Apple has hired Timothy D. Twerdhal, the former head of Amazon’s Fire TV unit since 2013. His role will be VP in charge of Apple TV product marketing. The change has possibly been brought about to renew focus on Apple TV and provide more content for the device. Previous negotiations for content for Apple TV were not always met with success. It is believed that Twerdahl will report to Greg Joswiak, a VP in charge of marketing for the iPhone.
Apple TV generated just more than 5% of Apple’s sales in fiscal 2016. Sales have decreased year-on-year from the last quarter of 2015 to the last quarter of 2016. Although Amazon does not disclose Fire TV sales, the Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri, said last week that in May 2016 Fire TV was the top-selling streaming media device in the US.
Distad joined Apple in 2013 after serving as a senior VP of content distribution at video streaming service Hulu. He will now help lead Apple’s content deal efforts, which is headed by Eddy Cue.
Twerdahl comes to Apple with significant experience in Internet-connected TV devices with his tenures at Amazon, Netflix and Roku. Twerdahl’s experience could bolster Apple’s efforts in video content and living room devices at a time when the company is looking for new categories of revenue to augment iPhone and iPad sales.
