Eduardo H. Cue (born October 23, 1964) is

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

's senior vice president of Services, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. Cue oversees Apple's numerous content stores and products including the iTunes Store, the Apple Books Store, and

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

, Apple Pay,

Siri Siri ( , backronym: Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) is a digital assistant purchased, developed, and popularized by Apple Inc., which is included in the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, Apple TV, audioOS, and visionOS operating sys ...

(until 2017), Maps, iAd, iCloud services, and Apple's productivity and creativity apps. Cue testified in the antitrust case against Apple for conspiring on eBook pricing.

Business career

Early career (1990s)

Eddy Cue joined Apple in 1989 and was instrumental in creating the Apple online store in 1997, the iTunes Store in 2003, and the App Store in 2008. In his early years at Apple, he was a manager of

software engineering Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...

and customer support teams. In 1999, he convinced Apple to work with Akamai Technologies Inc. on new streaming functions for its QuickTime video software. He also played a key role in developing Apple's iLife suite of applications, namely Apple Books, iAd advertising service, and Apple's App Store of more than 700,000 applications. Cue is widely known at Apple for turning around its failed products, such as the MobileMe data syncing service as well as iCloud in 2011, which now has more than 250 million users. Likewise, Cue is famous for advising Steve Jobs to consider creating a smaller version of the iPad based on his own experience with the product. While Jobs was originally against the idea, Tim Cook eventually agreed with the concept upon becoming CEO after Jobs' death.

Today (2011–present)

As senior vice president of Services (previously the senior vice president of Internet Software and Services), Cue has addressed Apple's mobile maps, iCloud, and iMessage outages. Additionally, Cue took command of Apple's voice-activated assistant Siri. However, this service was delegated to Craig Federighi, Apple's senior software engineering vice president, and John Giannandrea, Apple's senior vice president of AI/ML. Cue's responsibilities as the leader of iTunes have included attending to the rise of streaming services, leading Apple's competition with Spotify and the acquisition of Shazam. In response to the rise of video streaming services such as

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

, and

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

, Cue has led Apple's new effort to create its own original content. In 2017, it was announced that Apple had set aside nearly $1 billion to produce original video content to compete with HBO, Amazon, and Netflix. With a base salary of $1 million, bonuses and incentives totaling $1.79 million, and $20,000,083 in stock, Cue earned over $22.8 million in total compensation for his leadership and performance during the 2016 fiscal year. In April 2021, it was revealed that Cue had initially pushed to bring iMessage to Android in 2013 but was overruled by other executives.

Personal life

The son of a Cuban mother and a Spanish father, Cue resides with his wife Paula (whom he met at Duke University) in

Los Altos, California Los Altos (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Heights") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Most of the city's growth ...

, and tries hard to maintain a low profile. Cue is a fan of rock music, with Bruce Springsteen as one of his favorite artists. Cue was recognized by the cancer research center City of Hope with its 2014 Spirit of Life Award, honoring an individual whose work has fundamentally impacted the music, film, and entertainment industry. Cue is also an avid car collector. Most notable in his collection is his one of five Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster finished in red. It is the only red cinque to exist.

Duke University

Cue earned

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

s in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. Cue is an avid Duke basketball fan, and both of his sons Adam and Spencer studied computer science at Duke University as well. Cue's recent involvement with Duke has included encouraging undergraduate women to study computer science and electrical engineering as part of the Duke Technology (DTech) Scholar program launched in 2016. Additionally, Cue joined Duke Men's Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski in founding PowerForward, a mobile video network which targets the business-to-business (B2B) market offering subscriptions to video content and case studies aimed to help corporations foster leadership and build teams. He is also the first Cuban-American on Duke's Board of Trustees and donated $10 million to the Duke Science and Technology Initiative in 2021.

References