New Apple iPod Chief Steps In

Up until today, Tony Fadell was the head of the iPod division over at Apple. In fact, he's the guy that brought the whole iPod idea to the Mac factory to begin with. But now, Fadell is leaving for personal reasons and he is set to be replaced by Mark Papermaster.

Papermaster is now the Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering. This puts him in the top spot to lead the team of iPod and iPhone hardware engineers. He was previously a Vice President at IBM.

In case anyone is concerned that the vision behind the iPod will be departed from Apple forever, think again. Fadell will still be involved with the Cupertino company as an advisor. It's hard to say if this will change anything in terms of future product development, but for now, it's really a changing of hats more than anything.