Sources: Scott Forstall forced out for not signing Maps apology letter

Shawn Knight

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More information on Apple’s recent executive management mix-up is beginning to surface. The New York Times and CNN Money are both reporting that Scott Forstall may have been forced out of Apple because he refused to put his name on a public apology letter issued late last month with regards to Apple Maps.

Instead, it was CEO Tim Cook’s name that ultimately appeared on the letter.

The story behind the story goes something like this. Forstall had been in charge of iOS software at Apple for several years. His abrasive attitude reportedly led to a number of high-level executives not liking the man.

When the Maps fiasco arose last month, Forstall allegedly thought the complaints regarding quality were overblown and thus refused to sign the aforementioned apology letter. Sources told The Verge that Forstall has a reputation of deflecting blame which may have been the case in this instance.

Either way, it appears that Apple took this opportunity to show him the door. In fact, rumor has it that some of his colleagues were so anxious to see him leave that they volunteered to take on extra responsibility within the company. As we reported yesterday, Eddy Cue will now be in charge of Maps and Siri while Craig Federighi will oversee iOS development. Jony Ive will be in charge of the human interface teams moving forward.

The timing perhaps couldn’t have been better for Apple considering the fact that Hurricane Sandy has shut down stock trading in the US for a second straight day. This is expected to give investors time to process the management changes instead of making swift decisions that could see share value tumble.

It will be interesting to see what changes are in store for iOS in version 7 and beyond. Ive reportedly wasn’t a fan of the direction that Forstall took the user interface in recent years.

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If he really is the jerk they say he is I'm surprised he made it this far. Usually these types of people don't become jerks overnight. You can see it coming long before they get out of business school.
 
"Forstall allegedly thought the complaints regarding quality were overblown"

Sounds like what most of the sheeple thought of the situation, even though the lack of quality was insulting.
A few buds of mine insisted that they would be fixed in a week and no harm done... -_-
 
He probably hated Google Maps and thought he could do better, NOT!
 
So he wouldn't put his name on the letter.... and here, little naive me thought that someone from management actually wrote the letter.

This guy's time was probably up when Steve died. I would imagine being a jerk at Apple was much more acceptable when the biggest jerk in the building was in charge.
 
Mmmmmm.... Is that burning Scapegoat I smell?? This smells like an excuse more then anything else. Im betting that CrApple Managment was just looking for a way to cover their butts to get rid of him. I wouldnt be surprised if it comes out that the whole maps project was setup to fail due to internal failings. More then likely they set him up to fail. WOW when a Apple goes bad, it really goes bad.
 
Every time something big happens related to Apple now I always ponder "What would Steve Jobs do/say/etc." Honestly, I think without Steve Apple is doomed to fail it's just a matter of time. Not because the rest of the staff isn't capable or what ever else, I'm sure they're all super talented. But because Steve had such an iron grip on every aspect of everything within Apple that it's pretty much like cutting the head off a chicken, it'll just run around senseless for a bit before it finally dies down.
 
"It will be interesting to see what changes are in store for iOS in version 7 and beyond. Ive reportedly wasn?t a fan of the direction that Forstall took the user interface in recent years."

The direction he took the interface? You mean nowhere? :D The basic interface looks pretty much the same since the original iPhone was first released...
 
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