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Tim Cook is departing<\/a> from his long-held role as Apple\u2019s CEO \u2014 and a wave of top executives are heading for the exits as he does.<\/p>\n On Monday, Bloomberg reported that<\/a> Phil Schiller, long the head of Apple\u2019s App Store, stepped down from his position in recent days. Schiller has been with the company since 1987,<\/a> with only a four-year break during that time. He took over the App Store in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, Schiller won\u2019t be leaving the company entirely. He will be staying on as an Apple Fellow, a role reserved for people who have made outstanding technical or leadership contributions to the company. In that role, he will be working on unspecified projects, although Bloomberg notes that insiders at the company believe that Schiller\u2019s Fellow role is \u201ca big step toward the executive ultimately retiring.\u201d<\/p>\n Schiller shepherded the company through a lawsuit involving Epic Games over the App Store\u2019s in-app fee system. Epic filed an antitrust lawsuit in 2020, claiming that Apple had created an illegal monopoly. The monopoly claims were ultimately dismissed, and the judge in the case largely ruled in Apple\u2019s favor<\/a>. However, the company was still ordered to ensure that app developers could link to external payment options. The legal fight is still ongoing<\/a>.<\/p>\n As Schiller steps down, Apple plans to delegate day-to-day operations of the App Store to\u00a0Carson Oliver, who has been at Apple for over 14 years and has worked in the App Store division for the entirety of that time. The App Store is also being transitioned from the marketing department to the services division, which is headed by Eddy Cue, Bloomberg writes. TechCrunch reached out to Apple for more information about the transition. <\/p>\n Schiller\u2019s exit follows a series of other high-level departures for the iPhone maker. The company recently lost its chief operating officer Jeff Williams, who retired<\/a> in December after 27 years with the company. The retirement of Lisa Jackson<\/a>, vice president for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, was also announced in December, as was that of general counsel Kate Adams<\/a>. Jennifer Bailey, longtime head of Apple Pay, is set to retire<\/a> in October after over 20 years with the company.<\/p>\n In June, Apple also lost Paul Meade<\/a>, the Apple vice president in charge of the Vision Pro headset, who left the company to join OpenAI. In Meade\u2019s absence, Apple has since downsized the Vision Pro team<\/a>, which had lost around 100 employees as of two weeks ago.<\/p>\n As John Ternus takes the reins as CEO, he will be tasked with repopulating Apple\u2019s ranks with a new generation of corporate leaders \u2014 among many other tasks currently facing the new chief executive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n