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Senior Vice President of iOS Scott Forstall, the man who many blamed for the Apple Maps debacle, is leaving the company, Apple has announced. Apple has no word on what he will do next, saying that he will act as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook until he leaves. Forstall headed up the team that developed both Siri and Maps. When he initially introduced the Google replacement he didn't mention any of its limitations, which riled critics who later discovered its many shortcomings. [Forstall's] demo was flawless, 2D and 3D maps, turn-by-turn navigation, spectacular flyovers… but not a word from the stage about the app's limitations, no self-deprecating wink, no admission that iOS Maps is an infant that needs to learn to crawl before walking," one analyst told Fortune's Philip Elmer DeWitt. The company didn't attribute his departure to the navigation software snafu or Siri, leaving things rather vague in the note. But his departure is a little unexpected otherwise. He was called Apple's "sorcerer's apprentice" byBusinessweek's Adam Satariano, Peter Burrows, and Brad Stone, who described him as a lot like Steve Jobs. It was also rumored he had his eye on Cook's spot, wrote Adam Lashinsky in his book Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired--and Secretive--Company Really Works.

Read more at The Atlantic Wire.