The WSJ reports that senior executive Tony Fadell has left Apple. Tony Fadell is senior vice president of Apple's iPod division and also known as Father of the iPod.

Mr. Fadell apparently approached Apple with the idea of a portable digital music player paired with a download music service back in 2001. The rest is history. Over 160 million ipods have been sold, but it recently got pushed aside by the iPhone in terms of important for the Apple revenue.
Mark Papermaster from IBM is said to replace Tony Fadell at Apple.
More details on WSJ. Update: Apple just released a press-release about Mark Papermaster joining Apple as Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering.