A veteran Apple executive responsible for a myriad of features over the years is departing the company. Bloomberg reports that Steve Hotelling, who worked on key technologies like the iPhone’s multitouch screen, Touch ID, and Face ID, is retiring from Apple.
Most recently, Hotelling served as a vice president at Apple, reporting to Johny Srouji, the company’s senior vice president of hardware technologies. At the time of his retirement, he was responsible for overseeing touchscreen technology, health sensors, and Face ID.
Over the years, however, Hotelling played a key role in some of Apple’s most significant innovations. As Bloomberg explains, this ranged from the invention of Touch ID to advanced camera technology and ProMotion screen technologies. He’s also credited with helping invent the multitouch screen on the first iPhone and iPad.
Hotelling also oversaw the company’s camera engineering team and was involved in efforts to develop custom sensors. Apple has increasingly made photography one of the foremost selling points of its devices. In addition, Hotelling led depth-sensing technologies for augmented reality and work on components behind haptic feedback and ProMotion high-frame-rate displays.
One source who worked with Hotelling and spoke with Bloomberg said that “outside of Apple’s chips efforts,” he was “the single greatest driver for innovation” at the company. “No one was more brilliant than Steve,” another longtime colleague of Hotelling’s told Bloomberg.
Hotelling’s responsibilities are being split up between several other veteran executives on Srouji’s team.
His responsibilities are being divided up between multiple of Srouji’s direct reports, including Alan Gilchrist, who took over managing the company’s camera and depth sensor teams. Another executive, Wei Chen, is in charge of many display technologies.
Hotelling also played a role in the development of Vision Pro, which is slated to be released sometime in “early 2024.”
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