Major shake-up in Apple leadership

Californian vendor Apple on Monday announced an executive reshuffle, which will see the departure of Scott Forstall, one of the original architects of the Mac OS X operating system and head of the team responsible for the software platform at the heart of the iconic iPhone device.

Apple announced that Forstall will be leaving next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim. The company did not expand on his reasons for leaving, but rumours suggest he was given the push in the wake of the Maps debacle and issues with Siri.

Additionally, John Browett is leaving after only five months as head of retail. A search for a new head of Retail is underway and in the interim, the retail team will report directly to Cook. Again, the rumourmongers suggest that Browett made some serious mistakes in his short tenure and was pushed rather than jumped.

This all smacks of some serious tension at the top of the company’s management tree and leaves Apple without a veteran software lead or a retail chief in the run up to the holiday system.

In other movements, famed designer, Jony Ive, who was responsible for everything from the iMac to the iPhone and iPad design is now going “to provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design.”

Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, will take on the additional responsibility of Siri and Maps, placing all online services in one group along with iTunes, the App Store, the iBookstore and iCloud.

Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering, will lead both iOS and OS X development. While Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of Technologies, will lead a new group, which combines all of Apple’s wireless teams across the company in one organisation and will also include the semiconductor team.