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Apple exec departs in wake of ‘antennagate’

by Sarah Griffiths on 9 August 2010, 10:24

Tags: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

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Departure drama

The Apple exec responsible for iPhone hardware has left in the wake of antenna gate, with the firm refusing to say whether he was forced out of his position.

According to The New York Times, it is not clear whether head of Mac hardware engineering Mark Papermaster left of his own accord or was forced out of the firm, although an anonymous source said Papermaster was pushed out because of a ‘series' of hardware issues including iPod Touch problems.

Bob Mansfield, currently senior VP for Macintosh hardware engineering will reportedly take over from Papermaster and already overseas key iPhone components such as its A4 chip, touch screens and retina display.

Apple reportedly poached Papermaster from IBM where he had enjoyed a 25 year career. The chip giant even sued him over a noncompete agreement to try and stop him from joining Apple but the case was settled after Papermaster told federal court he had not let any trade secrets slip. 

It remains unclear whether Papermaster's head has rolled as a result of Apple's handling of the iPhone 4's antenna problem. 

Blogger John Gruber said a source told him the bug for ‘death grip' which results in signal loss ‘was filed two years ago'. 

Gruber said: "This is not a problem they didn't catch, or caught too late," indicating the external antenna design perhaps predated Papermaster's arrival at Apple.  Although he also acknowledged there was probably plenty of time to fix the problem under Papermaster's watch.

HEXUS Forums :: 10 Comments

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Posted by [GSV]Trig - Mon 09 Aug 2010 11:07
Surely he walked, why would he be pushed for a problem thats not a problem that effects every other smartphone on the market?
Posted by sawyen - Mon 09 Aug 2010 11:30
'[GSV
Trig;1963389']Surely he walked, why would he be pushed for a problem thats not a problem that effects every other smartphone on the market?

Now Apple is not only terrible to their factory workers, Job's also ready to point the blame on his own execs as well.

TBH, I'd hate to work with someone like Jobs. And if there's someone with Job's attitude in my workplace, i'd go crazy…

They best hope to have a strong bladder and not walk to the toilet alone…
Posted by TheAnimus - Mon 09 Aug 2010 11:35
I love the excuse been punted round that its about the lack of the white iPhone.

So its ok to churn out a defective phone, but not been able to churn out the defective phone in white. GTFO.

Got to love Apple, I think their fans really do them a lot of harm!
Posted by Saracen - Mon 09 Aug 2010 15:20
sawyen
Now Apple is not only terrible to their factory workers, Job's also ready to point the blame on his own execs as well.
….
I'm no fan of Steve Jobs, but that might be a tad unfair. It's hard to see how the exec in charge of hardware isn't responsible for hardware problems.

To be honest, nobody except senior Apple insiders know quite what the sequence of events was, and amid the furore, it's quite hard to separate what appears to be the few grains of truth from the mountains of chaff.

It seems pretty clear that there is a problem with the iPhone, and it seems pretty clear to me at least that there should not have been. Someone screwed up, and while the buck may ultimately rest with Jobs, you won't hire dog and then try to do all the barking yourself. If you half a senior exec in charge of iPhone hardware, then you're going to leave him to be responsible for iPhone hardware.

Now maybe he reported back to Jobs, and Jobs took the decision to go ahead anyway and now it's blown up, Jobs needs a scapegoat. Welcome to corporate life. But, on the the hand, maybe the nature and perhaps existence of the problem was kept from Jobs because someone else decided it wasn't a real issue …. and has subsequently been proven wrong. Or it could be one of many other scenarios, many of them in-between.

Either way, given the nature of the problem, and the bad PR it's led to it doesn't seem unreasonable to get rid of the exec responsible for that area, and especially if they knew of the problem, decided to bluff it out and didn't warn the boss.

As for how it's been handled since, trying to bluff it out looks to me to have been a bad call, and Jobs may yet have to answer for that to the board and to shareholders …. but I doubt he's in any real danger.
Posted by crossy - Mon 09 Aug 2010 16:11
'[GSV
Trig;1963389']Surely he walked, why would he be pushed for a problem thats not a problem that effects every other smartphone on the market?
:offtopic: If your repeating the oft-quoted “fact” from SJ that you can death grip every other smart phone, then that's just pants - I've used the iPhone4-grip-of-death on a Nokia N95 and a Sony Xperia X10. Both worked fine - so unless the death-grip is some weird combo that I've not come across yet - then they're resistant to this issue. Okay, I'll be the first to admit losing one bar worth of signal if I'm very careful to hold the N95 tight in a particular way, but that's not the same as losing the signal altogether. Of course, this is all imho, so ymmv. ;)

Getting back on-topic - I don't agree. If Mr Papermaster knew about the drawback with the iPhone4 two years ago (as the article says) then if I was SJ then I would have fired his a** too. Apple is supposed to be all about unassailably “superior” products and - with this unaddressed issue - the iPhone4 is markedly inferior to the “lesser” kit. :rolleyes:

Still, I don't suppose that it'll stop Apple selling millions, nor preventing Five's Gadget Show from electing it “Gadget of the Year”. Again, if I was SJ, then I'd just say “sorry”, issue the special case, then move on and do a small redesign for next year. Hassle over!

Bob

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