Tim Bucher Leading Dell’s Music and Entertainment Initiative

Remember Tim Bucher? Back in 2004 he was an executive at Apple, and was promoted to lead the company’s Macintosh hardware engineering division. Six months later, he was fired. According to a wrongful termination lawsuit Bucher later filed, Steve Jobs told him, “People think you are sometimes manic-depressive…. I think I’m going to have to ask you to leave the company.”

BusinessWeek’s Peter Burrows reports that Bucher is now at Dell:

He’s spearheading an ambitious plan at Dell to break Apple’s dominant hold on the digital entertainment market. He won’t challenge Apple head on, with iPod knockoffs or a Dell version of the iTunes music store. Instead, Bucher’s 120-person team is trying to create a potent alliance among Apple’s many rivals, from cell-phone makers and record labels to online music sites.

How can he lose with Rob Enderle on his side?

★ Friday, 15 August 2008