Apple senior vice president Mark Papermaster, who oversaw hardware design of the problematic iPhone 4, has left the company — leading some to speculate that he's taking the fall for widely reported reception issues with the phone linked to its antenna design. Dubbed "Antennagate," the controversy overshadowed the iPhone 4's record sales, and led Apple to give away $175 million-worth of free phone cases — which effectively solved the problem — to satisfy disgruntled customers. Did this crisis provoke Papermaster's departure or was his long-standing "incompatibility" with Apple's business culture, as The Wall Street Journal suggests, the real trigger? (Watch Apple executives promote the iPhone 4)
There's more to this than Antennagate: Papermaster's alleged ousting "wasn't just about the iPhone 4's antenna," says Thomas Ricker in Engadget. Apple CEO Steve Jobs "knew about the risks of the antenna design as much as a year ago and it was his decision, not Papermaster's, to move forward with its development."
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