RSSApple's iPod chief steps down, iPhone sales outlook follows suit
By Tim Conneally | Published November 4, 2008, 2:14 PM
Senior Vice President of Apple's iPod division, Tony Fadell has stepped down from his leadership position, and is being replaced by former IBM exec Mark Papermaster.
Fadell is regarded as the progenitor of the iPod ecosystem, bringing to Apple in 2001 the idea of a portable media player with its own dedicated online marketplace. Though The Wall Street Journal says he will be keeping a consultancy position, Fadell's Apple Bio has been removed.
Fadell's replacement, Mark Papermaster, was an architect of the PowerPC 630 chip in the '90s, and later was put in charge of the blade server division. IBM reportedly sued Papermaster for violating his agreement with the company by taking up employment with Apple.
As the departure of a portable device guru is greeted with the arrival of a chip design and server guru, the Mac rumor mill has begun to churn out speculation about the future of the iPod, the device responsible for Apple's current strength.
Meanwhile, the future of the iPhone looks to hold decreased production. This week, Apple reportedly cut its calendar fourth quarter outlook for iPhone production. Analyst Craig Berger said production of the device could drop as much as 40% from the last quarter, with even more coming in the following quarter. It is uncertain that this reduction is a scaling back of a previously increased production rate or the sign of decreasing demand.
more spam. where's the admin when you need them?
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|it sounds like Fedell was fired because the sales of iPod is down. I think the consultancy position is just a empty position for him to save his face. It looks like it is tough to work for Apple with that takes no prisoner thinking. When the sales is down, the person responsible for the sales is being let go. ouch... As for Papermaster, I wonder what he can contribute to iPod division. His previous experiences have nothing to do with iPod or anywhere close to it. I wonder what Steve Job is thinking..... maybe Steve hires Papermaster to try to design the next generation of iPod with higher tech. spec. If that is true, the future of iPod would be more than than digital walkman.
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|Fired?
And the developer is in charge of sales?
That happens to be called "marketing".
And as one is the head of a division does NOT mean that they handle all of the design functions!
You might want to discover the role and scope of such a position within an Enterprise.
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|The iPod market is effectively saturated. Just like the cell phone market before it.
Essentially everyone that wants one has one. The remaining market development will be in the churn - the selling of new models to replace older models.
Nothing new, nothing unusual, just the usual product and market lifecycle curves.
But its always amusing to look those such as that below who fail to understand the drivers in the upward growth portion of the lifecycle as well as the market behavior in the mature portions of the lifecycle curve.
Likewise sales of the iPhone should not be expected to continue at launch sales rates. Just as other phone manufacturers are still suffering from market contractions and dealing with the same market saturation issues.
What will be interesting will be to see how Apple attempts to increasingly converge technologies in the future.
And to that end, the iPhone seems the likely mobile ubiquitously connected computing platform to undergo increasing convergence. And it will be interesting to see how they move to increase the computing power while having to be cognizant of the limited power cycle of 3G access.
And Power offers little help there! As they(IBM's Power)continues to scale upwards supporting a much different niche then the ultraportable low power market. After all, the G5 was almost 2 generations behind the Power lifecycle curve and IBM wouldn't waste resources in trying to further develop what was already an obsolete market niche.
IBM's concerns over losing execs are more driven simply by control and ire issues at execs leaving rather than technological fears.
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|The fight or flight instinct is now in full gear in Cupertino as the intelligent one's among them jump ship in a desperate effort to flee the soon to be burning wreckage of yet another failed product launch. iPhone 2.0 was a flop. MobileMe was and is still a complete disaster. Apple TV? Don't be ashamed you haven't heard of it. No-one's aver actually used it.
Competition for the iPhone is now becoming solid and every bit as functional, if not more so than the iPhone could ever hope to be.
The initial release of the Android powered G1 is making a killing. New phones are soon to appear that will make iPhone users trash their "pseudo-intellectual" phones for true Smartphones that are not locked to a specific vendor or software set.
This is only the beginning. The End is near for Apple.
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|wow i remember the same type of report coming from an IBM team member regarding Apple; then Steve Jobs stepped in an the company took a turn around. Your right about compeition over the iphone yet without this we wouldn't be where we are now. As for the end of Apple you are entited to your opinion but this is the least of Apple's concerns as they still record legit profit unlike some other companies who fudge the numbers or lie to their consumers. I will continue to support Apple. Without them a world with just clone machines would be a disaster.
Did you forget that we are at the begining of a global recession and at the end my monies are on Apple coming through better than some of the other companies.
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|(oh it's the other one... didn't even read :)
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|You read either of them?? ;)
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|Only skimming to determine which specific product to comment upon.
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