As we well know, Tony Fadell, the former exec in charge of Apple’s iPod division, has stepped down for personal reasons and Apple has hired Mark Papermaster, the PowerPC chip guru in IBM’s hardware business.
We’ve been discussing the move and there are a few reasons for choosing someone from IBM to lead what is, in reality, an entertainment division. First, iPods are now essentially mini computers and devices like the iPhone and the Touch are running homegrown hardware – basically stripped down ARM chips made popular by PDAs from the turn of the century – and containing communications chips and flash memory for various suppliers. Next, you have issues with performance and battery life that only a hardcore hardware guru can attack with any intensity. The real goals, then, are for Papermaster to keep the chips flowing and to ensure that research and improvement is steady and, most importantly, secret.
This move also angered IBM who for years supplied Apple’s architecture and is now essentially out of the consumer hardware business except as behind-the-scenes producers of console chips. Some are even positing that Papermaster will be put in charge of Freescale, a chipmaker Apple is eying for takeover to add to P.A. Semi, which it already owns. IBM is now suing Apple and Papermaster for breach of contract.
“Mr. Papermaster’s employment by Apple is a violation of his agreement with IBM against working for a competitor should he leave IBM,” the company in a statement. “We will vigorously pursue this case in court.” The case was filed in the U.S. District Court in White Plains. N.Y.
Overall, what we have here is a move from a more creative position to what amounts to a logistical position – the sourcing of flash memory and processors for a growing portable entertainment market. Fadell made the iPod what it is while Papermaster has to keep the momentum going and ensure slow and steady improvements over the next few years.
Где скины скачать для блога ? Дайте ссылок плз…
Before investing in a chipmaker they should put all their focus on investing in a battery company. The iPhone baterry SUCKS!!!!
my money is on nvda buy out.
Thanks to this market mess I managed to pick up a lot of nvda shares at $6.33. Now let’s see what price Steve Jobs is willing to pay for nvda.
Tony Fadell is nothing but a fast talker who was in the right place at the right time.
Happy to see him go, the iPods have been stagnant for YEARS! Hopefully this is the
kick in the pants that department needs so badly.
Tony can go back to ‘consulting’ and tricking dumb execs into paying him to
tell them things that their real employees already understand in much better detail anyway.
They never learn. Isn’t using proprietary chips/hardware architecture what got them into trouble in the first place?
There is no “standard” chip solution for cell phones, at least not yet. Intel isn’t even in the market.
Oh boy, the iPod is now going to be a mini-computer.
Just what I want to do while driving and listening to music is to play sonic the hedgehog and lay out a spreadsheet.
What a bunch of sarcastic angry men commenting here… Sad. Really sad.
sould we expect any drastic change or is it just an announcement effect??
Apple leadership is behaving very smartly to keep its options open as technology shifts loom large on the horizon. Management that bets big on future technology gambles the money of investors and the positions of its employees. Apple is behaving smartly to keep its options open regardless of the future scenario – and that’s good news. Read more at http://www.thephoenixprinciple.com
It seems that federal judge say “no” to Apple.
http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-judge-orders-former-ibm-exec-to-stop-working-for-apple/