Key iPhone Air designer leaves Apple for AI startup

Abidur Chowdhury, a key designer who worked on the iPhone Air, has left the company and joined an unnamed AI startup, according to insiders quoted by Bloomberg.

Chowdhury can be seen in the iPhone Air introductory video embedded below. While he wasn’t the only driving force behind the design, his departure has had an impact on the design team, claim the insiders.

Chowdhury joined Apple around six years ago – around the same time that famed designer Jony Ive left to form his own creative agency called LoveFrom. Another project that Ive was involved in, called io, was bought by OpenAI (but Ive and LoveFrom remain independent).

Anyway, the iPhone Air may not be selling well - and sales performance is reportedly unrelated to why Chowdhury left - but at least Apple hasn’t thrown in the towel. We have heard rumors that the iPhone Air 2 is delayed, but it hasn’t been canceled. Things aren’t looking as good for Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Edge.

Source (paywall)

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