Apple VP of enterprise sales makes unexpected departure

AppleInsider

An Apple vice president responsible for government and enterprise sales, John Solomon, has reportedly left the company for reasons unknown.

Representatives for Apple confirmed the departure, but didn't offer an explanation, Reuters said on Tuesday. The executive also appears to have no particular destination in mind, as his LinkedIn profile mentions only "tbd" under job title and company fields.

Most of Solomon's work history has been with HP, where he held various executive roles since 1992 and served as general manager of the firm's global business unit for consumer printers before joining Apple in January 2015.

Apple has typically downplayed government and enterprise sales over the consumer market, and for years even lacked a dedicated team. The company has gradually warmed up to the corporate market however, for instance by partnering with IBM in 2014, and later other corporations like Cisco and Deloitte.

In Sept. 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that the company had reached $25 billion in enterprise sales for the prior 12 months alone. The mix of device sales is unknown, but likely skewing towards iPhones and iPads given industry trends.

applesauce007

I think Apple is about to revamp its enterprise business in a big way.

New iOS devices with IBM MovileFirst applications, new file system, new DB, could lead to revamped server OS on VMs.

Time will tell.

rogifan_new

Why does the headline say unexpected? 

macxpress

rogifan_new said:

Why does the headline say unexpected? 

Not sure...how do they know it was unexpected? 

radarthekat

In any fast growing business, which the enterprise segment for Apple represents, it's not uncommon for there to come a point where management that got things underway is replaced.  Might just be that Apple needs a manager with different/more experience at this level in the segments growth.  I wonder if there's a name for this, maybe 'The Entrepenuer's Dilemma' or some such.

Edit:  just googled.  The Founder's Dilemma.  Happened to me.  https://hbr.org/2008/02/the-founders-dilemma

ravnorodom

Edit:  just googled.  The Founder's Dilemma.  Happened to me.  https://hbr.org/2008/02/the-founders-dilemma

Very interesting article. It makes me thinking that by kicking Steve Jobs out of Apple is actually a blessing to both the company and Steve himself.

Rayz2016

rogifan_new said:

Why does the headline say unexpected? 

Good question. 

Both parties would have known he was going at least three months ago, unless he's leaving for a family emergency or something. 

JinTech

applesauce007 said:

I think Apple is about to revamp its enterprise business in a big way.

New iOS devices with IBM MovileFirst applications, new file system, new DB, could lead to revamped server OS on VMs.

Time will tell.

I've been thinking this too. This along with the new 3D graphics standard for the web, iOS 11, and macOS 10.13, something tells me WWDC is going to be pretty big this year.

maciekskontakt

I would say those are Apple trends - not industry trends so do not generalize. That is why Apple lost dominance in desktop computers last years back to Microsoft Windows in private use. theuir focus on being on top of mibile costs elswehre and cosumer market already figure ed out that mobile is not replacement for desktop in many uses. On top of that Apple trips on some odd stnadrds like USB-C (yes it is going to die like Firewire) forcing on people odd accessories with no clear vision how to standardize with minimum cabling. In the meantime other manufactirers that are less fancy stick to existing standards amd improve elsewhere.

StrangeDays

maciekskontakt said:

I would say those are Apple trends - not industry trends so do not generalize. That is why Apple lost dominance in desktop computers last years back to Microsoft Windows in private use. theuir focus on being on top of mibile costs elswehre and cosumer market already figure ed out that mobile is not replacement for desktop in many uses. On top of that Apple trips on some odd stnadrds like USB-C (yes it is going to die like Firewire) forcing on people odd accessories with no clear vision how to standardize with minimum cabling. In the meantime other manufactirers that are less fancy stick to existing standards amd improve elsewhere.

You seem confused -- USBC is an existing, non-proprietary, standard interface. It is not Apple's baby, and it is not going to die like Firewire. 

I'm not aware of any Apple exec saying they felt mobile was a replacement for desktop. Even the term post-PC -- "post" literally means "after", not "replace".... Mobile is what came after desktop, but needn't replace all desktop use cases. Cars and trucks. 

GeorgeBMac

I see enterprise as the next area for Apple to explore if it wants to stay relevant.

It has exploited the explosion of consumer electronics for the past 35 years.   But, increasingly, segment by segment that area is devolving into commodities that are sold based on price rather than quality.   It has a long way yet to run, but the direction is clear.

Conversely, enterprise computing has long been neglected.   In the 80's & 90's it was dominated by mainframe class computing but, due lower costs and higher flexibility, consumer grade electronics ate into its turf and brought it to its knees.

Now, things are returning full cycle to Cloud based computing -- which fits the mainframe/enterprise model quite well and quite closely.   However, with security an ever increasing concern, Apple is the ONLY company with the infrastructure able to support the end user in a secure environment.

I think there is a huge potential there for Apple.