Former Apple executive Bob Borchers left Apple last week to take up duties as a general partner at Opus Capital, a venture-capital firm. Now who is Bob Borchers, you ask? Why he’s the iPhone guy, of course. But who or what exactly is the iPhone guy?
Remember when Apple released a video guide on using the iPhone when it was first released 2 years ago?
Oh, that guy!
Well, it turns out that that guy was Bob Borchers, an Apple employee since 2004 where he recently held the position of Senior Director of Worldwide Product Marketing for the iPhone. The Wall Street Journal writes of his departure:
With all the excitement in the mobile arena these days with Palm’s Pre device, RIM’s BlackBerry and of course Apple’s latest iPhones, Borchers said he couldn’t pass up the job. He said he intends to look at “the range of white spaces in the mobile world,” including areas like wireless and medicine and mobile marketing technologies.
Larry Bird may have taught me how to play Basketball, but Bob Borchers taught me how to use an iPhone.
via WSJ
June 26th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Huh?! He claimed in the videos that he worked at an Apple store, now it turns out he was a Senior Marketing Director? Did the guy lie, or was his video so well received that he was lifted out of retail and hired by HQ.
I guess he did invent all those quirky gestures and mannerisms that are now followed in Apple product demo videos – maybe that’s why his career was fast-tracked 😉
June 26th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Go back and watch the videos. I don’t think he ever claimed to be a retail employee. The Mac, iPod and latest iPhone 3GS (different guy) videos all have retail folks, but Bob was the original.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
He was an exec at Nokia and Nike before joining Apple, so no, I don’t imagine that he ever worked in an Apple store.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Can you imagine how many less annoying folks farther down in the Apple Marketing food chain would have loved to do those videos?