I don't think Steve Jobs has any qualms about being a jerk.
I agree. I also think he has a very low opinion of Apple customers. It's true that he has amazing vision in terms of what people want and will buy. It's true that, in most cases, his company builds quality products that also look cool. That has worked, in some cases, to the consumer's disadvantage. We've proven that we'd buy Jobs' fly swatter if he put "i" in front of it and told us it was good. That kind of reinforcement of an arrogant, narcissistic, paranoid jerk-off personality can't contribute much to his respect for us. "We love and care about our customers.", my ass.
My take on the whole Antennagate thing, for whatever it's worth, is that Jobs was likely ultimately responsible for releasing to the public a defective device that would, in certain circumstances, perform unsatisfactorily. Apple should have packaged a bumper with every iPhone from the beginning, along with an advisory that it might or might not be necessary to use it in certain signal environments, and that customers who found that unacceptable were welcome to return the package for a full refund, no questions asked. But the aforementioned ego-maniacal personality and our own fanboyism caused Jobs to badly underestimate us and misplay the entire situation. Yet, when all is said and done, what affect did any of that have on anything whatsoever? Not a damned bit. They're selling iPhones faster than they can kick 'em out the door, and the phone, in my experience, is a fine piece of equipment, as long as it's used with some sort of antenna shielding in those questionable signal environments. Hell, many people live in such
strong environments that they're still convinced there's no problem whatsoever with the iPhone 4 and honestly think those of us who understand the reality are bent. Hopefully, the good that will come of the iPhone 4's troubles will be that Jobs won't be so quick to underestimate his customers in the future. But I wouldn't bet on it.
To come back fully to topic, I don't think it matters when Papermaster departed, at least within a couple years of Antennagate. There was bound to be this kind of speculation, and c'mon, face it. In corporate and political environments, when a scandal rocks the joint, a scapegoat is found and terminated, justified or not. We DON'T know that's the case here; all we know is the timing is suspicious.