Reports are out that Mark Papermaster,  Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering at Apple, has left the company after the iPhone 4 antenna debacle.

Papermaster joined Apple in November 2008, Tony Fadell stepped down. However he was ordered to stop Working for Apple by IBM, who claimed he had broken a clause in his contract that stated he couldn?t work fro any competitors for at least one year.

Apple and IBM eventually came to a resolution in Jan 2009, but Papermaster didn?t start working for Apple until April. he was also made to contact the courts to ensure IBM?s secrets weren?t leaked to Apple.

Apple hasn?t made any comments on why Papermaster has decided to leave, but the rumour is that he was forced to after the media frenzy over iPhone 4 disaster.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote: "From what I?ve heard, it?s clear he was canned. Inside Apple, he?s ‘the guy responsible for the antenna’."

Papermaster was notably not present at the press conference held by Apple to address the antenna issue. instead, senior vice president of Macintosh hardware engineering and possible replacement, Bob Mansfield, was answering the questions