Apple has made another staffing change: designer Abidur Chowdhury, who introduced the new iPhone Air in the fall, has left the company. According to Bloomberg, he left the company to work for an AI startup. His departure caused a stir within Apple, as Chowdhury was considered one of the most promising young professionals on the team.
Chowdhury worked on the iPhone Air and gave a two-minute presentation in September outlining its key features. According to sources, his departure is not related to the iPhone Air itself or the device's poor sales.
Abidur Chowdhury joined Apple's industrial design team in 2019, the same year Jony Ive left the company to start his own design studio. After Ive's departure, several members of the design team also left, some joining him and others moving on to other companies.
Now, only a few designers who worked under Ive remain at Apple, and the company has lost several high-level specialists over the past six years.
Apple's former COO Jeff Williams has overseen the product design team since 2023, but he retired from the company last week. The design team will now report directly to CEO Tim Cook.
Recall that it also recently became known that Apple may announce Cook's departure as early as 2026. The main candidate for the position of the new CEO is called John Turnus, head of the engineering department.