Phil Schiller expected to increasingly become Apple's 'public face'

Schiller's expanded role is expected by Bloomberg Businessweek to be apparent at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference, where the senior vice president of Apple's Worldwide Product Marketing department is expected to present much of the keynote presentation on June 11. There, Schiller and other members of Apple's executive team are expected to introduce new Macs, the next version of iOS, and provide more details on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

If those products aren't hits, Schiller "knows he'll get more than his fair share of blame," authors Peter Burrows and Adam Satariano wrote, citing a person who recently discussed Apple's future with the executive.

"Schiller has the daunting task of keeping Apple cool," they wrote. "And that's harder to do now that the company is a $535 billion behemoth, subject to antitrust reviews and labor-practice criticisms, rather than the underdog he rejoined in 1997."

The profile also revealed that although Jobs and Schiller had "little in common" when it came to personal interests, the two carried a very similar business sense. In fact, Schiller's understanding of the perspective of Jobs was so well-known at Apple that he earned the nickname "Mini-Me," a reference to the character played by Verne Troyer in two "Austin Powers" movies.

He also earned the nickname "Dr. No," from the character James Bond, as a result of Schiller's "ruthlessly disciplined" nature when choosing and shooting down ideas for new products and features.

Schiller also has a history of working closely with Apple's development community, and even responds to e-mails sent by customers. One such e-mail allegedly sent by Schiller this week, shared with Cult of Mac, explained why the Rogue Amoeba application "AirFoil Speakers" was temporarily removed from the App Store.

"Rogue Amoeba's app added a feature that accessed encrypted AirPlay audio streams without using approved APIs or a proper license and in violation of Apple's agreements," Schiller allegedly explained. "Apple asked Rogue Amoeba to update their app to remain in compliance with our terms and conditions."

Schiller was particularly active in sending e-mails to developers in 2009, in which he personally responded to criticism of Apple's App Store approval process. His outreach, and Apple's internal changes, helped to quiet some developers who expressed concern over Apple's lack of transparency in reviewing App Store software.