He may have been a pain in the ass to work with and prematurely unleashed Apple Maps on the world, but Scott Forstall was also an integral player at Apple who was responsible for, or contributed to, many of the company's signature innovations that helped propel it to its current status as the most valuable in the world. That's the story told by Apple's patent applications, which were recently examined by the analytics firm MDB. According to the firm's data, Forstall had more patents pending filed in his name than any other Apple executive by far.
Forstall, formerly the Senior Vice President of iOS Software, has 166 patents currently pending for Apple, according to MDB. The executives replacing him, Jony Ive and Craid Federeghi, have 51 and 16 patents pending, respectively.
Now just because Forstall has his name on a patent, doesn't mean he was actually its primary inventor. In fact, one of the gripes that his coworkers reportedly had with him is that he stole credit for other people's work. But even still, the sheer number of patents suggests that Forstall was a hands-on player and not merely a figurehead. Apple is reportedly glad to be rid of him, but how easy will his shoes be to fill really?
[via Business Insider]
