Stuff and Nonsense

Apple's Next Big Content Push?

Very interesting - and plausible. Although much (if not all) of the content on iTunes U is currently free, Apple could conceivably try to monetize educational content. I'm uncertain as to how much they'd take in, though; for starters, they'd be going into competition against, for example, The Teaching Company, which has a substantial course catalog, and they would be competing against the sometimes excellent free content already on iTunes U.

An alternative hypothesis would be that his new job is to figure out how to train Apple Store employees in "selling cool" and ensuring that Apple remains an aspirational brand even as it is more and more widely adopted. That's much closer to your example of Hamburger University, but it could be an interesting job for someone with serious sociological credentials. As for why he'd leave the academic world for that, the answer is pretty straightforward - large sums of money.