Kevan Parekh, an executive of Indian descent, has garnered media attention since he was appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of American tech giant Apple in January 2025.
Luca Maestri, who held the position for almost 11 years, has been replaced by Kevan Parekh. Another significant milestone in his incredible career will be reached when he takes on his new position, where he will receive an annual salary of USD 1 million.
Since joining the company in June 2013, Kevan Parekh has been instrumental in its success. The University of Michigan awarded him a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, and the University of Chicago awarded him an MBA. Market research, investor relations, and financial planning are just a few of the important duties Kevan Parekh has assumed over the years at Apple.
Kevan Parekh has experience in marketing, sales, and retail, so his knowledge extends beyond finance. He collaborated closely with the engineering and product marketing teams.
According to Bloomberg, Kevan Parekh is a logical choice to succeed departing CFO Luca Maestri because Maestri has been preparing him for this position. Despite not being well-known, he is highly respected at Apple and frequently provides CEO Tim Cook with important financial updates.
Kevan Parekh was instrumental in forming Apple’s operations and strategies in several departments before becoming its CFO.
He held senior leadership positions at General Motors and Thomson Reuters before joining Apple. Kevan Parekh’s keen intellect, good judgement, and in-depth knowledge of Apple have been commended by CEO Tim Cook.
Kevan Parekh’s appointment also comes just before the tech giant’s scheduled release of its Q1 2025 earnings report on January 30. The report, apart from covering iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series 10 sales extensively, will also make public the venture’s market performance during the recent holiday season.
In Q4 2024 (July to September), Apple reported USD 94.93 billion in revenue, up 6% year-on-year. The company recorded growth in most of its categories, except for Wearables, Home, and Accessories – which includes Apple Watch, AirPods, and HomePod.
Since new products such as the iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series 10 were launched in mid-September, the Q4 2024 report only included data on the first two weeks of sales for these products.
Apple is also reportedly working on a new technology that could allow the iPhone maker to introduce a smartphone with a larger battery, without drastically increasing the thickness of the handset. While the project looks similar to the one undertaken by Samsung, the technology is not entirely new, given the fact that Chinese firms have already begun to introduce smartphones that are equipped with 7,000mAh batteries, using silicon carbon technology.
Apple Intelligence AI Feature Under Fire
Meanwhile, according to 9To5Mac, Apple’s new AI-powered notification summary feature, which was first included in iOS 18.1, is coming under increased scrutiny after several mistakes were brought to light by the BBC.
According to the publication, the feature, which summarises notifications into summaries, was intended to improve user experience, but recent errors indicate it might require more work.
Notably, the feature, which is currently in beta testing, aims to give users a concise synopsis of notifications rather than the complete content.
The report claims that Apple has admitted the possibility of mistakes and asked users to report any inaccuracies so that the system can be made better.
The BBC has swiftly identified the feature’s flaws, though, which have resulted in some notifications that are inaccurate and misleading.
In one particularly striking instance from December 2024, an AI-generated summary falsely stated that Luigi Mangione (American man who was identified as the suspect in the killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare) had shot himself, which was completely untrue, according to the report.
According to BBC, one of the most recent instances was a notification that claimed darts player Luke Littler had won the PDC World Championship even though he hadn’t yet participated in the final.
Furthermore, some users of the BBC Sport app were misled by another notification that falsely stated that tennis legend Rafael Nadal had come out as gay. These mistakes show how difficult it is to use AI to summarise news in real-time, especially when breaking news is involved.
Even though AI can summarise information rapidly, there is a significant chance of misunderstandings or errors, particularly in the fast-paced fields of sports and current events.
Apple may eventually disable AI-generated summaries for news apps by default, at least until the technology advances, according to growing rumours in light of these persistent problems.
Image Credits: Apple