Mark Papermaster cleared to start work at Apple

Apple has confirmed that Mark Papermaster will start work as its new senior vice president of devices hardware engineering on April 24th.

He'll be heading up the company's iPod and iPhone hardware engineering teams, and will thus be a crucial figure in the development of both platforms (reporting to CEO Steve Jobs).

His former employer, IBM, got shirty over Papermaster's new job, saying it violated a non-compete clause in his contract. They also won a court order preventing him from starting work.

Apple's announcement says merely that "the litigation between IBM and Mark Papermaster has been resolved".

He's effectively the replacement for former senior VP of Apple's iPod division Tony Fadell, who stepped down in November last year for family reasons.