Apple’s Chief Product Designer Announces Departure

Apple’s Chief Product Designer Jony Ive has announced he is set to leave the company. The news comes almost three decades after he first joined the tech giant in 1992.

The Brit is heading to start his own creative firm, LoveFrom, which is taking on Apple as its first client. He told the Financial Times that he “hopes to be very involved in Apple’s product development for many many years to come”.

Ive worked closely with Steve Jobs on many of Apple’s biggest products, including the iMac, iPod and iPhone.

He was first appointed as CPD in 2015. His departure sees a reshuffle in the department, rather than a direct replacement, such was his incomparable influence.

After becoming the first company in the world to achieve a valuation of $1 trillion, Apple has hit a slight plateau. The firm saw poor iPhone sales in 2018, and continues to face uncertainty surrounding the ongoing US/China trade war. However, Ive suggested that this was not a contributing factor when he made his decision.

The news had a negative impact on Apple’s stock price, which dropped by more than 1% (~$9 billion) in after-hours trading.  

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