By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 10:00 PM EST

Apple Computer Inc. has created a new division within the maker of the Macintosh computer to sell its popular iPod, the market leading digital music player, the company said on Wednesday.

Jon Rubenstein, who has led the Cupertino, California-based company's hardware engineering efforts, will run the new division, an Apple spokesman told Reuters.

Timothy Cook, head of Apple's worldwide sales and operations, will lead a newly organized Macintosh division, Apple said. Tim Bucher, now in charge of Macintosh system development, will head up the Mac's hardware engineering.

The moves were announced in a company-wide internal e-mail sent by Steve Jobs, Apple's chairman, chief executive and co-founder, and first reported by the New York Times on Wednesday.

"This organizational refinement will focus our talent and resources even more precisely on our industry-leading Macintosh computers and the wildly successful iPod," an Apple spokesman said.

Since the iPod's introduction in October 2001, Apple has sold more than 3 million of the devices.