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The Friday night dump is a time-honored tradition for releasing bad or awkward news that one doesn't want to discuss. Once again Apple has shown how it even does obfuscation better than everyone else: send out the press release in the midst of a hurricane that has closed the markets for a couple of days.

The announcement this morning:

Scott Forstall, the man in charge of its iOS mobile software efforts and a major and longtime executive at the tech giant, is leaving next year and will remain an adviser to CEO Tim Cook until then. [snip]

More to come on what happened, but Forstall’s departure is very big news and a drastic move for such an important player in the tech space. He had big fans and also many detractors for his sharp-edged personality, as well as what some described as exhibiting “growing open challenges” to Cook himself. Forstall had previously been called “CEO-in-waiting” in one media account in Fortune.

In addition, numerous sources noted persistent tension between Forstall and several other key execs, especially the powerful design chief [Jony] Ive.

Veiled internal politics at Apple aside, Forstall has been a key part of Apple’s success over the last decade, especially in the development [of the] iPad and the iPhone.

The departure of Scott Forstall, who was in charge of the operating system that runs Apple's most successful products, is "very big news" indeed. Apple could have disclosed the management shake-up at the same time as last Thursday's earnings release, but talking about strategy and people is a lot tougher than talking about numbers, even disappointing ones.

Let's hope Apple's spokespeople have their stories straight when the market re-opens Wednesday.

(Disclosure: I am long Apple.) © 2012 Stephen Yuen