Apple Names New Chairman

angry tapir writes "Arthur Levinson, former CEO of biotech company Genentech, is taking on the chairmanship of Apple's board, filling the role that Apple founder Steve Jobs vacated when he died last month." El Reg notes that Disney CEO/President Robert Iger was also appointed to the board, and that this marks the first time since the return of Steve Jobs to Apple that the CEO and board chairman were different people.

Lack of customer focus?

[vlm]

So, the biotech place only sells R+D to megacorps and their customer experience is designed for PHDs in ChemEng, Chem, Bio, MDs, and of course, beancounters.

The Disney guy thinks he should own our culture in perpetuity and the government should enforce and extend failing business models, admittedly a widely held belief.

Who, if anyone in their leadership, cares about the general public actually buying their stuff?

I could see this resulting in a big push for "ItunesU", or tablet/phone electronic medical records, or maybe an even more draconian DRM setup. Any way this team could benefit the general public?

The best I can come up with is something like a real world highly integrated "medical tricoder" that is DRM locked down so you/your doc/your med insurance has to pay apple each time they want to look at your records, forever. Also the tricoder only works with Apple-approved MRI units, Apple-approved IV pumps, etc.

From some one who knows Art

[kungfool]

I don't understand all the Art bashing here. I worked under Art when he ran Genentech research, and later when he was promoted to CEO. He was a genius at getting other geniuses (and no, I'm not counting myself in that category) to give their best, most creative work. He made Genentech a fun, exciting place to work. We all worked hard (very hard), but were well rewarded and felt the work was vital and exciting stuff. I think he has exactly what it takes to help guide Apple. He's not some bean-counter, suit wearing executive. He's a scientist at heart, and as hard-core a geek as any one could want (he was known for using UNIX mail even after the company rolled out a custom mail interface).