Did Apple fire iOS VP for not apologising over Apple Maps?

Apple's senior Vice-President for iOS software all set to leave the company in January 2013. According to Apple, Forstall will act as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook until he leaves. However the reason behind his departure is generating a lot of interest as it seems that Forstall was fired for refusing to apologise for the buggy Apple Maps app in iOS 6.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Scott Forstall was asked to leave the company after he refused to sign his name to a letter apologizing for shortcomings in Apple's new mapping service, according to people familiar with the matter.

The report also states that Forstall also sent an email to some iOS team members expressing dissatisfaction with the way the company was working on mobile software. You can read the entire WSJ article here. (Subscriber content only)

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[caption id="attachment_507749" align="alignleft" width="380"] Scott Forstall at an Apple event. Reuters[/caption]

According to aNew York Times report, Mr. Forstall was also known as ambitious and divisive, qualities that generated more friction within Apple after the death of Mr. Jobs, who had kept the dueling egos of his senior executives largely in check.

Forstall it seems refused to apologise for the Apple Maps application in iOS 6 which users complained was buggy and half-baked, and later Tim Cook had to sign the official apology letter.

Tim Cook's apology letter recommended Google Maps, Bing, MapQuest, Waze and Nokia Maps for users instead of the Apple Maps apps in iOS 6 which was seen as highly unusual. You can read more on that here.