iPhone chief leaves Apple following controversy

Apple’s chief iPhone engineer Mark Papermaster has left the company, fuelling speculation he’s a victim of the controversy that marred the recent launch of the iPhone 4.

Papermaster has left for undisclosed reasons, 16 months after joining Apple from IBM as senior VP of devices hardware engineering, to oversee the development of its iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

His departure comes soon after the company had to publicly apologise to iPhone 4 users over connectivity problems with the device (nma.co.uk 19 July 2010). Users complained that the device would regularly drop calls when held in a certain position.

The problem was deemed so severe that, in a rare move for Apple, it offered device owners a full cash refund within 30 days of purchase or a free case to improve its signal reception.

An Apple spokesman told The New York Times, “Mr Papermaster is leaving the company and Bob Mansfield, senior VP of Macintosh hardware engineering, is assuming his responsibilities.”

This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk