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Another Designer Leaves Apple

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The designer who introduced the iPhone Air at Apple's September event left the company, reports Bloomberg. Abidur Chowdhury recently departed Apple to join an AI startup, a move that apparently "made waves" internally because he was a rising star on the design team.

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Chowdhury worked on the ‌iPhone Air‌, and he described its feature set in a two-minute presentation in September. His departure was not related to the ‌iPhone Air‌ or the disappointing sales of the device.

Chowdhury joined Apple's industrial design team in 2019, the same year that Jony Ive left the company to create a new design firm. After Ive departed, several other members of the design team left, either joining him or moving on to other companies.

There are very few designers remaining at Apple who worked under Ive, and Apple has lost several high-profile designers over the last six years.

Former Apple operations chief Jeff Williams had been overseeing the product design team since 2023, but he retired from Apple last week. Apple's design team will now report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

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Top Rated Comments

Happy_John Avatar
Happy_John
9 months ago

probably more than double the salary and then bonuses ...
… and will more than likely be out of business before 2027. Investment in companies which don’t provide an RoI isn’t sustainable.
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tozovac Avatar
Tozovac
9 months ago

Honestly it's starting to show and not in a good way. We need some of the brutal Apple design ethos, stubbornness and ruthless attention to detail back from Jobs mind. We need a bit more form over function again, it's what made Apple unique.
It’s starting to show in a GOOD WAY too.

MacBooks have the right amount (and types) of ports again.

And I actually like iOS26/iPadOS26/etc. With a few Accessibility tweaks, my phone and IPad are more like pre-iOS7 and I’m super glad. Less flat design, less vagueness, more interesting icons.

Form over Function is a bad way to go…I’m surprised to read someone prefers that.

Unless youre being tongue in cheek and I completely missed it. :)

I would take more Jobs less Jony any day.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannys1 Avatar
dannys1
9 months ago

There are very few designers remaining at Apple who worked under Ive, and Apple has lost several high-profile designers ('https://www.macrumors.com/2024/02/13/another-longtime-industrial-designer-leaves-apple/') over the last six years.
Honestly it's starting to show and not in a good way. We need some of the brutal Apple design ethos, stubbornness and ruthless attention to detail back from Jobs mind. We need a bit more form over function again, it's what made Apple unique.
Score: 40 Votes (Like | Disagree)
H
hieranonymous
9 months ago
I used to think these departures were a harbinger of Apple’s inability to woo the next generation of talent, but given the AI bubble and the insane and unsustainable compensation these execs are being offered to jump ship, Apple’s refusal to participate in the stampede actually just feels like common sense. A lot of these startups are going to implode.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DocMultimedia Avatar
DocMultimedia
9 months ago
Whoever designed iOS 26 glass fiasco should leave. Pretty please. Ugh. Keyboard on many websites is still a messed up breadboard of chaos.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
G
gnipgnop
9 months ago
Everyone saw Jonny Ive become a billionaire by throwing together a half-baked AI product and then selling it to a knucklehead AI exec. They all want their shot at the easy $$.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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