Tony Fadell ("Father of iPod") Leaves Apple

[MacRumors]

The Wall Street Journal reports that Tony Fadell, the senior vice president of the iPod Division at Apple, is leaving the company for personal reasons.

Fadell has been credited as the "father" of the iPod and also was part of the team involved in the development of the iPhone. According to a 2004 Wired profile, Fadell was an independent contractor and hardware expert who came up with the idea for the iPod and eventually approached Apple:

"Tony's idea was to take an MP3 player, build a Napster music sale service to complement it, and build a company around it," Knauss said. "Tony had the business idea."

Knauss said Fadell left Philips and set himself up as an independent contractor to shop the idea around. Knauss said Fadell approached several companies and was turned away by all of them, except for Apple.

As an interesting historical footnote, Fadell approached and briefly worked at RealNetworks before he joined Apple, suggesting that the iPod's history might have been dramatically different. Apple released the iPod on October 23rd, 2001. The iPod is credited for much of Apple's financial success over the following years.

Article Link: Tony Fadell ("Father of iPod") Leaves Apple

[FrankieTDouglas]

It feels like the iPod has been around for much longer than it actually has.

[iCantwait]

oh Tony, i pine for you

[Ade-iMac-177]

My god!
imagine if someone had taken the idea before Apple.
No iPod and so probably no iPhone - many Mac switchers wouldn't have experienced the clean user experience of the iPod and tried a Mac. Also no iTunes so no apple TV.
Apple wouldn't be in trouble because they were having huge success with the iMac and iBook but it would be nothing like it is today without the iPod.

Sorry to hear Tony is leaving - we all have a lot to thank him for

[koobcamuk]

I wonder if he likes firewire.

[svndmvn]

Originally Posted by koobcamuk

I wonder if he likes firewire.

or gloss? I wonder why he left, is he just old? or is it because he loved the fatty nano?
doesn't look old http://images.google.com/images?clie...=1&sa=N&tab=wi

[kenzbud]

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Best of luck to him. Right idea at the right time.

[aznkid25]

the interesting thing about this is his replacement: Mark Papermaster appears to be the named successor assuming IBM's lawyers don't put a stop to Apple's plans.

[ogun7]

Was anyone able to get to the complete article? I want to know if they expand on why he left.

[xDYLANx]

part of me doesn't want to accept that an internal Apple designer didn't come up with the iPod...meh oh well

[Jarra]

I always love these type of stories, where someone comes up with what turns out to be a brilliant idea which seems so simple. What a brilliant man!

Imagine how the people feel who knocked him back initially. They would have kicked themselves into the next decade. Imagination and innovation is so vital. Keep an open mind and explore!!

[pfml07]

what a dude

[Saladinos]

Originally Posted by Jarra

I always love these type of stories, where someone comes up with what turns out to be a brilliant idea which seems so simple. What a brilliant man!

Imagine how the people feel who knocked him back initially. They would have kicked themselves into the next decade. Imagination and innovation is so vital. Keep an open mind and explore!!

That said, do you think any company except Apple could have made the iPod work? Apple don't build their products around marketing, they just market their products. They're one of few companies that still do.

The iPod needed Apple as much as Apple needed the iPod. The iPod couldn't have been done if it didn't have the freedom of Apple's engineers. Apple couldn't have been so successful without the the iPod's success.

[zarusoba]

Oh, I thought Kane Kramer was the father of the iPod. Or is he the grandpa?

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/22...s-british-ipod

[batchtaster]

Wow, seven years of iPod. Where did the time go?

[Abstract]

You mean Steve Jobs isn't responsible for every idea and design at Apple!?!

I'm shocked, I tellz ya.

[PowerFullMac]

The best ideas are the simple ones. I wish him the best of luck

[Shagrat]

Originally Posted by PowerFullMac

The best ideas are the simple ones. I wish him the best of luck

"Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Bram Cohen and Bill Gates have Asperger Syndrome"

Er... strictly speaking shouldn't that be...

"Einstein, Newton HAD Asperger..."??

or even....

From About.com

"Others not convinced.
Others feel that the case is weak for the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome for either scientist. "One can imagine geniuses who are socially inept and yet not remotely autistic," said Dr. Glen Elliott, a psychiatrist at the University of California at San Francisco, in an interview published by BBC News. Without Einstein or Newton here to ask, it's difficult to be certain. "

[patsfan83]

I'm sure WeezerX80 is taking back his comment from 2001:

"This isn't revoltionary! I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!"

[Cubert]

Good luck, Tony.

[jlanuez]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

it got us to switch! The first product we bought was an iPod mini (green), then a MacMini...

Then came:
20" ACD
G5 Quad
30" ACD
17" MacBookPro
2 iPods
2 iPhone's
MacBook Air
2 iPhone 3Gs

And all those docks, assesories, etc...

All because of that little green iPod!

[PinkyMacGodess]

The industry is filled with 'coulda been's'...

Wozniak worked at HP, and HP turned them down on the idea for making the Apple Computer... Xerox and their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) birthed many products and technologies that drive what we use today and Xerox rates a mention in the footnotes. Bless them for doing what they did. Try to find a corporation that funds pure research today and it will be a long search. Xerox could'a been a contender in the world IT business rather than a re-marketer of Sharp copiers and Tektronix laser printers.

Oddly, Verizon reportedly 'lost' the iPhone due to dictatorial attitudes towards Apple and what the product would be capable of. My own experience with Verizon wasn't much different. I had a Motorola phone that WAS capable of being a BlueTooth modem for a notebook. Everywhere but in America using Verizon.)

It's got to hurt when your own stupidity causes your company to lose THE product that could have changed your bottom line like a Saturn V headed for the moon... Can you hear that now??? So much for the 'iPhone killers' too. The real 'killer' seems to be the idiots in the ivory tower at Verizon...

[iGary]

Wasn't Rubenstein SVP of iPod before he left for Palm?

[JMax1]

Originally Posted by patsfan83

I'm sure WeezerX80 is taking back his comment from 2001:

"This isn't revoltionary! I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!"

Is he still an active user? Wonder what he's up to these days...

[hal9k]

The idea would never have been as successfully implemented if it had been sold to RealNetworks. I used to work for that company and it is not the kind of company that is as relentless, innovative, skilled as Apple is. Besides the success of iPod was largely due to the hardware expertise of Apple and its brand image. I'm glad everything worked out the way it did with Apple in it.