"You don’t see many executives trading up from CEO of one company to senior vice president of another. That Browett is from Europe is a pretty good signal that international expansion is a top priority for Apple retail."
He was already hedging his bets a couple of days later, though:
"I'm not implying that Browett was hired to or intends to Dixons-ify the Apple Store experience — just pointing out that it’s a curious hire, also given how rarely Apple hires executives from outside the company."
The first quote wasn’t really complimenting Browett. It was more of a statement that for someone to take a “demotion” from being a CEO to VP says a lot about the Apple store.
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/01/31/browett
"You don’t see many executives trading up from CEO of one company to senior vice president of another. That Browett is from Europe is a pretty good signal that international expansion is a top priority for Apple retail."
He was already hedging his bets a couple of days later, though:
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/02/02/dixons-sucks
"I'm not implying that Browett was hired to or intends to Dixons-ify the Apple Store experience — just pointing out that it’s a curious hire, also given how rarely Apple hires executives from outside the company."