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iPod chief to leave Apple

Tom Krazit CNET News

Published: 04 Nov 2008 11:26 GMT

One of the fathers of the iPod, Tony Fadell, is leaving Apple after seven years spent inside the division that changed the company's fortunes.

Fadell (pictured) is to be replaced by former IBM executive Mark Papermaster, according to a report on Monday night by The Wall Street Journal. ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com first reported last week that Papermaster was set to leave IBM for a prominent position at Apple, although the nature of his role was unknown at that time.

It had been thought that Papermaster was set to assume a role leading chip design at Apple, given his status as one of IBM's mostly highly regarded experts on chip technology. However, according to the report, he will now assume responsibility for Apple's music-player division, which put Apple back on the map in the early part of this decade and continues to play a pivotal role in the company's fortunes.

The report said Fadell was leaving for personal reasons, but did not say what lies next for the Apple veteran. An Apple representative did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Fadell has been part of Apple's iPod group since 2001, as the inaugural member of the iPod engineering team, according to his official company biography. He was promoted to head of the division in 2006, succeeding Jon Rubenstein, and was credited by Fortune as the man behind the idea of a handheld music player combined with a digital music store.

During Fadell's tenure, the iPod grew from a curiosity into the profit engine that paved the way for Apple's renaissance in personal computers and its entry into mobile computing. The company sold 54.7 million iPods during its last fiscal year, which ended in September.

IPod growth has stagnated of late as saturation has arrived in the mature economies of the world. Still, Apple has held 70 percent market share in the US for a long time and shows no signs of giving up any ground.

Credit: Report: Tony Fadell, iPod chief, to leave Apple from CNET News