Twenty years ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs poached Ron Okamoto away from Adobe to become vice president of developer relations and later help build the App Store. Now, we’re learning he has retired — less than a couple months before Apple’s App Store is set to go on trial.
Apple’s 20-year head of developer relations retires ahead of Epic App Store trial
Ron Okamoto helped build the App Store, and he may be deposed
Ron Okamoto helped build the App Store, and he may be deposed
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
The eagle-eyed Mark Gurman at Bloomberg spotted that not only was Okamoto listed as a potential witness in that trial, but that court documents describe him as the former VP of worldwide developer relations, not the current one. Bloomberg is now reporting that he’s been replaced by Susan Prescott, a product marketing exec who started becoming one of the public faces of the company in 2015.
Okamoto’s still set to be deposed in the trial, but perhaps for less than an hour. He’ll seemingly be testifying about the App Store’s policies, business model, how it compares to developing for macOS, and the “transformation of the application software business.”
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Sean Hollister and Jess Weatherbed
