Katie MarsalApple declined to comment on the story, but the financial paper cited people familiar with the matter as saying the executive will be replaced by Mark Papermaster, a top chip designer recently recruited from IBM among much controversy.
Fadell joined Apple as the first member of its iPod hardware engineering team in 2001 and was promoted to vice president of iPod engineering in 2004. He's served as the senior vice president of Apple's iPod division since April 2006.
Back in the 1990s, Fadell started a company called Fuse, which aimed to produce a new array of consumer electronics devices for the masses. One such product was a hard disk-based digital music player.
When Fuse ran out of funding, Fadell explored the possibility of developing his gadgets for another company. He initially joined RealNetworks in 2000, but left just six weeks later. The next company he approached was Apple.
While presiding over the iPod boom, Fadell was also instrumental in the development of the first iPhone and oversaw other smaller products during his tenure at the company, including the iSight.
Fadell's big break came on October 14, 2005, when Apple announced that he would replace the retiring Jon Rubinstein as Senior Vice President of the iPod Division.
Fadell has filed more than 20 patents for his work, several of which have been covered (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) by AppleInsider.
According to the Journal, Fadell plans to take time off after leaving Apple but may still keep a role at the company as a consultant.
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24 Comments
Fadell shopped the idea of the iPod around silicon valley and no one was interested, but Apple said yes. The rest as they say; is history.
Fadell shopped the idea of the iPod around silicon valley and no one was interested, but Apple said yes. The rest as they say; is history.
I thought it was iTunes that made the iPod. There were tons of MP3 players around long before the iPod. What did he have to do with iTunes? Let's not re-write history. Unless you mean he invented the click-wheel?
I thought it was iTunes that made the iPod. There were tons of MP3 players around long before the iPod. What did he have to do with iTunes? Let's not re-write history. Unless you mean he invented the click-wheel?
The iTunes store and the seamless integration with a MP3 player was his concept.
The iTunes store and the seamless integration with a MP3 player was his concept.
Interesting- not something I would normally equate with hardware engineering.
Didn't this news come out a month or two back? It was a slow transition period thing if I recall correctly.