The father of MacBook Air steps back from Apple's senior management: shifting focus to chips

On the morning of August 3, Beijing time, Apple announced that Bob Mansfield, the senior vice president of technology known as the "father of MacBook Air," has left the executive team. According to 9to5Mac citing insiders, this is because Mansfield wishes to focus on chipset design and future products rather than company management affairs.

Apple stated that Mansfield will work on "special projects" under the leadership of CEO Tim Cook. Sources revealed that his previous responsibilities as senior vice president of technology will be divided between two other senior vice presidents: Dan Riccio, who oversees hardware, and Jeff Williams, who manages operations.

Riccio currently handles antenna design for Apple's mobile devices and hardware engineering for all WiFi components in their products. Interestingly, when Cook announced Mansfield’s retirement back in mid-2012, he mentioned that Apple's antenna and wireless teams would be transferred to Riccio's oversight.

In his role as senior vice president of technology, Mansfield was also responsible for Apple's special projects engineering team. In his new position, Mansfield will continue to work on these special projects, including the development of the iWatch smartwatch. Williams will assist in managing these teams.

After Riccio took charge of antenna design, the hardware engineering for iPhone and iPad products will become more seamless. This means all component engineering will be led by one unified leader instead of being split between the technology and hardware teams. On the other hand, Williams' contributions to special projects will be crucial for the commercial success of these products in the future. He previously managed Apple's suppliers and factory partners, ensuring products were manufactured to standard.

In a prior announcement appointing Mansfield as senior vice president of technology, Cook said: "Mansfield will lead a new technology group that will consolidate all of our wireless teams into one entity to drive innovation in this area to even higher levels. This group will include all of our semiconductor teams, which have very ambitious plans." Mansfield will still bear a significant portion of these responsibilities moving forward.

In his new role, Mansfield will concentrate on chip development while delegating administrative and managerial duties to Riccio and Williams. For a long-time Apple executive who is already wealthy and attempted retirement last year, reducing managerial tasks to focus on projects of interest makes perfect sense. Similarly, it benefits Apple to keep Mansfield involved rather than losing him entirely. Given rumors that Apple's Mac computers may gradually move away from Intel processors, such personnel adjustments seem reasonable.

It appears that Apple does not plan to appoint a new senior vice president of technology. In fact, this position was specifically created for Mansfield last autumn. According to sources, Apple did not explain the recent management changes within the technology group, but has clarified the new division of executive responsibilities to all employees. Sources indicated that there were signs of this personnel adjustment months ago, with rumors suggesting that Mansfield would primarily focus on chipsets going forward. (Wegin)