Apple Has Ended Its Partnership with Jony Ive

Apple has reportedly ended the consulting agreement with its former chief design officer Jony Ive.

According to The New York Times, which cites sources with knowledge of the contractual agreement, the contract between Ive and the company was coming to an end in the summer of 2022 and the parties decided not to renew it.

Ive joined Apple in 1992 and guided the development of many Apple products including iPhone, iMac, the iPod’s white headphones, and Apple Watch. The designer left the company in 2019 to start his own firm called LoveFrom.

Following Ive's departure, he and Apple entered into a contractual agreement worth more than $100 million making Apple LoveFrom's primary client, although it "restricted Mr. Ive from taking on work that Apple found competitive."

The NYT's sources claim that the reasons why the two parties decided to end the agreement include the fact that some Apple executives started to question whether it was appropriate to continue paying Ive huge sums of money. They also state that the executives "had grown frustrated" after many Apple's designers had left the company to join Ive's team. Besides, according to the sources, Ive wanted to access customers without having to ask permission from Apple.

Following the end of the agreement, Apple's design team will continue to be led by Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, although the NYT notes that the company's product marketing team has "assumed a central role in product choices."