Following Apple’s confirmation that its Senior Vice President of Technologies Bob Mansfield would be leaving the executive team but continuing to work on special projects at the company, there has been much speculation about what the move meant behind the scenes at Apple. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber chimes in today claiming that people familiar with the situation say the move is simply part of the transition started when Mansfield originally retired as SVP of Hardware:
There’s nothing punitive with Mansfield’s role change, nor health problems or anything like that. Just a more focused role on certain new products. His un-retirement as a senior vice president last year was always intended to be transitional, not permanent… Outside the company, we were surprised Mansfield’s return as an SVP turned out to be temporary. Inside Apple, they seem surprised we’d read “backstage intrigue” into his de-listing from their executive ranks.
Gruber adds that “Mansfield is well-liked at all levels within the company and truly is working on special projects (read: new products).” There was some speculation that perhaps something else was going on behind the scenes that lead to Mansfield’s removal from the executive team but, according to Gruber, that’s not the case.
Apple is yet to announce a new head for its Technologies group, or confirm whether or not Mansfield will continue to lead the team while working on his special projects. We recently reported that Mansfield is working on upcoming Apple wearable devices.
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he goes into more detail on http://daringfireballwithcomments.com