at Apple, Schiller is a figure deeply embedded in the company’s history. Having been with Apple for over two decades, he has played a pivotal role in shaping some of the most iconic products and presentations in tech history.

Schiller’s Journey at Apple

Phil Schiller joined Apple in 1987, two years after the Macintosh was introduced. Over his career, he has held various roles, including VP of Product Marketing at Macromedia before returning to Apple. His tenure at Apple spans over three decades, during which he has been involved in nearly every major product announcement and marketing strategy.

One of Schiller’s most notable contributions is the click wheel interface on the original iPod. This innovative design revolutionized how users interacted with their music players. He also played a crucial supporting role in Steve Jobs’ legendary keynotes for products like the iPhone and iPad, often making appearances on stage alongside Jobs to demonstrate Apple’s latest innovations.

Schiller’s Role in Keynote Presentations

During Jobs’ medical leave in 2009, Schiller stepped into the spotlight by delivering several keynotes, including Apple’s last Macworld keynote and the WWDC keynote that year. He announced significant updates such as the MacBook Pro line, the 3GS iPhone, and new versions of iLife and iWork. His ability to command the stage and communicate Apple’s vision effectively earned him a reputation as a key figure in the company.

Schiller’s Recent Transition

In a recent press release, Apple announced that Schiller would transition into a role as an “Apple Fellow.” While this title is not clearly defined by Apple, it suggests a senior position with diminished operational responsibilities. Schiller will continue to lead the App Store and manage Apple events, but his role is expected to shift more towards a figurehead or advisor.

The Elevation of Greg Joswiak

Schiller’s transition paves the way for Greg Joswiak, commonly known as “Jaws,” to take on the role of Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. Joswiak has been with Apple since 1986 and has held various marketing roles, including leading product marketing for portable devices like the PowerBook and eventually all hardware products, including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Joswiak’s Deep Roots at Apple

Joswiak’s career at Apple began in the support organization for the Macintosh. He quickly rose through the ranks, leading the Apple Developers Group and building strong relationships with developers—a crucial aspect of Apple’s ecosystem. His technical knowledge and hands-on approach to marketing have made him a trusted figure within the company.

The Significance of Schiller’s New Role

Schiller’s elevation to “Apple Fellow” is part of a trend at Apple where long-serving executives are given vague titles rather than being pushed out or retired. This move allows them to remain involved in the company while transitioning away from day-to-day responsibilities. It reflects Apple’s culture of valuing senior employees and providing them with roles that honor their contributions without assigning traditional executive titles.

The Legacy of Phil Schiller

Schiller’s impact on Apple cannot be overstated. He has been a key player in nearly every major product launch and marketing strategy over the past two decades. His deep knowledge of Apple’s history, products, and culture makes him an invaluable resource for the company.

Looking Ahead

With Schiller stepping back into a more advisory role and Joswiak taking on his former responsibilities, Apple continues to maintain its legacy of continuity in leadership. Both executives have left indelible marks on the company, and their contributions will undoubtedly influence future generations of Apple employees and products.

In conclusion, Phil Schiller’s transition to an “Apple Fellow” marks a new chapter in his long career at Apple. While he may no longer be as visible in day-to-day operations, his influence remains significant. Greg Joswiak, who has been groomed for this role over the years, is poised to carry forward the legacy of excellence that Schiller helped build. As Apple continues to innovate and evolve, both Schiller and Joswiak will remain key figures in its success story.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is twit phil schiller is moving upstairs phil of course who was in charge of marketing in apple for how long ever 20 something years he was with apple for 20 something he's he's been he's been in marketing for like 27 years he's head of marketing for i want to say 14 15 i can't i can't so long that i can't remember who his predecessor was he is he's a fixture like there you think you think about a mount rushmore of apple meaning that these are the four or five people that you see at every single keynote that represent like the face of apple who know all of the stories uh deep deep deep back into the steve jobs era who also are part of the brain trust that factor into all the decisions when the fact that he has marketing in his title implies that he's choosing colors for posters no he is like deep deep deep like waist deep in every single decision exactly he has a bs in biology from boston college he was at macromedia in san francisco yes vp i didn't realize that vp of product marketing we must have just cros you know almost crossed paths at that point um at apple he has been pretty much as you say any part of every major apple announcement of the past decade and a half uh worked on the format formation and marketing of imac macbook macbook pro ipod mac os he's credited with coming up with the idea for the click wheel interface on the original ipod he worked uh as a support to supporting role best uh best supporting actor to steve jobs famous keynotes for both the iphone and the ipads in fact the wi-fi one the one yeah he's turn off your laptops remember he had to jump or something with the with the laptop while steve was trying to beam him with signal like some of he when jobs was on medical leave he gave several keynes keynotes himself including apple's last keynote at mac world in 2009 and the wwdc keynote in 2009 uh he announced the macbook pro line update the 3gs new versions of ilife and iwork but he's best known for one word courage not innovating anymore my ass yeah both of which didn't age well um no but i mean like they're the memories that we live with leo yeah they're the most exactly unfortunately you get kind of painted with that uh brush he is still at apple he will be an apple fellow what does that even mean oh thank goodness leo because i i actually looked it up on wikipedia and i still couldn't figure out how that relates to what phil schiller will be doing at apple yeah there's no title between senior vice president like apple doesn't have presidents they don't have anything else they have a very uh enigmatic structure and he's basically going to keep control so he just kept getting more and more things if we've noticed over time like steve dowling hasn't been replaced you know his job is just being done by others angela ahrens wasn't replaced her job is just being done by others some people are not at apple anymore no is this like in the easter egg shows silicon valley where they go up to the roof and they just hang out and have lunch because they don't have anything else to do no but like waiting on this place which is why they promoted jaws to begin with and now he's going to he's going to keep app store he's going to keep the events because the events are going to be a challenge for the next year still and jaws is going to do all the marketing stuff yeah so that's the second half of this announcement is that the very highly respected greg joswiak who is often called jaws he was will now be senior vice president of worldwide marketing effectively taking schiller's post so phil will continue this is the quote from the apple press release continue to lead the app store and apple events does that mean he's going to lead events or he's going i mean what does that mean well if it remains to be seen but another another thing that should be pointed out is that other uh at google and other companies when we see when we find when there's an announcement about well the the senior executive has decided that he wants to uh pursue lots and lots of additional goals until in addition to his wonderful 20 or 30 year career and so he's being elevated to a position that is kind of vague and undefined that often means that they lost so their product launch supremely failed and they're being nosed out or there is another reason why they are he's being offered a we want we can't you're you're too big for us to fire you so let's just give you an opportunity to fade out gracefully this is absolutely not that sort of thing so it basically it's it's it remains to be seen what it means but i bet it means that he's he's still in the meetings he's still a part of the email list he's still part of the slack channel uh it's just that he's no longer has jaws is live is you have these amazing people like you have cayenne drantz who's just been promoted to vice president of iphone product marketing and where where do they go like they're all working at apple but they just don't have titles and phil's been working there a long time he's got he's gotten you know money forever and his family sometimes wants to spend more time with him and the money that's how these things work we'll see we'll just see i my guess is he'll still have some stage time but how much uh operational role is another matter this was mansfield right and we saw this happen too mansfield got called back though because nobody could do bob mansfield's job well so are you saying that jaws will start an ill-conceived apple hot tub secret project the amount of aluminum will be too expensive for anyone else to sign for jeff williams to sign off on and then phil will come to come back and say you fix our outdoor party initiative let me fill you in on greg joshua who is now the apple svp for worldwide marketing uh he got his start early he got a degree in uh a bachelor of science in computer science in 1986 and even then they said his nickname jaws was a combination of steve jobs and steve wozniak he was destined to join apple joined apple in 86 two years after the macintosh launched in apple's newly formed support organization for the mac so he has his roots deep in the mac he was running that group within two years then he led comms for the apple developers group so he has good relationship with developers i always like to see that that's a very important thing at apple to understand the the users but also understand kind of the second most important group of events into him now i mean that's one of the big part of the marketing organization is worldwide developer relations that's right uh in 1997 he led product marketing for the new power book line eventually uh all portable products eventually all hardware products including in 2001 the ipod uh and then uh of course the iphone and the ipad so he really has been in a marketing role kind of a product marketing role forever and ever yeah and they're very different than a lot of marketing people because like in my old job when i was in product marketing a lot of the people you talked to were sales people who would just tell you whatever you wanted to hear like please buy my widget it will do any oh you want it to pour coffee it does that you want to fly a plane it does that buy my widget and if when you talk to phil or jaws they will explain the silicon they'll explain the memory substructure they will explain the manufacturing process they'll explain how the software they are mostly engineers very very hands-on and very bright you know in a way this in my opinion is an upgrade because jaws really is an engineer uh phil schiller's bs was in uh biology um i think phil was more a classic marketing guy who loved the product and loved the engineering jaws is an engineer uh from from the way back he's a classic classically educated engineer yeah exactly that's that's a you work at apple at that at such a high level that that that's much better on a resume than well i don't have a degree in engineering but i was a senior executive i agree but but i i understood about jaws i haven't i haven't had i i've only had one briefing with phil i've had many with jaws and he's not only i've and i've also had those like briefings with like marketing executives yes where there is this there is the script where we're trying to implant these phrases in your head uh they're the times when with when i when i had a briefing and i saw like jaws in the room it's like oh this is great we can just have like a 45 minute conversation about like every single note that i have and everything that i don't understand about the technology or anything that was unclear and even if it's something he can't talk about he will figure out what i'm really trying to ask and find a way to get there it was always a very very deep conversation so i'm very very he's he's on that list of of apple people where i've known them for so long and i've had such good times with them that like i can't why won't you retire so we can hang out and become actual friends because we have to i can't i can't ask you like out for a drink at a trade show because that would be wrong uh so yeah just has been at apple one year longer than phil schiller but he's uh not much younger than phil schiller which is kind of interesting phil turned 60 this year so it's kind of you know apple doesn't say stepping down they the press really sounded like he was stepping up but really he's stepping down right he's semi-retiring sideways yeah sideways he's he's he's he's no longer overclocking his cpu yeah the quote from the quote from the statement is i first started at apple when i was 27 this year i turned 60. it's time for some planned changes in my life as somebody in his 60s i understand that usually means taking a little more time to enjoy life you know he's been there a long long time he's done a lot of things he's probably worked as you say really really hard uh but boy you really have to say that with the exception of tim cook there have been some massive changes johnny ive is gone angela ahrens is gone um steve dowling is gone we dealt more with dowling perhaps than the general public because he was their internal pr guy and then phil schiller who was absolutely the figurehead uh second only to steve jobs for this company for a long long time it's weird though because it's because their executive stays so long that when they change it's a bit like you watch you watch a lot of events a lot of technology events and it's different people every couple of years and the people you deal with are different almost continuously like especially normally absolutely the cmo changes that's why it's such a big thing when that happens because they've been there for 30 years yeah um so chris espinoza uh who was like one of the original mac guys tweeted congratulations on being promoted to apple fellow joining here are the other apple fellows and this will give you some idea of where in the pantheon phil schuller's ending up steve wozniak rod holt who was an early engineer on apple ii al alcorn same bill atkinson who designed quick draw uh was very involved in the design of the early macintosh steve capps another macintosh engineer rich page uh gerscheron sidhu gary starkweather alan kaye who is as close to a god in personal computing as you can get don norman and guy kawasaki those are the apple fellows ladies and gentlemen legends so many i hope i hope they have like a i hope they have like an embroidered smoking jacket like when they when you come in after the fellas i hope it's not orange like or what is it like a master's jacket oh it's a nice color anyway six colors six coats oh it might be six colors yeah and you know the other thing about phil we always knew uh is his hobbies he was you know he's a great photographer right they always showed off his photography uh he was a scuba diver um he uh he is he i didn't know this he was car aficionado cars drums huge uh his bs was in marine he played in a rock band very briefly a progressive paper fog rock fan all of this is in his twitter bio so he's not going to be sitting on the roof having lunch that's what's always so interesting about the longevity of the executive careers at apple because my my experience with people who are working at that kind of a level i'm talking about like mentally is that they get very very restless after time where at some point they they do they did everything that they they wanted to achieve at a certain company they are the really envious in terms of what they've accomplished but then they're like but i really really want to like be the i really really want to be the first people the first one to photograph this this presumed to be extinct species of bird and then suddenly that's all they want to do or i want to make movies now or i want to i want to be a truly become a philanthropist as opposed to i want to hide some of my money in creative ways it's it's it's always been very interesting to me that people who tend to people who get to apple tend at that level tend to stay at apple again they have these 10 20 30 year careers where it seems like you know it's like it's like being the the first uh the the number one that uh on the enterprise you are not gonna dynamite will take will blow uh riker out of that seat and you wonder how long it's gonna take for the people to advance upthis is twit phil schiller is moving upstairs phil of course who was in charge of marketing in apple for how long ever 20 something years he was with apple for 20 something he's he's been he's been in marketing for like 27 years he's head of marketing for i want to say 14 15 i can't i can't so long that i can't remember who his predecessor was he is he's a fixture like there you think you think about a mount rushmore of apple meaning that these are the four or five people that you see at every single keynote that represent like the face of apple who know all of the stories uh deep deep deep back into the steve jobs era who also are part of the brain trust that factor into all the decisions when the fact that he has marketing in his title implies that he's choosing colors for posters no he is like deep deep deep like waist deep in every single decision exactly he has a bs in biology from boston college he was at macromedia in san francisco yes vp i didn't realize that vp of product marketing we must have just cros you know almost crossed paths at that point um at apple he has been pretty much as you say any part of every major apple announcement of the past decade and a half uh worked on the format formation and marketing of imac macbook macbook pro ipod mac os he's credited with coming up with the idea for the click wheel interface on the original ipod he worked uh as a support to supporting role best uh best supporting actor to steve jobs famous keynotes for both the iphone and the ipads in fact the wi-fi one the one yeah he's turn off your laptops remember he had to jump or something with the with the laptop while steve was trying to beam him with signal like some of he when jobs was on medical leave he gave several keynes keynotes himself including apple's last keynote at mac world in 2009 and the wwdc keynote in 2009 uh he announced the macbook pro line update the 3gs new versions of ilife and iwork but he's best known for one word courage not innovating anymore my ass yeah both of which didn't age well um no but i mean like they're the memories that we live with leo yeah they're the most exactly unfortunately you get kind of painted with that uh brush he is still at apple he will be an apple fellow what does that even mean oh thank goodness leo because i i actually looked it up on wikipedia and i still couldn't figure out how that relates to what phil schiller will be doing at apple yeah there's no title between senior vice president like apple doesn't have presidents they don't have anything else they have a very uh enigmatic structure and he's basically going to keep control so he just kept getting more and more things if we've noticed over time like steve dowling hasn't been replaced you know his job is just being done by others angela ahrens wasn't replaced her job is just being done by others some people are not at apple anymore no is this like in the easter egg shows silicon valley where they go up to the roof and they just hang out and have lunch because they don't have anything else to do no but like waiting on this place which is why they promoted jaws to begin with and now he's going to he's going to keep app store he's going to keep the events because the events are going to be a challenge for the next year still and jaws is going to do all the marketing stuff yeah so that's the second half of this announcement is that the very highly respected greg joswiak who is often called jaws he was will now be senior vice president of worldwide marketing effectively taking schiller's post so phil will continue this is the quote from the apple press release continue to lead the app store and apple events does that mean he's going to lead events or he's going i mean what does that mean well if it remains to be seen but another another thing that should be pointed out is that other uh at google and other companies when we see when we find when there's an announcement about well the the senior executive has decided that he wants to uh pursue lots and lots of additional goals until in addition to his wonderful 20 or 30 year career and so he's being elevated to a position that is kind of vague and undefined that often means that they lost so their product launch supremely failed and they're being nosed out or there is another reason why they are he's being offered a we want we can't you're you're too big for us to fire you so let's just give you an opportunity to fade out gracefully this is absolutely not that sort of thing so it basically it's it's it remains to be seen what it means but i bet it means that he's he's still in the meetings he's still a part of the email list he's still part of the slack channel uh it's just that he's no longer has jaws is live is you have these amazing people like you have cayenne drantz who's just been promoted to vice president of iphone product marketing and where where do they go like they're all working at apple but they just don't have titles and phil's been working there a long time he's got he's gotten you know money forever and his family sometimes wants to spend more time with him and the money that's how these things work we'll see we'll just see i my guess is he'll still have some stage time but how much uh operational role is another matter this was mansfield right and we saw this happen too mansfield got called back though because nobody could do bob mansfield's job well so are you saying that jaws will start an ill-conceived apple hot tub secret project the amount of aluminum will be too expensive for anyone else to sign for jeff williams to sign off on and then phil will come to come back and say you fix our outdoor party initiative let me fill you in on greg joshua who is now the apple svp for worldwide marketing uh he got his start early he got a degree in uh a bachelor of science in computer science in 1986 and even then they said his nickname jaws was a combination of steve jobs and steve wozniak he was destined to join apple joined apple in 86 two years after the macintosh launched in apple's newly formed support organization for the mac so he has his roots deep in the mac he was running that group within two years then he led comms for the apple developers group so he has good relationship with developers i always like to see that that's a very important thing at apple to understand the the users but also understand kind of the second most important group of events into him now i mean that's one of the big part of the marketing organization is worldwide developer relations that's right uh in 1997 he led product marketing for the new power book line eventually uh all portable products eventually all hardware products including in 2001 the ipod uh and then uh of course the iphone and the ipad so he really has been in a marketing role kind of a product marketing role forever and ever yeah and they're very different than a lot of marketing people because like in my old job when i was in product marketing a lot of the people you talked to were sales people who would just tell you whatever you wanted to hear like please buy my widget it will do any oh you want it to pour coffee it does that you want to fly a plane it does that buy my widget and if when you talk to phil or jaws they will explain the silicon they'll explain the memory substructure they will explain the manufacturing process they'll explain how the software they are mostly engineers very very hands-on and very bright you know in a way this in my opinion is an upgrade because jaws really is an engineer uh phil schiller's bs was in uh biology um i think phil was more a classic marketing guy who loved the product and loved the engineering jaws is an engineer uh from from the way back he's a classic classically educated engineer yeah exactly that's that's a you work at apple at that at such a high level that that that's much better on a resume than well i don't have a degree in engineering but i was a senior executive i agree but but i i understood about jaws i haven't i haven't had i i've only had one briefing with phil i've had many with jaws and he's not only i've and i've also had those like briefings with like marketing executives yes where there is this there is the script where we're trying to implant these phrases in your head uh they're the times when with when i when i had a briefing and i saw like jaws in the room it's like oh this is great we can just have like a 45 minute conversation about like every single note that i have and everything that i don't understand about the technology or anything that was unclear and even if it's something he can't talk about he will figure out what i'm really trying to ask and find a way to get there it was always a very very deep conversation so i'm very very he's he's on that list of of apple people where i've known them for so long and i've had such good times with them that like i can't why won't you retire so we can hang out and become actual friends because we have to i can't i can't ask you like out for a drink at a trade show because that would be wrong uh so yeah just has been at apple one year longer than phil schiller but he's uh not much younger than phil schiller which is kind of interesting phil turned 60 this year so it's kind of you know apple doesn't say stepping down they the press really sounded like he was stepping up but really he's stepping down right he's semi-retiring sideways yeah sideways he's he's he's he's no longer overclocking his cpu yeah the quote from the quote from the statement is i first started at apple when i was 27 this year i turned 60. it's time for some planned changes in my life as somebody in his 60s i understand that usually means taking a little more time to enjoy life you know he's been there a long long time he's done a lot of things he's probably worked as you say really really hard uh but boy you really have to say that with the exception of tim cook there have been some massive changes johnny ive is gone angela ahrens is gone um steve dowling is gone we dealt more with dowling perhaps than the general public because he was their internal pr guy and then phil schiller who was absolutely the figurehead uh second only to steve jobs for this company for a long long time it's weird though because it's because their executive stays so long that when they change it's a bit like you watch you watch a lot of events a lot of technology events and it's different people every couple of years and the people you deal with are different almost continuously like especially normally absolutely the cmo changes that's why it's such a big thing when that happens because they've been there for 30 years yeah um so chris espinoza uh who was like one of the original mac guys tweeted congratulations on being promoted to apple fellow joining here are the other apple fellows and this will give you some idea of where in the pantheon phil schuller's ending up steve wozniak rod holt who was an early engineer on apple ii al alcorn same bill atkinson who designed quick draw uh was very involved in the design of the early macintosh steve capps another macintosh engineer rich page uh gerscheron sidhu gary starkweather alan kaye who is as close to a god in personal computing as you can get don norman and guy kawasaki those are the apple fellows ladies and gentlemen legends so many i hope i hope they have like a i hope they have like an embroidered smoking jacket like when they when you come in after the fellas i hope it's not orange like or what is it like a master's jacket oh it's a nice color anyway six colors six coats oh it might be six colors yeah and you know the other thing about phil we always knew uh is his hobbies he was you know he's a great photographer right they always showed off his photography uh he was a scuba diver um he uh he is he i didn't know this he was car aficionado cars drums huge uh his bs was in marine he played in a rock band very briefly a progressive paper fog rock fan all of this is in his twitter bio so he's not going to be sitting on the roof having lunch that's what's always so interesting about the longevity of the executive careers at apple because my my experience with people who are working at that kind of a level i'm talking about like mentally is that they get very very restless after time where at some point they they do they did everything that they they wanted to achieve at a certain company they are the really envious in terms of what they've accomplished but then they're like but i really really want to like be the i really really want to be the first people the first one to photograph this this presumed to be extinct species of bird and then suddenly that's all they want to do or i want to make movies now or i want to i want to be a truly become a philanthropist as opposed to i want to hide some of my money in creative ways it's it's it's always been very interesting to me that people who tend to people who get to apple tend at that level tend to stay at apple again they have these 10 20 30 year careers where it seems like you know it's like it's like being the the first uh the the number one that uh on the enterprise you are not gonna dynamite will take will blow uh riker out of that seat and you wonder how long it's gonna take for the people to advance up\n"