Improving profit margins and creating recurring revenue: John Ternus’ App Store strategy that made Phil Schiller resign

Tim Cook’s reign is history. Just a week ago, we shared with you the full content of the letter he had sent to all Apple employees to say goodbye. We also explained that the arrival of the new CEO, John Ternus, had caused some movements among the company’s directors. One of those movements was the departure of Phil Schiller as head of the App Store. In fact, we already explained to you that his intention was to become a consultant for the company. Some sources even mentioned that he wanted to dedicate more time to his family and philanthropy.

Well, although Phil Schiller probably wasn’t completely lying, Bloomberg tells a slightly different story. A story that, on the other hand, allows us to understand a little what the first movements of Apple’s new CEO are now that he fully runs the company. As stated TechCrunchboth Ternus and Eddy Cue, who is director of services, are looking to make their goose that lays the golden eggs, the App Store, even more profitable.

And not only that. Likewise, they want the store start generating more recurring income. Obviously, this would happen, we can assume, by delving into that business model that many users are beginning to get fed up with, that is, that of subscriptions. We ourselves recently explained to you that this was a bubble about to burst and that is one of the reasons why self-hosted services are so popular today.

Keep developers (and governments) happy

The App Store is a source of income for Apple, as we said, but also a headache in many ways. It brings together thousands of developers who, although they have opportunities, have also denounced a certain tyranny on the part of the company, especially with regard to income percentages.

As if that were not enough, the App Store is one of the first pieces that the European Commission, as well as other regulators, for example, in Japan, have asked Apple to change. Being the only application store for a platform like iOS has always been seen as a monopoly that, for years, the authorities have been trying to dismantle. Trying to squeeze the store even more will likely bring more problems for Apple. At least, according to Bloomberg, that’s Phil Schiller’s point of view.

The sources also point out that all this did not generate any internal dispute within the company. In reality, Schiller did not agree and that simply led him to resign. What this information is useful for is to know the first movements of Ternus at the head of Apple. The new CEO’s first strategies are to improve the profitability of one of its most popular services. Tim Cook’s shadow is long and, apparently, Ternus does not have much intention of moving much from it. At least for now.