Apple Computer late Wednesday confirmed that it is splitting the company into two divisions--one focused on the Mac and the other focused on iPod digital music player.
An Apple representative confirmed the move, which was first reported Wednesday in the New York Times. John Rubinstein, the senior vice president who currently heads all hardware development, will lead the new iPod division. Tim Cook, currently executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations, will be in charge of the new Mac division. Also, Tim Bucher, who currently heads Macintosh system development, was tapped to head Mac hardware engineering.
The move comes as Apple's business is increasingly focused on iPod and more generally on music. Last quarter, Apple said it sold more iPods than Macs--the first time that occurred.
"This organisational refinement will focus our talent and resources even more precisely on our industry-leading Macintosh computers and the wildly successfully iPod," Apple said in a statement.
Apple has sold more than 3 million iPods since its launch in October 2001.
The iPod was followed in April 2003 with the U.S. launch of Apple iTunes music store--the most popular legal downloading service with more than 70 million downloads.
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