It appears that Antennagate is still causing a shake-up in the world of Apple. According to the New York Times, Mark Papermaster has left the company. Papermaster was the lead executive in charge of hardware for the iPhone. His position will be taken over by Bob Mansfield, the Senior VP of Macintosh hardware engineering.
Mansfield is no stranger to the iPhone, however. He already oversees the A4, retina display and touch screen projects, according to Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling.
Papermaster had previously held positions within IBM, leaving for Apple in October of 2008. His position at Apple was one that directly reported to CEO Steve Jobs. Papermaster found himself in court late in 2008, as IBM alleged that he had misappropriated trade secrets of IBM which fell under a noncompete agreement that he had signed with the company.
There is no clarification, at the moment, as to whether Papermaster left Apple of his own accord or if he was removed from his position. Regardless, it doesn’t reflect well on Apple and shows that there were perhaps deeper issues involved with the antenna problems than Apple has been willing to admit.
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