Apple Promotes Key Software Execs

Tevanian, who joined Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple in 1997, previously was senior vice president of software engineering. In his new position, he will focus on setting companywide software technology directions, according to Apple.

Serlet formerly served as Apple's vice president of platform technology, directing the biggest part of the Mac OS software engineering group, Apple reported. He joined the company in 1997 and has played a key role in creating and shaping the Unix-based Mac OS X, which was launched in March 2001, the company said. Before joining Apple, Serlet spent four years at the renowned Xerox PARC research lab and then joined NeXT in 1989.

With the promotion, Serlet will report directly to Apple CEO Steve Jobs and steer the company's OS Software Engineering group, Apple said.

The moves come at a key time for Apple's software business. Late last month, the company unveiled Mac OS X version 10.3, the next version of its desktop OS, code-named Panther, as well as a server version of the platform. Both are slated to ship by the end of the year.

At the same time, Apple has moved aggressively to expand its own lineup of software offerings. Last month, the computer maker released its own Web browser, called Safari, and unveiled iChat AV videoconferencing software for its new iSight digital video camera. The company also announced Xcode, a set of developer tools for building next-generation OS X applications.

And since the start of the year, Apple has introduced or released a spate of other applications, including Shake 3, Final Cut Pro 4, QuickTime 6, iTunes 4, DVD Studio Pro 2, Keynote, Final Cut Express, iCal, iSync, X11 for Mac OS X and iLife. The latter product is a "digital lifestyle" multimedia suite featuring new versions of Apple's iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD software.

Currently, there are more than 7 million active users of OS X, and the number of OS X-compatible apps has doubled to more than 6,000 over the past year, according to Apple.

"This will be a seamless handoff," Jobs said in a statement about the software executive promotions. "Panther, the next major release of Mac OS X, is in great shape, and everything is on track to ship it later this year, making this a good time to let Avie return to a more hands-on technical role and to promote Bertrand to lead our entire OS software engineering team."