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  • By the end of this year Jony Ive will no longer be an Apple employee.

  • The world's most famous designer has been at the centre

  • of Apple's innovations for more than 20 years.

  • His candy coloured iMacs helped to rescue Apple from the brink

  • of bankruptcy in the late 1990s.

  • Then, the iPod and the iPhone changed our relationship

  • with technology.

  • So, the clear goal was how we can

  • make the product accessible, not intimidating;

  • how we can make it just so simple to use?

  • But now, Jony is changing his relationship with Apple.

  • Just don't call it a break-up.

  • When I spoke to Jony this week, he

  • told me that he would be starting

  • a new venture of his own called LoveFrom,

  • with Apple as his first client.

  • Jony told me he hopes to stay very

  • involved in Apple's product development

  • for many, many years to come.

  • Still, his departure later this year

  • will mark the end of an era for Apple.

  • To create something that's genuinely new,

  • you have to start again, and I think with great intent,

  • you disconnect from the past.

  • Jony was Steve Jobs's closest ally

  • in dreaming up everything, from breakthrough

  • new products to its new headquarters at Apple Park.

  • The incredible run of hits that they produced together

  • is unmatched in Silicon Valley and beyond,

  • turning Apple at one point into the world's

  • most profitable and valuable company.

  • But despite the continued success

  • of the iPhone after Jobs's death and the popularity

  • of wearable devices, such as Apple Watch and AirPods

  • in the last couple of years, Apple

  • is no longer the world's most valuable company.

  • Today, it is Microsoft, not Apple,

  • that is valued at more than a trillion dollars,

  • as investors fret about a sudden drop in iPhone sales

  • and the impact of the US-China trade war.

  • Jony insists that none of that is why he is leaving right now.

  • Instead, I got a sense from him that, even

  • with all the resources at his disposal inside Apple,

  • he wanted to make his mark outside the tech industry.

  • That expansion had already begun with his work

  • on Apple Park, where his tight knit design

  • team has a new studio designed to foster

  • greater collaboration.

  • But it is perhaps telling that despite an expanded design

  • role for Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating

  • officer, and an experienced team of designers under him,

  • nobody else at Apple will be taking Jony's title

  • of chief design officer.

  • At Apple, it seems, Jony Ive is irreplaceable,

  • even when he no longer works there.

By the end of this year Jony Ive will no longer be an Apple employee.

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