Apple Hires I.B.M. Veteran as Device Engineer

By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: November 4, 2008

Apple Inc. said Tuesday that it planned to hire a high-ranking I.B.M.technology executive to run its iPod and iPhone hardware engineering groups.

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Times Topic: Apple Inc.

Last week I.B.M. had filed suit against the executive, Mark Papermaster, the manager in charge of the company’s blade server business. I.B.M said Mr. Papermaster had signed an agreement that would prevent him from accepting a job with a competitor until one year after leaving the giant computer maker.

The executive whom Mr. Papermaster is replacing, Tony Fadell, senior vice president for the company’s iPod division, will stay at Apple in an advisory role to Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive.

Because Mr. Papermaster will have a more limited role as senior vice president, devices hardware engineering, Apple may believe that it will be able to easily reject the I.B.M. lawsuit. Apple also has a small business selling a server version of its computer systems that is aimed at corporate applications.

But Apple may also be interested in Mr. Papermaster’s processor design expertise. Earlier this year Apple purchased PA Semi Inc., a small microprocessor design firm that was developing microprocessors based on the I.B.M. Power design. At the time Mr. Jobs said Apple would use that expertise to design hardware for its iPhones and iPods.

Mr. Jobs’s choice of Mr. Papermaster, who until recently was a processor design expert at I.B.M. appears to be an intriguing gamble. An expert in high performance computing systems, he lacks a background in consumer manufacturing,

Until stepping aside this week Mr. Fadell had played a key role in building the company’s dominant iPod business and more recently the iPhone. Apple said last month that it sold more than 6.9 million iPhones in the most recent quarter, surpassing R.I.M., the dominant maker of smartphones.

Mr. Fadell joined Apple in 2001, first as a contractor designing the original iPod and then as an executive in the iPod group. He took over as senior vice president in the iPod division in 2006. Trained as a computer designer, Mr. Fadell once worked at the Apple spinoff General Magic, an early pioneer in hand-held computing. Before joining Apple, he briefly started his own firm, Fuse, to build consumer electronics products.

Apple also announced that Danielle Lambert, senior vice president for human resources, would leave the company. Mr. Lambert is married to Mr. Fadell, and the company said in a statement that the two were reducing their role at the company to spend more time with their young children.