Apple hires former venture capitalist Josh Elman to hep improve App Store discovery role

Apple Inc. has hired Josh Elman, who is a prominent venture capitalist and former vice president of product at sock-trading app Robinhood, to work on the App Store. While taking to Twitter, Elman announced the news, saying he is also leaving his role as a board partner at the firm Greylock Partners and as a board member of prominent tech companies like Discord and Medium. The tech veteran’s role will focus on app discovery for customers, he said in a statement. 

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Elman is expected to help in improving the iPhone maker’s relationship with developers after a rather rough year in which Apple’s stewardship of the App Store has been called into question by critics, rivals and regulators. His experience identifying and investing in apps that later became hits could help Apple better promote software in its app store. While Elaman still hasn’t mentioned whether he will be working at all on developer relations, he, however, said that he will be focused on helping “customers discover the best apps for them”. 

According to Bloomberg, two of the most widely known investments by Elaman, including SmartThings and HouseParty, now belong to two major Apple rivals. First, SmartThings which makes technology for connected homes was acquired by Samsung. HouseParty, on the other hand, which develops for smartphones, is now owned by Epic Games Inc. It is worth noting that Epic is currently suing Apple over the removal of ‘Fortnite’ from the App Store, and that’s only one of many controversies Apple has weathered over the last 12 months. 

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Apple’s business program 

Meanwhile, Apple recently extended an olive branch to the app development community by announcing a new small business program earlier this month that will cut its standard 30 per cent App Store commission in half for developers making less than $1 million per year. The firm has also tried to compromise with a number of app developers, most prominently Hey email client creator Basecamp, and tech rivals like Microsoft over complaints with certain App Store restrictions.

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