The man who led the design of the iMac, the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro, the iPhone, the iPad is no more in-charge of design at Apple. Sir Jonathan Ive, the former chief designer at Apple left the company earlier this year. However, it was reported at the time that he would stay at the company for a few more months to help with the transition.
It appears now as if the transition has now finished and Ive has left the company for good as his profile from the “Leadership” page has now been removed. He is reportedly being replaced by Jeff Williams, the COO of Apple who lead the Apple Watch creation and continues to lead the team.
However, Jeff Williams will not exactly replace him but take over some of the responsibilities Jony Ive. As Jeff is not a designer first but an engineer who also takes an interest in design but probably not as much as Ive.
Engineer to lead the design operations
Jeff Williams’ profile on Apple’s leadership page reads “Jeff played a key role in Apple’s entry into the mobile phone market with the launch of iPhone, and since 2010 has led worldwide operations for all products. Jeff joined Apple in 1998 as head of Worldwide Procurement”.
Jony Ive had joined Apple way back in 1992, however, he began to lead the design team at the company only in the year 1996. The company says Jony Ive left the company this year, however many people who have known Jony said that he had unofficially left the company well before.
For a brief period Jony Ive had left his day-to-day operations at Apple to focus on the spaceship campus Apple was building and it is believed that the project had him distracted from his actual work at the company. Some have also said that he began to not attend meetings.
Jony Ive is set to start his own design firm LoveFrom with his longtime designer friend Marc Newson.