Another Designer Leaves Apple

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Hmm, the reality doesn’t bear out this argument.

It is not a case that magically wonderful products don’t appear because the evil bosses block such innovation, it’s that these technologies have matured. A phone is a phone. A laptop is a laptop, improvement will be refinements, not revolutions.

When a totally new product type is announced or released, all those claiming they want innovation s**t all over that new product type.

I get the products have matured argument, but Apple used to excel because they pushed past that. The iPhone, iPad, Watch, AirPods all came when those categories were considered done. What’s happening now isn’t maturity, it’s caution. When top designers keep leaving, it usually means the culture isn’t supporting bold ideas anymore. You can only do so many safe refinements before creative people look elsewhere.

Innovation doesn’t disappear because phones are mature it disappears when leadership stops backing the people who drive it.

 

[deconstruct60]

Maybe, maybe not. Amazon made zero profit for at least a decade before it got to where it is today.

There is a huge difference between Amazon spending what could have been its profits into investing in future products and diversification versus many of these AI companies spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave spend far more money than they will make ( investors blindly throwing cash at them in round after round of external investments grabs ).

Amazon chose not to make profit. Many of these hyped AI companies can't make profits.

Billions of Facebook/Meta profits into the "metaverse" went largely nowhere. Zuckerberg has run off to another money pit now just throwing money at it.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Maybe, maybe not. Amazon made zero profit for at least a decade before it got to where it is today.

There's 4 stages to a company - pre-revenue, pre-profit, pre-dividends, and then the final steady dividends phase.

Pre-revenue is a very high risk comapny. Amazon was pre-profit for a long time, but they weren't pre-revenue - they were making revenue almost immediately, and those revenues were growing quickly the whole time.

 

[mazz0]

because AI hardware - is so important....???

Indeed! What’s more important than the appearance of a device you interact with without looking at?

 

[delsoul]

Departed is the new term for given a chance to resign, or be fired.

 

[grammatica]

The Jobs-Ive has been gone for a while. Most of the designers left to join Love From.

 

[hummerchine]

… and will more than likely be out of business before 2027. Investment in companies which don’t provide an RoI isn’t sustainable.

Great point!

I find it hard to fathom LEAVING a high level job at Apple, everyone’s dream job!

Hope that works out for ya….

 

[vantelimus]

Ive sucks with Jobs to control his nonsense.

I'm guessing you meant "without". You make an important and valid point, especially when people resort to Jobs or Ive worship.

Ive was the creator. Jobs was a razor. Jobs provided the balance and product perspective that kept good ideas from being diluted by too many ideas. But, not only would Ive have sucked without Jobs, Jobs would have sucked without a succession of creative engineering and design collaborators throughout his career. The razor is useless without something to shear.

 

[Tozovac]

Couldn't disagree more - losing a Thunderbolt 4/5 port for a single use HDMI port that most users will never touch is a step backwards. I now can't charge from the right side of my MacBook Pro and use a USB port on that side at the same time. Ironically for all the moaning about dongles when we had 4 USB-C ports for my life setup I now NEED a dongle and USB adapter because there's not enough USB ports!

I like design first, I like something that is brutally different. If I just wanted a device that did a bit of everything badly there's any other tech company in the world for that.

Just do what I was told when I missed an HDMI port.

Buy and tote around a dongle or hub.

….and in an ideal world, Apple would have been able to pull everyone over to adopt usb-c peripherals.

But I think that’s way too idealistic. We all still have so many useful usb-A wired things like mice and webcams..…and so many still useful cables. Especially items to walk up to and "left in place" like in meeting rooms or temporary office spaces. It sucks to have to carry around a dongle/adapter/hub.

Plus the move from USB-A to USB-C for a large # of use cases where speed/data isn't as important isn't as helpful/monumental like it was from serial/parallel ports eventually to USB-A...

We’re years away from the need to morph away from usb-A without some unnatural forcing.

Some things morph naturally easy some don’t.

 

[Tozovac]

There is no Jobs without Jony. That’s the point.

Jony would have added no value without a Jobs.

 

[MakaniKai]

Good riddance. He couldn't add a second camera? Any idiot could tell you a "premium" phone with only one camera won't sell.

Maybe he did want more than one and the execs vetoed it in order to maintain a price and not consume other models. We can’t know for sure that it was his choice…unless I’m missing a source saying otherwise in which case I’ll eat my words

 

[The_Auryn]

He's done quite a few projects. Moncler, Linn, Ferrari, and Airbnb have all collaborated with LoveFrom.

I stand corrected! 😀

 

[segfaultdotorg]

SAD! Apple is going to end up licensing and rebadging Android products if this keeps up. Can't wait for the LineageOS version of iPhoneOS!

 

[Mansu944]

Good riddance. He couldn't add a second camera? Any idiot could tell you a "premium" phone with only one camera won't sell.

Only it isn't the premium phone

 

[klasma]

We need a bit more form over function again, it's what made Apple unique.

I think we have enough Liquid Glass.

 

[BigDO]

Um, 68k Macintoshes?

How well did those sell?

 

[klasma]

Investment in companies which don’t provide an RoI isn’t sustainable.

It has been pretty sustainable for more than two decades now, surprisingly enough.

 

[klasma]

because AI hardware - is so important....???

Augmented Income.

 

[ipedro]

Apple needs new leadership at the top. Tim Cook is a numbers guy, designers and engineers need a peer, another engineer or designer as their leader. John Ternus cannot start soon enough.

 

[klasma]

No one who has an Air has complained about battery life or the camera. Both are outstanding.

The camera bump in particular.

 

[Tsepz]

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.

Agreed.

Even with “high profile” people leaving I think it’s a good thing, Apple needs to evolve and not be stuck in the shadow of Jony Ive and the like.

The 17 Pro and 10 Pro Max may not have ever existed under the old guard, which is a scary thought as this is the most Pro we have ever seen iPhone go.

 

[klasma]

The 17 Pro and 10 Pro Max may not have ever existed under the old guard, which is a scary thought as this is the most Pro we have ever seen iPhone go.

Wasn't every Pro the most Pro ever?

 

[victorvictoria]

These departures are not due to something wrong at Apple. Right here in Chicago, we have a restauranteur name of Rick Bayless. His Frontera, Topolobampo and Xoco are benchmark regional and traditional Mexican cuisine, and reservations can take weeks or months at Topo. When he addressed the issue of his best employees leaving, it was his pleasure to explain that he had done everything he could to empower them to the point they felt they could venture out on their own. And the proof is in the many hot Mexican eateries in Chicago founded and owned/operated by Bayless alumni! And that parallels the trajectories of the various top Apple employees who take leave of Apple.

 

[contacos]

Good riddance. He couldn't add a second camera? Any idiot could tell you a "premium" phone with only one camera won't sell.

Edit: for the people down grading this comment, you really don't know what you're talking about. The Air Bombed. I warned about this during the rumor cycle. And mark my words, if the Fold has the same stupid camera limitations, it's not going to sell well either.

Lol you think this is a designers decision how many cameras a phone will end up having? A designer needs to work within the framework giving to them.

Management was probably like "it only needs a single camera to make sure we can squeeze out more money with higher margins and we need something for people to buy the 2nd or 3rd generation"

 

[Tsepz]

Wasn't every Pro the most Pro ever?

True 😂

But in all honesty; 12GB RAM then the Vapour Chamber, an aluminium chassis focused on managing heat dissipation along with the Camera plateau becoming fundamental in ensuring this design is mostly focused on allowing the phone to sustain high performance?
Let me not forget them leaning in on the Pros being thicker, the old guard would have never, lol.
It is definitely the most function over form Pro we have ever seen and thank goodness for it!