Ruben Caballero, the leader of Apple’s 5G smartphone modem project, has left the company. His departure occurs in the wake of a division restructure, and the Qualcomm lawsuit settlement and supply deal.
After reports that Apple was pushing to develop its own 5G modem solution in time to be used in the 2021 iPhone lineup, Caballero’s departure is a bit of a surprise. The Information on Monday afternoon reported Caballero’s name has been removed from the Apple staff directory and organizational chart.
Ruben Caballero is perhaps best known to the outside world for his role in the 2010 “antennagate” fiasco. He joined Apple in 2005, and is named on nearly all of Apple’s wireless networking, 3G and LTE patents.
In the wake of the Qualcomm deal, Apple’s 5G development team is said to be in a state of flux. One possibility is that Apple may be trimming 5G staff since they have a deal with Qualcomm to supply 5G iPhone modems for the 2020 iPhone lineup.
Caballero’s exit comes following a reassignment of Johny Srouji as the supervising executive for the 5G modem team.