Tony Fadell: Apple's Forstall 'got what he deserved'
The "father of the iPod" says that the ouster of iOS overseer Scott Forstall -- with whom he'd had his own clashes -- was the right thing for Apple.
In an interview with the BBC, Tony Fadell claims that Scott Forstall "got what he deserved" when Apple decided it was time for Forstall to go.
The end to Forstall's tenure at the Cupertino, Calif., company follows on from tensions in the boardroom and accusations of being uncooperative, which reached a head after the mobile software chief refused to sign a letter apologizing for problems with the Apple Maps feature in iOS 6.
The BBC put the Forstall question to Fadell -- known as the "father of the iPod" -- against the backdrop of "explosive" workplace clashes between the two men when they both were at Apple.
"Scott got what he deserved and we move on," Fadell told the BBC. "I think what happened a few weeks back was deserved and justified and it happened."
Forstall, now serving as an adviser to CEO Tim Cook, will be replaced in 2013 by Craig Federighi, who will be in control of both the iOS and OS X groups under one umbrella.
Fadell himself moved on from Apple several years back and is investing his energy in a different type of consumer gadget: the Nest Learning Thermostat." Saying that consumers want technology to make their world more convenient, he believes that giving people more control over their energy expenses could be a profitable avenue.
As for his former employer in general, Fadell had positive things to say. "Apple is in a great space, it has great products and there are amazing people at the company, and those people actually have a chance to have a firm footing now and continue the legacy Steve [Jobs] left."
Fadell discussed how Apple was once "a struggling PC manufacturer" before "Steve turned it around and made it the world-class company it is today." Making money from the iPod was a "bold move," he recounted -- a number of issues nearly scuppered the project, including the logistics of how to take a fragile hard drive and put it in your pocket without breaking.
