Apple picked a high-profile executive of its own Monday, snatching William Stasior, former president and CEO of Amazon's A9 division, to reportedly lead Cupertino's Siri unit.
His exact job title is still unclear, though AllThingsD picked up Stasior's new role from sources.
Stasior joined Amazon in 2003 as the director of search and navigation before working his way up to become president and CEO of A9.
The Amazon unit focused on developing search and advertising technology before delving into search for Amazon and other online retail sites.
Statsior's new role as head of the Siri group comes at a key time for Apple, having lost former Siri CEO and co-founder Dag Kittlaus last year and Adam Cheyer, Siri's other co-founder, earlier this year.
Taking search forward
Apple's acquisition of Stasior and his particular background could indicate a shift for the company toward search technologies.
Apple recently decided to ditch Google Maps in favor of its own proprietary service with the launch of iOS 6.
Even though Apple's success with its native maps is up for debate (the app has a seemingly inordinate amount of problems) it does highlight the firm's desire to develop and offer proprietary services whenever it can.
Of course, Siri still has a long way to go before the voice-controlled assistant could hope to replace Google's own search algorithm.
However, it's good to remember that there was a time not too long ago when abandoning Google Maps seemed equally far-fetched.
Via AllThingsD
