Fortune has published an interesting profile on Tony Faddell, who is often referred to as the “godfather of the iPod” because of his work towards designing the concept and initial design of the iconic portable media player. In the feature length article, Faddell, who now works at the Nest Labs company he founded, claimed that he would have loved to show his Nest smart thermostat to the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
“I would have loved to have been able to show it to him, but the timing didn’t work,” Faddell said. Jobs had been dealing with pancreatic cancer for a number of years, and by time Faddell was ready to show him more of the project, Jobs had become gravely ill. He passed away several weeks later on October 5th, 2011, one day after Tim Cook and other Apple executives unveiled the iPhone 4S at a special event in San Francisco.
Faddell reportedly budgets about one day per week visiting Google, which acquired Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in January. During his visit, he speaks with executives up and down the organization to better understand how the tech conglomerate functions. He also looks to get ideas on how the bigger company can help Nest Labs, which now operates as an independent subsidiary of the tech giant.
Faddell worked at Apple, primarily on the iPod, in a variety of roles between 2001 and 2008. He was initially hired as a contractor to help design the iPod, and was rewarded with a promotion to Vice President of iPod Engineering in 2004. In 2006, he replaced the outgoing Jon Rubinstein as Senior Vice President of the iPod Division. He remained in that position until leaving the company in 2008.
The full-length article is a long but interesting read.
What do you think Steve Jobs would have thought about Nest?
[Fortune via MacRumors]
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