Last week, Mark Papermaster had his first day at Apple, replacing Tony Fadell as senior VP of Devices Hardware Engineering. Papermaster left IBM after 25 years, and was in charge of their blade server division. Today, a judge ruled that Papermaster must stop working for Apple immediately as it violates his contract with IBM saying he can not work for a competitor for 12 months after leaving.
This is stupid. Wanna know why? It’s stupid because both parties are being stupid.
If Apple wanted to explore the realms of creating their own primary microprocessor for their computer division, they’d simply go ask the old guys in the basement. Apple used PowerPC as their primary platform for YEARS; it’s guaranteed that if they wanted to reverse engineer it, they could. Besides, with how successful and powerful the Intel platforms are, it’d be a waste of time and money on Apple’s part. IBM clearly feels threatened, and reading the press articles makes it seem like this is simply corporate lawyers trying to scare senior executives.
Now Apple/Papermaster/Lawyers are being stupid on this side by attempting to argue that Apple is NOT a competitor to IBM. Hmm, two companies that both make laptops, desktops, and enterprise-grade servers sure seem like they might be competitors to me… Either way, I don’t see this strategy going anywhere, especially in reversing the court’s decision.
The fact that Apple is bringing in a guy who’s been working on powerhouse machines for 25 years to head an iPod devision makes one wonder – is the line between personal media player and personal notebook computer blurring? Are we going to see iPods and MacBooks merge in the near future? Time will tell, but first Apple and IBM are going to have to get over being little girls and go back to the playground.
