Eddy Cue has discreetly risen to become the most influential executive at Apple.

      Phil Schiller’s departure from the App Store made headlines on Monday. Beneath the surface, however, is the quieter reality that Eddy Cue now oversees more of Apple than anyone except the new CEO.

      Mark Gurman reported the organizational changes for Bloomberg on Monday, just hours before John Ternus officially stepped in. Apple has not publicly addressed any of this and has declined to comment.

      Cue was already in charge of services, and he has now taken control of the App Store, Apple Arcade, and, as of late last year, Health. None of these shifts were formally announced as promotions; they occurred gradually, each linked to someone's exit from the company.

      What changed, and who received what responsibilities

      The App Store has returned to the division that managed it until 2015, when Schiller and the marketing team took over. Cue regains it after an 11-year absence and assumes control at a time when the store is more valuable and facing more legal scrutiny than ever before.

      Carson Oliver manages the App Store on a daily basis and reports directly to Cue. Oliver has dedicated his entire 14-year career at Apple to this department. Ann Thai, who manages distribution tools and third-party marketplaces, now reports to Oliver instead of Schiller, as does Alex Rofman, who oversees Apple Arcade.

      Meanwhile, the events team has been reassigned altogether. Nola Weinstein, who has been Schiller's deputy for launches since 2023, will now lead that team and report to Kristin Huguet Quayle, Apple's vice president of communications and public relations.

      This shift is a subtle reclassification. Apple’s product launches have been under the communications division until approximately 2019, after which they were managed as a marketing function under Schiller for seven years. They are now reverting back to the press office.

      For a company whose launches are its most highly scrutinized initiatives, moving them from product marketing to public relations is a significant decision.

      The extent of Cue's responsibilities

      Apple’s services sector generated over $109 billion in the company's last full financial year, accounting for more than a quarter of its total revenue. It is also the fastest-growing segment and boasts the highest margins.

      The App Store alone facilitated over $1.4 trillion in transactions last year, according to Apple’s own figures, and Bloomberg estimates its direct revenue exceeds $30 billion annually.

      Jacob Eiting, who heads the subscription firm RevenueCat, highlighted the scale of these operations. Schiller began with the App Store when it was devoid of apps and revenue; it now pays developers approximately $100 billion annually.

      Cue takes on all these responsibilities atop a services division he has spent a decade nurturing.

      The executive bench is thinning

      Cue’s rise to power is partly due to the departures of other executives. Apple is losing many leaders who once managed the company alongside Tim Cook.

      Jeff Williams retired as chief operating officer in December after 27 years, while Dan Riccio, who led hardware before Ternus, has also left. Finance chief Luca Maestri and Lisa Jackson, who dealt with environmental and governmental affairs, have exited as well. General counsel Kate Adams and Apple Pay leader Jennifer Bailey are leaving in October, and Paul Meade, who managed Vision Pro hardware, joined OpenAI in June.

      The news of Bailey’s retirement was covered by TNW in August, marking the exit of the executive who had launched Apple Pay after 25 years.

      At 66 years old, Schiller has been with Apple since 1987, with a four-year hiatus. Gurman has candidly stated that this change is part of Schiller’s retirement plan, as he no longer runs any departments at Apple, retaining only his title of Fellow and an advisory role.

      Apple has since updated its leadership page to reflect these changes for both Schiller and Cue.

      Despite the shifts, Schiller had not been idle. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2024 that he was still putting in around 80 hours a week, even as he was supposed to be scaling back.

      Cue also inherits the legal challenges

      The individual in charge of the App Store oversees Apple’s most contentious product. TNW reported in June that the Supreme Court would hear Apple’s appeal concerning the contempt ruling in the Epic case, and in August, Apple replaced its EU Core Technology Fee with a flat 5% commission to resolve its Digital Markets Act dispute.

      This alteration occurred just 13 days before Schiller stepped down, coinciding with the U.S. ruling that indicated Schiller had internally advocated for compliance but was overruled by Tim Cook.

      Tim Sweeney, who has been litigating against Apple regarding the App Store Cue now leads, publicly acknowledged this transition. He expressed hope that Apple would adopt a hopeful perspective moving forward, focusing on serving people rather than merely extracting resources from them.

      “This will be a new age for Apple,” Sweeney remarked.

      What this indicates about Ternus

      Ternus, a hardware engineer,