Apple’s Phil Schiller hands over App Store and Events to Eddy Cue

Phil Schiller has stepped down from running Apple’s App Store and its product events, Bloomberg reported, keeping his Apple Fellow title as responsibility moves to Eddy Cue’s services division with Carson Oliver running the store day to day. The change comes the day before John Ternus becomes chief executive, and thirteen days after Apple replaced its EU Core Technology Fee with a flat 5% commission.

Phil Schiller has given up the App Store. Apple’s most durable executive has stepped down from running it and from running the company’s product events, Bloomberg reported.

He keeps the title and loses the work. The 66-year-old stays on as an Apple Fellow working on unspecified initiatives, and Apple declined to comment on the change.

The timing is not incidental. John Ternus becomes chief executive on Tuesday, and Tim Cook moves to executive chairman after fifteen years in the job.

The App Store goes back where it started. Eddy Cue’s services division takes it, having held it until 2015, with Carson Oliver running it day to day.

One reporting line matters more in Europe than the others. Ann Thai, who handled distribution tools and third-party marketplaces, now reports to Oliver rather than to Schiller.

That job exists because of a European law. Alternative marketplaces on the iPhone are a Digital Markets Act requirement and were never a product decision.

Schiller’s App Store role had become largely a regulatory one. The Commission fined Apple €500M in April 2025 for stopping developers telling users about cheaper offers elsewhere.

Apple appealed and carried on negotiating. It also faced preliminary findings on its distribution terms and on the Core Technology Fee of €0.50 per install above a million.

The settlement landed thirteen days before he stepped back. Apple replaced that fee with a flat 5% commission on 18 August and eased the rules for rival app stores.

The courts gave him nothing to work with either. Apple had argued that its app stores across the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV were separate services rather than one.

The General Court rejected that in July. Judges found the stores do the same job, connecting developers to users, so the obligations stand.

There is a footnote worth keeping. A US judge found in April 2025 that Schiller had argued internally for Apple to comply with an anti-steering injunction, and that Cook overruled him.

“Cook chose poorly,” the ruling said. The executive who wanted to comply is leaving the compliance job, in the month it finally went quiet.