The WSJ in a report said the announced departure of Scott Forstall (senior vice president of iOS Software at Apple) from the fruity giant was because of his refusal to sign an apology letter about the Apple Maps launch fiasco.
Apple announced yesterday that Forstall, who had been with the company ever since it acquired NeXT in 1997, would end his responsibilities in April 2013, serving as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook. Forstall has in the past been responsible for Mac OS X releases in Apple, and is considered one of the architects of the Mac OS X and Aqua user interfaces.
The company said Craig Federighi would take Forstall’s place next year, taking care of both iOS and OS X divisions. Tim Cook had apologized to the public about Apple Maps, famously asking customers to use third-party alternative in the interim.
Apart from his refusal to sign the apology letter over the Apple Maps debacle, the WSJ reports that Apple fired Forstall because he also had been considered problematic and uncooperative by other company executives, and apt to refer to his close relationship to Steve Jobs, whom he worked with at NeXT.
The WSJ also claims Forstall had created further strife in the company when he recently complained about the lack of innovation in the iOS team, saying it “wasn’t working on enough big ideas in mobile software.”
Source: WSJ