Bob Mansfield will be developing new products for Apple

It was reported earlier this week that Apple executive Bob Mansfield has given up his management duties at Apple. He is rumored to have focused on 'special projects', concerning development of new products for Cupertino company. So his responsibilities will be taken over by other executives.

Dan Riccio will be responsible for Apple's antenna design team. Moreover, he will still lead the department of  Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod engineering. Dan Riccio was promoted to lead Apple's hardware engineering teams when Bob Mansfield first retired last year.

Jeff Williams will acquire the job of managing Apple's special projects engineering teams. He is the Senior Vice President for Operations and has bee working with Tim Cook for years now.  Though it is Mansfield who will focus on Apple's newest and most innovative designs. Thus he will not be distracted with management issues any longer.

According to a source familiar with the former Technologies team, there has been a lack of formal internal communication regarding the reasoning behind the management shift. However, the company did make the new executive roles clear to these employees. Even with the lack of communication, sources say that the change is not unprecedented. Over the last couple of months, Mansfield is said to have been increasingly focused on chips (and some aspects of wireless) while delegating his other teams to other executives.

According to 9to5, although Mansfield would be happy to retire, he is unlikely to ever leave the company. Taking into account the efforts Tim Cook made to keep Mansfield at Cupertino company, he will be able to work whenever he wants and on whatever projects he likes.