Former Dixons boss leaves Apple

A retail high-flier credited with reviving the fortunes of PC World and Currys has come unstuck after a dream job at Apple ended in just six months.

Former Dixons boss John Browett has left the technology giant in a shock exit that comes after he joined in April to head up its global store chain.

Mr Browett relocated to California and was reportedly awarded a "golden hello" package worth up to 56 million US dollars (£36 million) to drive expansion of Apple's shop portfolio as senior vice president of retail.

He was seen as being one of Apple chief executive Tim Cook's key hires and was described by him at the time as having commitment to customer service "like no one else we've met".

But it is understood Mr Browett, who joined Dixons at the end of 2007 and overhauled the business following a period of under-performance, caused a backlash among employees by trying to cut back hours and staff numbers, before the group quickly reversed the changes.

His departure comes as part of a management reshuffle that has also claimed the scalp of Scott Forstall - the executive responsible for its iOS mobile operating system and troubled new mapping software - who will leave next year and act as an adviser to Mr Cook in the interim.

Last week, Apple reported lower-than-expected profits for its fourth quarter, with a drop in iPad sales leaving profits at 8.22 billion US dollars (£5.1 billion).

Apple remained tight-lipped on the reasons behind the departures, saying only that the changes would "increase collaboration across hardware, software and services".

Mr Forstall's departure follows a series of embarrassing problems with the group's recently launched mapping software, which was initially blighted by errors that led to Mr Cook apologising for the maps not meeting the firm's "incredibly high standard". Mr Forstall joined Apple in 1997 and is credited with being one of the original architects of Mac OS X.

The overhaul comes just over a year after Mr Cook took the reins at Apple.