Bobbie Johnson, GigaOM:
Immediate reaction to the news was intriguing, because it was split down the middle. On one side were those who read Browett’s credentials and the PR puffs. To them, it looks as if Apple has just hired a man who has succeeded at most things he’s tried, and spent the last five years steering a large retail business with more than 1,200 stores through a difficult period for the economy.
On the other hand, for those who know Dixons as it exists in the real world, the reaction was somewhat different: the most common refrain I saw was “Has Tim Cook ever been in a Dixons store?”
An interesting hire for sure. If the guy is smart and creative, I’m not sure it matters what a Dixon’s store looked like. If he played to their strengths and made the company money, he did exactly what was asked of him. As long as he can quickly learn what Apple’s strengths are and play to them, he should be able to do well at Apple.
Just a follow-up … Ron Johnson came to Apple from Target, so I think judging an exec from the type of store they came from is not the best way to judge them. I don’t think of Target as being very “Apple-like” either.