Bob Mansfield Rides into the Sunset

One of the most influential people working at Apple during Steve Jobs’s tenure, Bob Mansfield, SVP of Hardware Engineering, is retiring after 13 years.

I’ve never seen them together. Coincidence?

In all seriousness, he’s the guy that since 1999 looked at the funky kit Jony and Steve wanted to sell, swallowed the vomit and made it happen – consistently. His list of credits is the list of products that turned Apple around after Jobs’s return. Good design is about 20% ideas and 80% implementation. Mansfield was the implementer. That’s about as high a praise as I can muster for anyone.

Thanks for the great years, the great products and for helping turn the company I’ve grown to love into the best consumer electronics maker in the world. You will be missed.