- Apple’s design studio lost influence, departing from executive leadership.
- Leadership changes, key departures, and talent gaps weakened the team.
- Incoming CEO John Ternus vows to restore design’s prominence.
Apple’s design studio, once the beating heart of the company under Steve Jobs and Jony Ive, has lost much of its influence inside the company, according to a Bloomberg report. The industrial design team that shaped icons like the iPhone and iPod no longer holds a seat at Apple’s executive table and now functions more as a support unit for other departments rather than the centre of product vision. The shift began roughly a decade ago and has only deepened since, with leadership gaps, a wave of senior exits and a thinning talent pipeline.
As incoming CEO John Ternus prepares to take charge in September, the question of who will lead design next has become one of Apple’s most pressing internal challenges.
How Did Apple’s Design Team Lose Its Influence Over The Years?
Bloomberg reports that the decline started around 2015, when Ive stepped back from daily management and was named chief design officer, a move framed publicly as a promotion but one that began pulling design away from the structure that had defined Apple’s success.
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When Ive left in 2019 to start LoveFrom, his successor, Evans Hankey, took over the studio but, unlike Ive, was not given a place on the executive team. She reported instead to former chief operating officer Jeff Williams, who had no design background but was Tim Cook’s closest ally at the company.
Williams later took direct charge of the design group himself after Hankey’s exit, fearing that promoting another designer could trigger more departures. The exits continued regardless, and Alan Dye, who led software design, left for Meta last year, removing another likely successor.
Who Is Leading Apple’s Design Team Now?
Williams eventually chose Molly Anderson, an industrial designer known for her Apple Watch work, to head the team, even though she had no prior experience managing one. The report describes this as a defensive choice driven by continuity rather than ambition, at a time when the design bench itself has grown thinner and more junior.
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Ternus, who will become CEO in September, has signalled he wants to rebuild the team’s standing. In a recent internal meeting, he said, “Going to keep focusing on design, because design is core to what we do at Apple.”
He added, “Apple’s brought truly incredible design to more people than any company in history,” noting that the most beautifully designed thing most customers own is an Apple product, and said, “We’re going to make sure that stays the case.”
