Uber has reportedly poached a senior engineer from Apple, according to The Information.
Chris Blumenberg, who was one of the first engineers to work on Apple's iPhone software, is headed to the car service app as it picks up speed - it was recently valued as high as $18 billion.
Jessica Lessin of The Information reported that three sources familiar with the situation shared this news with her.
Blumenberg's name is listed as an inventor on a number of Apple patents related to iOS, according toBusiness Insider, and his loss would likely be a significant one to the company.
His LinkedIn profile says:
"My team is primarily responsible for the Apple Maps app and the MapKit framework. Since 2006, we've worked on a number of Google and Apple service-backed features such as local search, directions, street view, next destination and CarPlay. I proudly drove and guided the implementation of vector maps, Flyover and navigation during the shift from Google's services to Apple's services in 2012."
He is the latest to leave after rumored internal issues with Maps, which Apple debuted in 2012.
The app was exciting before its arrival as people speculated and expected something that would compete with the Google Maps app. It has improved since the debut but remains a rare example of Apple turning out something subpar relative to its history.
A tipster told Tech Crunch after Apple's WWDC in June that "Many developers left the company, no map improvements planned for iOS 8 release were finished in time. Mostly it was failure of project managers and engineering project managers, tasks were very badly planned, developers had to switch multiple times from project to project."
"I would say that planning, project management and internal politics issues were a much more significant contributor to the failure to complete projects than developers leaving the group," the source said.
Blumenburg's Twitter profile and Facebook page still indicate that he's a manager at Apple.
