Following the tremendous success of the iPod, Tupman joined the iPhone engineering team as well, and has played a major role in the success of Apple’s entire line of portable devices. Tupman is credited for over 70 of Apple’s iPod and iPhone-related technology patents. Apple is said to be actively pursuing a replacement for Tupman’s position.
Tupman is the latest in a significant stream of notable executives who have left Apple – Design director Sarah Brody, OS X engineer Bertrand Serlet, mobile advertising head Andy Miller, retail chief Ron Johnson, Security head John Theriault, senior product quality executive Simon Prakash, and now David Tupman. It certainly seems that Apple is losing a lot of executives.
Is it just a coincidence that seven key executives have left Apple in less that a year, or is there more to it? Some interesting food for thought, to say the least.