Apple Exec Mark Papermaster Leaves, Probably Because Of Antennagate (AAPL)

papermaster

The iPhone 4 antennagate has claimed its first executive.

Mark Papermaster, Apple SVP for devices hardware engineering, has left the company, the New York Times reports.

The Times doesn't know if he was ousted or he left of his own accord. Considering he was in charge of the iPhone hardware, it seems likely he was ousted.

John Gruber at Daring Fireball, who is well sourced in Apple, says, "From what I’ve heard, it’s clear he was canned." He adds that on July 23 an Apple insider told him Papermaster was, "the guy responsible for the antenna."

While Apple tried its best to deflect criticism over the iPhone 4's antenna problem, the issue has marred an otherwise very successful product launch.

Papermaster joined Apple in 2008 from IBM. IBM sued Apple over the hiring of Papermaster, so you know this wasn't just another executive. Clearly Apple thought very highly of him at one point. But that's all in the past now.

Bob Mansfield, previously solely responsible for the Macintosh hardware division is taking over Papermaster's responsibilities.

Here's the official bio for Papermaster from Apple's site. Apple already pulled it, but this is from Google cache:

Mark Papermaster is Apple's senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering. He leads the iPod and iPhone engineering teams, and reports directly to Apple's CEO.

Papermaster has 25 years of product and technology experience, and was previously a vice president at IBM responsible for blade development including x86, POWER, storage blades, chassis, network electronics and associated ecosystem. He started his career in application-specific IC development circuit design at IBM’s Microelectronics Division, and had technical and management assignments in quality, CAD tool applications, and microprocessors.

Papermaster has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont in 1988. He is active with the University of Texas where he is a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Council.

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