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Bob Mansfield's Return to Apple Reportedly Influenced by Scott Forstall's Departure

Thursday November 1, 2012 7:17 am PDT by Eric Slivka
AllThingsD offers a look at the back-and-forth situation with Apple executive Bob Mansfield, who announced his retirement as hardware chief in late June only to rescind the move two months later in order to work on special projects under CEO Tim Cook. With this week's management changes, Mansfield is now heading up a new "Technologies" division and has committed to remaining at the company for at least two more years.

AllThingsD notes that Mansfield was indeed serious about retiring earlier this year and was enticed to stay on in an advisory capacity to ease the transition. But his all-in commitment to head the new Technologies division was reportedly influenced in no small part by the impending departure of iOS chief Scott Forstall.
As one source close to the company told AllThingsD, “The timing of Bob’s return is not coincidental.”

To begin, Mansfield was not a fan of Forstall’s confrontational management style, and sources said he generally tried to avoid the iOS exec. Indeed, Bloomberg last year reported that Mansfield would meet with Forstall only if Cook was present to mediate. I’ve heard many similar stories.

“It wasn’t a him-or-me situation,” one source said of Mansfield’s return and Forstall’s ouster. “But, put it this way, I think Bob was much more willing to commit to two more years once he knew Scott was on his way out.”
Mansfield is just one of several senior Apple executives taking on new roles in the restructuring, with design guru Jony Ive adding software design to his existing hardware design responsibilities, Eddy Cue picking up Siri and Maps, and Craig Federighi adding iOS to his OS X responsibilities.

Tags: Scott Forstall, Bob Mansfield
[ 157 comments ]


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koolmagicguy
90 months ago
Hey MacRumors,

Have you considered making an Apple drama forum?

Thanks.
Rating: 37 Votes
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KPOM
90 months ago
I'm not surprised by this at all. It seems that Tim Cook decided that Jony Ive + Bob Mansfield were more valuable to the company than Scott Forstall. The whole "un-retirement" thing seemed orchestrated.

On top of that, it's worth pointing out that Mansfield signed an apology letter over the EPEAT matter. Perhaps Tim Cook's theme is that since none of the executives left is Steve Jobs, he won't tolerate Steve Jobs-like egos.
Rating: 22 Votes
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MattG
90 months ago

Hey MacRumors,

Have you considered making an Apple drama forum?

Thanks.


I would totally read that.

Wow, who knew Forstall was so disliked? I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens with Apple's products over the next 2-3 years, now that there seems to be less divisiveness in the company.


Hopefully at the very least, consistency in UI between the various apps and parts of iOS. That stitched-leather thing...*shudder*
Rating: 16 Votes
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Tankmaze
90 months ago
Got nothing to say but best wishes for scott forstall and his future endeavours.
Rating: 16 Votes
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nfl46
90 months ago
It's clear now that Scott was only kept because Steve liked him. Thank Goodness Steve highly recommended Tim and not Scott.
Rating: 14 Votes
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coder12
90 months ago
Bob is my favorite Apple Executive, hopefully he'll present during the next keynote :)
Rating: 14 Votes
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macchiato2009
90 months ago
conclusion of the story: everybody hates Forstall now that Jobs is no longer here to keep him :cool:
Rating: 13 Votes
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Chaszmyr
90 months ago
Wow, who knew Forstall was so disliked? I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens with Apple's products over the next 2-3 years, now that there seems to be less divisiveness in the company.
Rating: 12 Votes
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BornAgainMac
90 months ago
Working lots of hours and high stress contributes to many heated arguments there. I can understand someone wanting to just retire from it. That Bob guy seems like a cool person.
Rating: 12 Votes
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KPOM
90 months ago

Wow, who knew Forstall was so disliked? I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens with Apple's products over the next 2-3 years, now that there seems to be less divisiveness in the company.


According to the NY Times article, there could be some UI changes coming to iOS 7.
Rating: 12 Votes

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