Geeze, I'm reminded of Kremlinology; Wikipedia (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlinology</a>) puts it well:<p>"<i>During the Cold War, lack of reliable information about the country forced Western analysts to "read between the lines" and to use the tiniest tidbits, such as the removal of portraits, the rearranging of chairs, positions at the reviewing stand for parades in Red Square....</i>"
From MacRumors:<p>> According to Reuters reporter Poornima Gupta, "Bob Mansfield is no longer on Apple's exec team but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to Cook."<p>> ...<p>> Last year, Apple announced that Mansfield would be retiring, but several months later announced he would instead be staying at the company. Later, it leaked that Tim Cook had faced an "insurrection" after Mansfield announced his retirement, and Cook gave him an extremely generous benefits package.<p>So he's moved on to whatever special arrangement has been made for him?<p><a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/28/apple-senior-vice-president-bob-mansfield-removed-from-leadership-webpage/" rel="nofollow">http://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/28/apple-senior-vice-presid...</a>
When I clicked on "Senior VP Bob Mansfield removed from Apple's leadership page", I was sort of expecting some kind of speculation on why Bob Mansfield was removed, what it might mean for Apple, maybe even a clue as to who exactly Bob Mansfield is and what he does at Apple. Instead I got a link to the leadership page. See, he's not there!<p>"Senior VP Bill the Cat removed from Apple's leadership page" would've carried just as much information.
<i>taken from the wayback machine</i><p><pre><code> Bob Mansfield
Senior Vice President, Mac Hardware Engineering
Bob Mansfield is Apple's senior vice president of Technologies, reporting to CEO Tim Cook.
</code></pre>
<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/" rel="nofollow">http://web.archive.org/web/20130723083752/http://www.apple.c...</a>
He is retiring. I guess several months turned into one month. Or, you don't want a lame duck VP on your leadership page. Probably a bit of both.<p><a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/06/28Bob-Mansfield-Apples-Senior-Vice-President-of-Hardware-Engineering-to-Retire.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/06/28Bob-Mansfield-Appl...</a>
What about Andrea Jung on the board? No hyperlink for her profile and she was fired as CEO of Avon last year (<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-05/avon-executive-chairman-andrea-jung-to-step-down-at-year-end.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-05/avon-executive-chai...</a>).
<a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23751590/apples-bob-mansfield-no-longer-executive-team" rel="nofollow">http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23751590/apples-bob-m...</a><p>He's moving into "special projects", reporting to Cook.