Apple Fellow Phil Schiller has become the public face of Apple’s defense of its ecosystem

Phil Schiller, Apple’s former chief marketing officer has emerged as perhaps the most ardent public defender of the company’s ecosystem, a vision of electronic devices that work seamlessly together and protect user security and privacy, reports The Wall Street Journal.

“I have no qualms in saying that our goal is going to always be to make the App Store the safest, best place for users to get apps,” Schiller recently told Fast Company. “I think users—and the whole developer ecosystem—have benefited from that work that we’ve done together with them. And we’re going to keep doing that.”

An Apple spokesman declined to make Schiller available to speak to the WSJ. The spokesman said Apple complies with the law in countries where it does business and in a way that protects the user experience that its customers value.

Schiller retired from his role as chief of marketing in 2020, but continues as an “Apple Fellow,” and has, intentionally or not, become the public face of Apple’s efforts to defend itself.

An Apple Fellow is a person who has been recognized by Apple for his/her extraordinary technical or leadership contributions to personal computing while at the company. Each Apple Fellow acts as a leader and a visionary, guiding the company in their particular area of expertise.

As the WSJ notes — in an article at Apple News — Schiller served as a primary company witness in Fortnite-maker Epic Games’ antitrust lawsuit against Apple in 2021. On social media and in media interviews, Schiller has frequently made it clear that Apple doesn’t intend to yield to developer criticism. 

“Your colorful criticism of our DMA compliance plan, coupled with Epic’s past practice of intentionally violating contractual provisions with which it disagrees, strongly suggest that Epic” doesn’t intend to follow the rules, Schiller wrote in a Feb. 23 email that Epic published online. 

What’s more, he’s warned that the new European Union rules under the Digital Marketing Act (DMA) might lead to objectionable content that the App Store has always sought to prevent and said Apple was trying to minimize new security risks.

Speaking of the DMA, Apple has filed a legal case contesting decisions taken by the European Commission (EC) under the act.

The post Apple Fellow Phil Schiller has become the public face of Apple’s defense of its ecosystem appeared first on MacTech.com.