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“Mark Papermaster, Apple’s senior vice president for mobile devices, has left the Cupertino, Calif., company, an Apple spokesman said Saturday, declining to provide further details,” Kane and Sherr report. “Mr. Papermaster, 49 years old, had joined Apple just 15 months ago from International Business Machines Corp.”
“Exactly how much the problems with the iPhone 4 played in Mr. Papermaster’s exit is unclear. The iPhone 4, a key device for Apple, has been beset by issues such as antenna reception and delayed production of a white version of the gadget. Several people familiar with Mr. Papermaster’s situation said his departure was driven by a broader cultural incompatibility,” Kane and Sherr report. “Mr. Papermaster had lost the confidence of Mr. Jobs months ago and hasn’t been part of the decision-making process for some time, these people said. They added that Mr. Papermaster didn’t appear to have the type of creative thinking expected at Apple and wasn’t used to Apple’s corporate culture… One of these people also said Mr. Papermaster had difficulty maneuvering Apple’s internal politics.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we suspected.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lava_Head_UK” for the heads up.]
“One of these people also said Mr. Papermaster had difficulty maneuvering Apple’s internal politics.”
Or lack thereof compared to IBM?
It’d be cool if PaperMaster worked on PageMaker.
Apple: one of the few companies where the phrase “yeah, that’ll do – what’s the worst that can happen” is a shortcut to unemployment and possible ritual execution.
Mr. Papermaster might consider a career at Microsoft where a lack of creative thinking combined with complacency is positively encouraged.
An IBM group sponsored a project in my software development group at another firm. At semiannual project reviews at IBM, the head IBM guy would always stop to fasten down my labels, which I had always neglected to button down. That was a while back, and IBM must have loosened some, but still, IBM to Apple is culture shock.
make that lapels
Strange. At 8:30 AM, the only MDN take I saw on the linked article was “Snakebitten”.
The Daring Fireball article on this makes some good points.
@TheMacAdvocate
Strange. At 8:30 AM, the only MDN take I saw on the linked article was “Snakebitten”.
He who controls the blog, controls his own history.
IBM used to be a white shirt and tie organization, not a blue jeans and mock turtle neck organization.
Papermaster will become a paperhanger
Microsoft on the other hand is famous for hiring people with talent then not letting them use it.
Apple may be the only business in America where the phrases “good enough for government work” and “can’t see it from my house” lead directly to the exit.
I wonder, is Apple a guillotine or seppuku sort of place?
Papermaster kept trying to get bridge matches going. Everyone else was playing Frisbee.
I set this guy up for the fall when I told my engineers to go away when they came to me with the announcement that my revolutionary antenna design would not work.
Figured if they were right, and some kind of media frenzy broke out when the iP4 wouldn’t hold onto calls when you held onto the phone, I would just use Papermaster as the scapegoat. Genius.
I wonder about “antennegate” since I can (in Netherlands) touch my iPhone 4 wherever I want without any loss of WiFi or G3 reception. Never had any call disconnected.
COMING THIS SUMMER: Batman versus The Papermaster
I’d ask why MDN hasn’t banned you yet, but I already know it’s because any astroturfer worth their salt knows how to ban-evade by changing their IP.
Now, why they don’t just delete your bullshit… That’s kind of a head scratcher. It’s not like your comments have any content or something, they’re just lies punctuated by sad attempts to turn the words “lord jobs” into a meme. Maybe the webmaster has a warped sense of humour.
@ m159
Bingo.
The refreshing part, at least, is that MS is a casual, Old T-Shirt-with-Cheese-Puff-Stain-and-Don’t-Bother-Washing-Your-Hair type office.
MDN is dishonest to imply that according to the WSJ article, antennagate played no part in Papermaster’s departure. The article specifically quotes
“This guy came from IBM and he was in charge of iPhone 4 hardware, but IBM doesn’t have antenna technology,” said Brian Marshall, an analyst with Gleacher & Co. Added Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co., “It’s too coincidental not to be related to the antenna issues.”
as one possible reason.
Like I said in my comment about the first story. I’ve read that the number one reason people quit a job is issue with the boss. We should be glad Jobs is so focused he doesn’t care about hiring and working directly with sexy female contractors.
Who knows what really happened.
:’Nucrosoft lost confidence in Billy Balls months ago…but they are afraid to let him go because he has so much stock as does his friend Billy Goats.’
MDN: PLEASE, take down that revolting picture of Billy in the upper left corner. I love coming to MDN, but I have to turn my head quickly to avoid throwing up all over my MacBook Pro Keyboare!
Please…
will welcome Mark as HP’s new paperless master.
Amazing how these so called journalist are stating that its because of this FUD BS Antenna issue. Oh lets not forget the bloggers who think they are journalist. Their busy spamming the internet with FUD and more BS.
Meh, who knows? Maybe he was only good… on paper. Nyuk- nyuk.
The guy had no backbone and didn’t collaborate well
It seems strange that Apple would go to such great lengths to hire Mr. Papermaster and then dump him so unceremoniously just 15 months afterwards. But, I do think all this speculation about Papermaster’s alleged failings and the reason for his ouster is somewhat unfair. As a poster stated above, no one outside of Apple really knows what the hell happened here. It sounds like personality mismatches more than anything else. It’s probably tough to come in to a new company as an outsider executive, no matter how esteemed one’s reputation. Sorry it didn’t work out for all concerned.
Wow. The story choices lately have been Papermaster or Plastic Ono…
@ MCCFR,
Your last sentence should have been the MDN take.
It’s so funny for all non “Apple-Fanboy” readers to see how indoctrinated (i.e. blind) you all are, regardless of the article posted on MDN. Reading your totally biased “takes” on the articles is equivalent to having elitist democrats give their “opinions” on FOX News. Both are definitely NOT “fair and balanced”. The iPad sucks and the iPhone 4 is not worth the upgrade from a 3GS.
The timing of his departure was *purely* coincidental…
riiiiight…
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If I remember right Apple payed IBM allot to get Papermaster to join them not long ago. I even think IBM filed a lawsuit.
“Mr. Papermaster didn’t appear to have the type of creative thinking expected at Apple and wasn’t used to Apple’s corporate culture…”
Considering that he came from IBM I can entirely believe this.
Again we have the clash between the ENTREPRENEURIAL style of business, i.e. Apple, versus the decaying Marketing-As-Management style of business that helped drive the world into the ongoing Bush Depression. Be creative, be innovative, be customer driven or die.