by Jason Snell
The last vestige of Jony Ive era ends
Tripp Mickle, reporting for the New York Times:
Mr. Ive and Apple have agreed to stop working together**, according to two people with knowledge of their contractual agreement, ending a three-decade run during which the designer helped define every rounded corner of an iPhone and guided development of its only new product category in recent years, the Apple Watch….
When Mr. Ive left Apple in 2019 to start his own design firm, LoveFrom, the iPhone maker signed a multiyear contract with him valued at more than $100 million. That made Apple his firm’s primary client, people with knowledge of the agreement said… In recent weeks, with the contract coming up for renewal, the parties agreed not to extend it. Some Apple executives had questioned how much the company was paying Mr. Ive and had grown frustrated after several of its designers left to join Mr. Ive’s firm. And Mr. Ive wanted the freedom to take on clients without needing Apple’s clearance, these people said.
Some executive departures are sudden and shocking. Others are the long, slow goodbye. Apple and Jony Ive chose the latter path, with him gradually reducing his work at Apple, then becoming a highly paid consultant. And now the final step.