iPhone Hardware Chief Quit/Fired

[Paul Daniel Ash]

The Apple executive in charge of iPhone hardware development has left the company following the "Antennagate" debacle. Miguel Helft at the New York Times wrote that he was able to get Mark Papermaster on his iPhone, but that he "declined to comment" on whether he left voluntarily or was asked to resign. But John Gruber at Daring Fireball, who has a broad range of sources inside Apple, says they are all telling him it's "clear he was sacked."

Papermaster joined Apple at the end of 2008, heading up the iPod and iPhone development efforts as Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering, He came from IBM where he was head of their blade server division, and his transition to Cupertino was marked by a contentious court case that tested the limits of non-compete agreements. Papermaster said the work he'd be doing on mobile devices at Apple was different enough from the work he did at IBM that the nondisclosure agreement he signed with IBM didn't apply. Big Blue disagreed and took Papermaster to court. A judge decided he could stay with Apple, but only if he agreed to testify twice under oath - in July and October of last year - that he wasn't giving away IBM's secrets.

At the time Papermaster came on board, Apple's Devices Hardware Engineering division was still digesting the PA Semi engineers that had been brought on board to design what would become the A4 chip. Later reports, though, indicated that the PA Semi guys weren't able to contribute a lot to the design effort, which was largely done by Apple's own VLSI team and recruits from another Apple acquisition called Intrinsity. As the division's focus shifted from the successful launch of the iPad to the iPhone 4, Papermaster became known at Apple as "the guy responsible for the antenna." Originally touted as an innovative design, the sleek stainless-steel band around the glass iPhone 4 soon became the focus of controversy as reports of reception problems mounted. One of Gruber's Apple sources said that the "antenna guys used to have a big chip on their shoulder," adding "No more.”

Papermaster's replacement will be Bob Mansfield, the Apple Senior Vice President of Macintosh Hardware Engineering.

Source: Daring Fireball

[whereswaldo]

Does anyone actually think he quit? No, he was obviously fired

[wakka102]

epic fail >_<

[shaileshashar]

Well for such a big design flaw, yes he should be sacked !

[tudtran]

Omg that is crazy

[l3olsa]

Reply if you think apple is cheap

[wookiee2cu]

Sucks to be him but he's just the scapegoat. They knew there was antenna issues well before they launched the product and the fact that they were advertising and showing the bumpers during the product announcement in June shows they knew. Apple was greedy and launched the product anyways. I don't have any reception issues so it's not an issue for me but I feel sorry for the people it does affect.

[RICO_]

Reply if you think apple is cheap

They're not cheap. They just hit a big bump in the road. And although they may have handled the situation poorly, this phone is by far one of the most solid and well-crafted phones i've seen in a long time. They just have the issue with the antenna....but structurally it doesn't feel flimsy and cheap like alot of other phones out there.

[whereswaldo]

They're not cheap. They just hit a big bump in the road. And although they may have handled the situation poorly, this phone is by far one of the most solid and well-crafted phones i've seen in a long time. They just have the issue with the antenna....but structurally it doesn't feel flimsy and cheap like alot of other phones out there.

definatly

[99 Problems]

He obviously decided his true calling was working with paper and went to join Dunder Mifflin...

[SkeleDork]

He obviously decided his true calling was working with paper and went to join Dunder Mifflin...

Lmfao!

[CMOSlabs]

Nice to see a exec get canned. They usually blame it on a Engineer, that usually told them about the problem in the first place.

[zYxMa]

They had to blame somebody for it. Whether he resigned or was fired.. who gives a f*ck??

[zozodouce]

he should be fired.

[zmanforever]

Hopefully this design flaw will never happen again.

No big deal to me total 5 iPhone 4's in my household case fixed problem, end of my story sorry.

[macsoldier]

Damn what a hell of a time to lose your job, I guess it holds true that you do a million things right and one thing wrong and your crap. At the same time somebody had to be held responsible for the "antennagate". A man in his position doenst have room for that much error. Overall Id say im glad to see somebody is held for there actions/decisions.

[Shishir G]

I hope Steve jobs gets home and plugs his iphone into his computer it bursts into flames and the fire gets on him and coincidentally he had oil near him so his whole house burned down to flames but his wife and kids if he has any survived and they lived happily without steve jobs and the world was normal once again.
The End
anyone like my story?

[bsltiger]

Apple to iPhone 4 owners:

"We apologise for the fault in the antennas. Those responsible have
been sacked."

[UiK]

Are iPhones that are being built now going to have the same problem? Or have they already implemented the new design
Into their new devixes?

[awesomeSlayer]

Hmmm...let's see what will Bob do with the iPhone.