Apple Forms New iPod Division

Apple Computer Inc. has created a new division within the maker of the Macintosh computer to sell its popular iPod, the market leading digital music player.

Jon Rubinstein, who has led the Cupertino, California-based company’s hardware engineering efforts, will run the new division, an Apple spokesman said.

Timothy Cook, head of Apple’s worldwide sales and operations, will lead a newly organized Macintosh division, Apple said. Tim Bucher, now in charge of Macintosh system development, will head up the Mac’s hardware engineering.

The moves were announced in a company-wide internal e-mail sent by Steve Jobs, Apple’s chairman, chief executive and co-founder, and first reported by the New York Times on Wednesday.

“This organizational refinement will focus our talent and resources even more precisely on our industry-leading Macintosh computers and the wildly successful iPod,” the spokesman said.

Since the iPod’s introduction in October 2001, Apple has sold more than 3 million of the devices.

Read more at Reuters