Motorola Inc., the largest U.S. mobile-phone maker, sued a former executive now working for Apple Inc., accusing him of disclosing its trade secrets to aid in the marketing of Apple’s iPhone.
Michael Fenger in March ended an almost six-year career at Motorola where he was a vice president for the company’s mobile- device business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is now Apple’s vice president for global iPhone sales, according to a complaint filed yesterday in state court in Chicago.
“He was privy to the pricing, margins, customer initiatives, allocation of resources, product development, multiyear product, business and talent planning and strategies being used by Motorola,” according to the complaint.
Seriously.
There you have it. This guy is, apparently, the reason Motorola is in the complete shit and the iPhone is doing well.
Of course, if this were the case, wouldn’t the iPhone have been called the IPHN?
I love that I’ve read this story in about 15 places, and yours is the first one that prompted me to leave a comment.
Further to the absurdity of the whole ordeal…if Motorola tanked, and this guy was there, what exactly does that bode for Apple? Given the similarities, could be something interesting:
1. Both relying on a single handset model to ‘change the world’
2. Both started priced high, and are now working to drop the price and add carriers
3. Both devices were loudly proclaimed as ‘revolutionary’ initially, with a few realists pointing out that, while pretty, they didn’t really offer anything *new*
No.. they are not looking for a scapegoat.. Motorola apparently has no way of making money with the crappy phones that they are “Designing”.. so, if they sue everyone who left the company, they can get some sort of monetary settlement to keep the company afloat!