Apple is looking to push forward its Apple TV proposition with a new key hiring that sees the former head of Amazon’s Fire TV unit move across to the company as Vice President of Apple TV Product Marketing.
As part of an internal shuffle, which also sees the previous occupier of that role move to a new job negotiating media content deals, Apple is clearly looking to put a renewed focus on Apple TV, and more specifically looking to get the hardware into more homes across the world as it pushes the device family forward.
New hire, Timothy D. Twerdahl has previously been plying his trade as the head of Amazon’s extremely successful Fire TV business, and will join Cupertino-based Apple Inc. this month to take on the new challenge of taking Apple TV and everything that it represents for Apple to the next level.
According to his professional LinkedIn profile, Twerdahl has been achieving excellence within Amazon’s Fire TV unit as General Manager and Director for the last four years, with Apple’s recruitment and executive team clearly seeing enough in his abilities and performance for bringing him onboard to report to Greg Joswiak, Apple’s Vice President in charge of iPhone marketing. The hiring of Twerdahl in the Apple TV marketing position means that Pete Distad, who previously occupied the same role, is now free to focus efforts on leading and securing content deals with publishers alongside Eddy Cue.
With previous employment history and experience at companies like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and Roku, both Twerdahl and Distad are perfectly placed to assist in taking Apple TV to where the company sees it actually being. Sales of the current-generation Apple TV, which is currently in its fourth iteration, have decreased year-on-year, so it really does appear to be time for Apple to intently focus on a device which is currently listed in the company’s “Other Products” bracket.
Apple TV is in direct competition with Amazon’s Fire TV set-top box, with both pieces of hardware being Internet connected devices charged with streaming content directly to a connected high-definition set. With Amazon recently describing the Fire TV as the “top-selling streaming media device in the U.S.”, Apple will be keen to take away a slice of that market share.
(Source: Bloomberg)
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