Abidur Chowdhury, the industrial designer who helped shape the iPhone Air, has left Apple. Reports say he has joined an unnamed AI startup.
“His exit made waves internally, given his rising profile within the design team,” according to a Bloomberg report.
iPhone Air’s lead designer leaves Apple
The iPhone Air is one of Apple’s most ambitious iPhone revamps in years. The phone stands out for its super-thin profile, which Apple even highlighted during its “Awe Dropping” September 9 event.
Abidur Chowdhury starred in the nearly 2-minute video, detailing the iPhone Air’s design and manufacturing process.
Chowdhury joined Apple in 2019 and quickly rose through the ranks. Bloomberg notes that his departure has nothing to do with the iPhone Air’s launch, though it’s still unclear which AI startup he has moved to.
With COO Jeff Williams retiring recently, Apple’s design team now directly reports to Tim Cook.
High-profile exits rock Apple’s several divisions
For the longest time, Jony Ive led Apple’s design team. But since his exit in 2019, things have not been the same inside the company.
Several other high-profile industrial designers have since left Apple. This includes Evans Hankey, who succeeded Ive, Tang Tan and Cyrus Daniel. These executives worked at Apple for 15 years or longer. And that’s from the design team alone.
Apple’s AI team has seen its own set of high-profile exits in the last year. The company has lost several talented AI researchers to Meta, including Ke Yang, who led the “answer engine” project.
Chowdhury’s departure won’t affect Apple’s plans to launch the iPhone Air 2, which supposedly debuts in H1 2027.
Rajesh has been closely following and writing about the latest happenings in the world of mobile for nearly a decade now. While he prefers Android, he does not deny the superiority of Apple’s products and ecosystem.
