9to5Mac is reporting that Apple Human Interface VP, Greg Christie, is out at Apple following a dust up with design luminary and Senior VP, Jony Ive. Citing sources familiar with the matter, word is Ive will completely subsume Apple’s software design group by taking over Christie’s responsibilities as head of Human Interface Design. Ive has been providing direction to the team since 2012, but Christie had reported directly to Software Engineering Senior VP Craig Federighi. With Christie’s departure, all software designers will now work under Ive with the rest of the industrial design team rather than within Federighi’s engineering group.
Ive had reportedly clashed previously over the design direction of iOS7, after which Ive was said to have circumvented Christie’s leadership. Christie’s departure comes a few months before the release of iOS 8 this fall, and just a few weeks after Apple trotted him out to press as part of the company’s most recent lawsuit with Samsung. Christie is notable for his longtime service at Apple, and role in the development of the Newtown and the original iPhone.
Christie’s departure, following Scott Forstall’s recent exit and the death of Steve Jobs, makes it clear that Apple’s design identity now completely rests in Ive’s hands.
[source]9to5Mac[/source]
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