Apple’s chief iPhone and Apple Watch designer leaving the company

Apple’s head of iPhone and Apple Watch product design is departing the company, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

Tang Tan, who currently holds the title of VP of product design at Apple, will leave the company in February, the report says. This has prompted a “shake-up to the company’s most critical product lines.”

Currently, Tan reports to John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. Upon his departure, Tan’s responsibilities will be split up as part of a “reshuffling” inside the hardware engineering team.

Richard Dinh, who currently reports to Tan and leads iPhone product design, will get an expanded role and begin reporting directly to Ternus. Kate Bergeron, who is currently a hardware engineering exec leading the Mac, will take over Apple Watch design.

Anonymous “people familiar with Apple’s operations” told Bloomberg that Tan’s departure is a “blow” to the design team. Those people credited him with making “critical decisions about Apple’s most important products.”

Tan’s team is said to have “tight control over product features, including the look of devices and how they’re engineered,” the report explains. In particular, Tan helped turn AirPods and the Apple Watch “into major growth drivers” for Apple.

Other leadership changes at Apple

Earlier this week, Bloomberg also reported that Steve Hotelling, who worked on key technologies like the iPhone’s multitouch screen, Touch ID, and Face ID, is retiring from Apple.

Today’s report from Bloomberg outlines other recent leadership changes at Apple:

• Laura Legros, who ran hardware product management, retired at the end of 2022.
• Yannick Bertolus, a VP of hardware engineering who reported to Ternus and took over hardware product management when Legros retired, also retired in October.
• Dan West was promoted to a “non-product role” reporting to Ternus. West was previously the number two executive in charge of hardware quality.

The report also says that other Mac product design and iPhone hardware executives were recently promoted. This suggests that “Apple could be preparing for more leadership changes in the coming year.”

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