Pablo Calamera was announced as the new lead tech for Thumbplay, a cloud-based data-syncing product for Macs, iPhones and PCs. Starting March 8, Calamera will work from the company's headquarters in New York.
The recruitment of Calamera comes as the company recently launched its own all-you-can-eat music subscription plan, Thumbplay Music, currently available to select users in beta form. The company was previously focused on ringtone sales.
Calamera worked with Apple for 10 years, where he oversaw MobileMe. He also spent six years at mobile services company Danger and two years with WebTV, both of which were acquired by Microsoft. In all, he has worked for more than 25 years in PC, mobile, set-top box and cloud computing.
"We are thrilled to have Pablo join our team. He has unique experience with Apple, Danger and WebTV in delivering and syncing content across multiple platforms for a scaled customer base," said Evan Schwartz, Thumbplay CEO and co-founder. "He has also managed major integrations with U.S. and international carriers; an area of ongoing strategic importance for us."
"Over the course of his career, he has done an extraordinary job of building state-of-the-art consumer products and services from concept to completion. Technological innovation is paramount to Thumbplay, and Pablo's talent, experience and commitment to excellence will play a vital role in keeping us at the forefront of mobile entertainment offerings."
As head of technology development, Calamera will oversee all of Thumbplay's technology initiatives, including the unlimited, on-demand music streaming service. For $10 a month, consumers can listen to the millions of songs available, though customers do not own any of the songs.
"Thumbplay has an incredible talent pool, and they have done a remarkable job in building robust, feature-rich services that deliver beautifully across multiple platforms," Calamera said. "This is a very difficult thing to do, and I have been consistently impressed with the energy, smarts and creativity on display. I am greatly looking forward to working with Evan and the entire Thumbplay team to deliver against our very ambitious goals for the future."
Calamera's departure comes as Apple is rumored to be pushing its own industry-leading iTunes Music Store into the cloud, offering users the ability to stream their music library from anywhere on a number of devices. In December, Apple purchased streaming music service Lala for $85 million.
For years, rumors have persisted that Apple could offer a music subscription service with iTunes. However, as of late, Apple has reportedly been more interested in TV subscription plans, though major U.S. networks have allegedly rejected proposals.
58 Comments
Well, it's obvious Mr. Calamera didn't realize his potential with MobileMe. I hope they hire someone who can take it from "Meh" to "Wow."
Well, it's obvious Mr. Calamera didn't realize his potential with MobileMe. I hope they hire someone who can take it from "Meh" to "Wow."
That's tough to say. I think he did a great job with the MobileMe webapps, and I think Apple has more likely crippled and slowed his projects to serve their slow feature rollout schedule.
That's tough to say. I think he did a great job with the MobileMe webapps, and I think Apple has more likely crippled and slowed his projects to serve their slow feature rollout schedule.
Always the negative view of Apple with you isn't it?
This guy was in charge during a highly publicised f*ck-up that required apple to bring in an executive higher than him to "fix," Steve Jobs to apologise in person, and for them give money to the end users for their suffering. And yet the first thing you think of is that this guy is "great" and Apple management is at fault? WTF?
Occam's razor alone suggests that if he's been on the job ten years, and MobileMe has been "meh" for ten years, that he's the guy to blame. I've used it since the first day .Mac was opened and it's been definitely "meh" IMO.
Whether it's a bunch of people following their bosses(?) to Palm, or this case, I don't like seeing people leave Apple... The initial thought is:
Did they ask Apple for a raise and didn't get it, and so they left for elsewhere, where they already had a job waiting for them?
Did they give Apple a chance to match the other offer, plus a promotion maybe? Yes, I suspect that it could be a dangerous precedent to set for Apple to engage in such "$$ wars"...
In case of Rubenstein and Palm, he gave me a funny feeling every time I saw him speak. But, when he was at Apple, I get he did something right, otherwise he wouldn't have been there... Hey, at least in tech there is no badmouthing afterwards, unlike in politics..., or at least not yet!
There could be other Qs that one can think of regarding such Apple departures, but these are mine for now... And, in reality, none of us will ever know the "real story" in cases like that... Why do the dirty laundry in public, if it's not War Of The Roses, highly charged Celebrities Divorce, with all the PR Blood...
The funny part would be if Apple ends up buying this company later... I wonder if Palm people, and other former Apple people, will ever be going back to Apple..., and if Apple would take some of them back...?!
BTW, semi-off topic(?) - I stopped by at my Verizon store, and they were pushing Motorolla Droid, while Palm phones were not even connected to the Internet!!! Funny... Rubenstein can write his letters to the "team", and this Mobile me guy can be free to create at his new company, but in LIFE, at Verizon store (in this case) it's APATHY, at best, as far as employees, while, a few doors away, iPhones sell themselves at ATT store... Sprint and T-Mobile stores look even sadder... And, of course, nothing beats Apple Stores...
Possibly the staff acquired from lala (such as Bill Nguyen) have been put into place above him. So the writing was on the wall...