Sky Dayton, founder and chairman of the phantasmagorical Helio, has announced that he's stepping down as CEO to become chairman of the board of the last-man-standing MVNO. Helio's new CEO will be Wonhee Sull, formerly the company's president and COO, and obviously a direct conduit to co-owner SK Telecom. "Helio has reached a point in its development where I feel the timing is right for this change... As we have for the past three years, the two of us will continue to define Helio's direction and future," said Dayton. Whether Sky's really ready to move on or not we'll never know, but it's certainly possible that the recent influx of cash (and increased ownership) from from its Korean parents and dwindling marketshare of US MVNOs led SK to step in and get things on track.

Update: Lots of fun inaccuracies going on up in here, our bad. We ironed out the kinks, see above for the latest, correct edits to Helio's executive musical chairs.

Sure, Apple and Cisco have been exchanging kind (and not so kind) words of late, but a loose-tongued COO gave us just tidbit we needed to satisfactorily craft the 29th running of CE-Oh No He Didn't. It's no secret that Apple stands to profit mightily off its eventual iPhone sales, and it's also not too far fetched to start dreaming of 3G on the imminent next revision, but laying the smack down on free cellphones in order to bolster your own product is just asking for it. Sure enough, Apple's Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook said yesterday at a conference in Las Vegas that "A lot of people pay zero for the cellphone," but rather than contemplating his next move, he carelessly blurted out the reason by stating "That's what it's worth," essentially punking users of the ever-basic free cellphone that saw no reason to spring for high-end hardware when initializing their contract. Apple is currently predicting that "around 10 million customers will pay at least $499 to buy an iPhone" because they feel the value is there, but apparently a low-end mobile isn't worth its weight in plastic. C'mon Mr. Cook, we've got no qualms with pricing your mobile as your company deems fit, but slamming the hammer on folks who just need a handset that calls Aunt Susie every now and then is just a bit harsh, no?

[Via Digg]