Bloomberg is reporting on changes at Apple’s with the departure of Evans Hankey, the company’s VP of industrial design, who will not be replaced.
Instead, the company’s core group of about 20 industrial designers will report to Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. The company will also give larger roles to a group of Apple’s longest-tenured designers. Hankey has reported to Williams since taking the job in 2019, when top designer Jony Ive left to start his own firm.
Bloomberg
As we have previously said, Apple’s in-house manufacturing is a sign of a land grab to own more of its own product real estate, and to push incremental improvements in profit margins. This is simply another sign that the company is a process-oriented, manufacturing-led business now. Products have matured, it isn’t being run by Steve Jobs, and the sheer size of the company makes it hard to see any significant change to its fortunes that are not the result of general macroeconomic conditions.
In other words, Apple is getting to be more like a Samsung. Will the mystique of Apple wear off as a result. It has 2 billion users. That won’t wear off any time soon, but the company is not immune to pressure. Let’s see if anyone can take advantage of the chinks in its armor.
