Updated. Apple’s executive team is undergoing some changes in the wake of Steve Jobs’ departure, and one of those changes is a promotion for Eddy Cue to Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services. Cue previously served as simple Vice President of the same department, and his rise in the ranks comes with his own dedicated bio page on the Apple website as well as a brand new group to manage: Apple’s iAd department.
Cue will also continue to oversee the iTunes Store, App Store and iBookstore, as well as iCloud. Cue’s 22-year history with Apple has a lot of highlights, including important roles in the creation of Apple’s online store, the iTunes Music Store and the iOS App Store, as well as the iLife suite. He got his start at Apple with software engineering and customer support teams, and represents somewhat of a ground-up success story. Cue was recently named No. 2 in a list of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company in 2010.
Most of the endeavors spearheaded by Cue have been tremendously successful, like the iTunes Store and App Store, but there have also been bumps in the road for the new SVP: MobileMe was widely criticized for connectivity and dependability problems, and the iBookstore is struggling to catch up to market leaders like Amazon. Cue will also take on iAd as part of his new duties, which had been reported to be facing serious problems earlier this year. Former iAd chief Andy Miller, who was the CEO of Quattro Wireless before Apple purchased the mobile advertising company, resigned from Apple earlier this month.
Cue will have his hands full trying to turn iAd around, but even beyond that he’s clearly going to be a key figure for Apple’s future going forward, because he has stewardship over iCloud. When Steve Jobs unveiled iCloud at this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference keynote speech, he made clear that Apple will focus heavily on the cloud as central to its business. It’s no surprise then that Eddy Cue’s photo on the Apple Leadership page is displayed prominently directly to the right of Tim Cook’s (edit: an eagle-eyed reader notes that Cue appears to next to Cook on the page because it’s in alphabetical order. Thanks for the spot!).
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