"I was very skeptical when they hired [Browett]," said Milanesi. "I'm from the U.K., and very familiar with Dixons."

Before being hired by Cook, Browett was the CEO of Dixons Retail, Europe's second-largest electronics chain. Dixons has struggled for years, and carries a reputation as a down-scale retailer much less polished than Apple's own chain of brick-and-mortar outlets.

Gottheil cut Cook some slack for hiring, then quickly firing Browett.

"I don't blame anyone for making a bad hire," said Gottheil, whose resume includes 13 years as a product design manager with Lotus, the maker of the once-dominant Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. "I've made bad hires. But I blame people for keeping a bad hire."

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at , on or subscribe to . His email address is .