The Apple TV business has been struggling for quite some time now. To stop it from going further downhill, Apple has poached Timothy D. Twerdahl, the former director and GM of Amazon's Fire TV unit, in an effort to save the dying business.
Timothy D. Twerdahl Helping The Apple TV Business
Apple has hired Twerdahl as a new vice president. Aside from that, he will also be running the Apple TV business and be reporting to Greg Joswick. Regarding as to who Joswick is, he is currently the vice president in charge of marketing for the iPhones.
In hiring Twendah, this move by Apple frees Pete Distad from his duties who previously occupied the role that Twerdahl is in charge of now. Distard joined Apple back in 2013 after serving as a senior vice president of content distribution at a video streaming service called Hulu. As to what Distad duties will be, it was reported that he will be shifted to a spot "negotiating media content deals" under Eddy Cue.
About The Apple TV
The Apple TV is among the set-top devices that can stream video contents and apps to large TV screens. It is also well-known for its voice control functionality and integration.
However, on the 2016 fiscal year report, the Apple TV's "other products" only generated more than five percent of sales revenue. The last hardware update for this device was released back in 2015 and its sales just kept on decreasing year-over-year from the 2015 holiday quarter to the 2016 holiday quarter.
Future Of The Apple TV
Twerdahl brings to Apple a significant number of experiences under his belt. Prior to his tenure at Amazon, he was an executive at Netflix Inc. and later became a vice president in charge of consumer devices at Roku. He was also a streaming video box developer. With Twerdahl on board, Apple believes that it will bolster the company's efforts in video content and living room devices at a time as it will be looking for new categories of revenue to augment iPhone and iPad sales.
