Scott Forstall was reportedly asked to resign after refusing to sign Maps letter of apology

Earlier today, we were shocked at the news that Apple’s Senior Vice President for iOS, Scott Forstall, is leaving Cupertino along with retail chief John Browlett. While Apple didn’t explain the reason for his leaving, a report from the Wall Street Journal says that Scott Forstall was actually asked to leave the company after refusing to sign a letter apologizing for the recent shortcomings of Apple’s Maps app. According to the publication, in spite of the problems its new mobile mapping software was facing, Forstall saw no need for Apple to apologize.

“Mr. Forstall argued that the company could address the outcry without apologizing as Apple had done when it shipped iPhones with faulty antennas a few years ago,” a source told the WSJ. Tim Cook, on the other hand, strongly disagreed and eventually signed the letter of apology instead. Forstall reportedly sent an email to Apple’s iOS software team expressing his dismay that the group wasn’t “working on enough big ideas in mobile software.” Scott Forstall, a protégé of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, came from NeXT and is highly regarded by many as one of the original architects of the Mac OS X operating system.

Gene Ryan Briones
Categories: Apple