Jony Ive returns to hands-on control of Apple design team

Apple's chief design officer, Jony Ive, has reportedly resumed management of the company's design team, in a move that should influence the direction of future products.

The switch-up was mentioned on Twitter by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman after Apple removed Alan Dye and Richard Howarth from its Leadership profiles, even though the pair took over daily affairs when Ive assumed the CDO position in 2015.

Dye and Howarth are presumably still with the company, but it's unknown how their roles may have shifted if Ive is jumping back into the fray.

Ive has been instrumental to Apple's success in the past two decades, with major design influence on the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, among other products. In recent years though he has turned his attention to revamping Apple stores and finishing Apple Park.

Since those projects are largely complete, Ive is likely once again free to exercise a direct hand in hardware and software design.

"With the completion of Apple Park, Apple's design leaders and teams are again reporting directly to Jony Ive, who remains focused purely on design," Amy Bessette, an Apple spokesperson, said Friday in a statement to Bloomberg.

91 Comments

avon b7 8010 comments · 20 Years

About 6 years ago

Pizza Box v.2?

Having been looking for domestic security locks recently, it's definitely an area that needs some rethinking.

If Apple is looking for a new challenge. The ultimate FaceID challenge?

dysamoria 3430 comments · 12 Years

Bad news for software. He should not have influence over software.

basicshape 5 comments · 21 Years

Please bring it up at the next board meeting Dysamoria

rogifan_new 4297 comments · 9 Years

So did he just step down to go work on the new campus or were his subordinates not up to the job and he needed to come back and oversee day to day operations? John Gruber seems to think this isn’t news but the org announcement from Cook never said Ive giving up day to day management was temporary. I guess all this really means is he doesn’t have one foot out the door as some speculated when the org announcement came out.

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/12/08/ive-returns

dysamoria said:

Bad news for software. He should not have influence over software.

I’m going to take a wild guess that he spends little time on software only because he never seems to talk about it in interviews. But it seems with the new campus all the different design teams will be together in the same space which is a good idea.