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The Jury is out: Notable Apple third-party developer evangelist Michael Jurewitz leaves for software firm Black Pixel

Élyse Betters | Jul 2 2012 - 9:29 am PT

Michael Jurewitz, Apple’s developer tools and frameworks evangelist for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, just announced on his personal blog that he is leaving the Cupertino company to join Black Pixel as a partner:

Today I am pleased to announce that I will be joining Black Pixel later this month in a new director-level position and as a partner. Black Pixel is one of the foremost iOS and OS X app consulting firms in t he industry, and I am excited for the opportunity to help lead their development and consulting efforts alongside a skilled management team.

For the past seven years I have worked in Apple’s Worldwide Developer Relations team helping OS X and iOS developers build the best apps in the world. Working closely with many of you in the developer community has been the highlight of my career. I have loved every minute of helping to answer your technical questions, providing technical, business, or design guidance, planning and visiting with so many of you at WWDC, traveling around the world to share the Tech Talks with you, fielding bug reports, or just being someone at Apple for you to talk to. You have challenged me, helped me grow, amazed me, and inspired me. The iOS and OS X developer community is one of the best in the world. I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with all of you and I am excited to join your ranks.

Leaving Apple is also bittersweet. I have wanted to work at Apple from the first moment I fired up the Apple IIGS in the study of my childhood home. Throughout my years in school I was the ardent Apple supporter and evangelist among my friends. Through the dark times in the 90’s, I worried that I might not get the opportunity to work at the one place I knew saw technology differently. And in the summer of 2005 I stepped onto Infinite Loop for what was the happiest day of my life to that point.

Jurewitz is well-liked, widely considered as a face of Apple interaction with App Store developers through his Twitter account, and is instrumental at assembling the Worldwide Developer Conferences.

[tweet https://twitter.com/jury/status/219824920673255425]

While this is a sentimental departure for developers, it is not game changing like other recent departures from Apple, such as the retirement of Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield and Vice President Betsy Rafael. (Image credit)

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