A man named Jeff Williams, who came from IBM to Apple more than a decade ago, was promoted this month to join Apple’s executive team as chief operation officer Tim Cook’s right hand man.

This came weeks right after the Cupertino-based company got itself into a mess of product scrutiny, their iPhone 4’s curse, which should be the company’s biggest flaw yet seeing their iPhone’s lineage huge success. Issues like the infamous antenna design flaws, the yellow spot band, spotty Bluetooth performance, and an unpredictable proximity sensor, flooded sour experience for early adopters. Perhaps Apple needs someone to blame when their future products failed like this.

According to Apple, Williams also played a significant role in the company’s entry into the mobile phone market with the launch of the iPhone, and he has led worldwide operations for iPod and iPhone since that time. In his new role, Williams will focus on assuring product quality and lead a team of people around the world responsible for end-to-end supply chain management.

It’s believed Apple is grooming Williams to take on Cook’s role as chief operation officer in the event that Cook takes over Steve Jobs’ role as the company’s chief executive. Cook has been profiled as the most likely successor to Jobs when Apple’s iconic chief chooses to step down.

[via Apple Insider]