Monday, November 22, 2004, 03:00 pm

Head of Mac hardware leaves Apple

By Katie Marsal

Another week, another top level exec departs from Apple's Macintosh division.

On Monday, November 8th, the vice president of Apple's Mac support unit left the company. Exactly one week later, Tim Bucher, head of Apple's Mac hardware engineering, did the same.

Word of Bucher's departure began to spread late-last week, though Apple at the time would not immediately confirm the report to AppleInsider. However, CNet News.com was able to receive confirmation from Apple earlier this morning.

"Apple has not named a successor for Bucher but said a team of workers is overseeing engineering efforts and reporting to executive vice president Tim Cook, the leader of Apple's Mac unit and also the head of the company's overall sales and operations."

The team reportedly consist of Apple's industrial design chief, Jonathan Ive, along with Bob Mansfield, Dan Riccio and "someone recently hired to lead the electrical-engineering group, whose name Apple did not release."

Bucher was in charge of Mac system development until May, when he was promoted to head all Mac hardware engineering, as former chief Jon Rubinstein shifted gears to head up the company's new iPod division.

Last week, AppleInsider reported on the departure of Mark Wilhelm, Apple's former vice president of Apple Care customer support.