Man Who Created iPod To iPhone, Jony Ive Is Leaving Apple To Start Own Design Company

Apple made an unusual announcement on Thursday, not related to any upcoming product. It made their share value dip by as much as 1.5%, which means bad news.

Apple announced that after 27 years, their Chief Design Officer Jony Ive is leaving the company later this year, the man credited with designing everything from the original iMac to iPod to iPhone and more.

Jony Ive is leaving Apple to form his own design company, according to Reuters.

Reuters

As per Financial Times, Jony Ive's post-Apple will be spent building his new design company, which will be called 'LoveFrom'. The design firm -- which will count Apple as one of its primary clients -- will be based in California, according to Jony Ive.

Going forward, Jony Ive hopes to continue working on upcoming Apple devices, along with passion projects of a more personal nature (read non-Apple).

In his interview to the newspaper, Jony Ive further said that he has "the utmost confidence in my designer colleagues at Apple, who remain my closest friends, and I look forward to working with them for many years to come."

This news of Jony Ive leaving Apple as their Chief Design Officer may come as a surprise, but for industry insiders and market analysts closely tracking Apple's fortunes, it seems this announcement was coming for a few years now.

Reuters

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There are reports that people inside Apple, especially those that previously worked closely with Jony Ive, knew the man was taking less and less day-to-day design duties since at least 2015.

Jony Ive joined Apple all the way back in 1992 -- 27 years ago -- as an industrial designer, before swiftly growing through the ranks and becoming Steve Jobs' close confidant, designing and defining some of the most seminal electronic products -- from the iMac to iPod, iPhone to iPad, MacBook to Apple Watch, AirPods, and more -- each becoming milestones of industrial design in their own right.

Here's wishing Jony Ive all the best and continued success beyond Apple. May he continue to inspire with his industrial design marvels for a long time to come!