Jony Ive was reportedly 'dispirited' by Tim Cook

Jony Ive is leaving as Apple's chief design officer after years of growing "distant" from the company's leadership and feeling "dispirited" by CEO Tim Cook, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Though Ive's departure was just recently announced, it was a long time coming, according to this report. It seemed as far back as 2017 that Ive was "gone but reluctant to hand over the reins," a source said, with the report also saying that Ive was "frustrated inside a more operations-focused company led by Chief Executive Tim Cook."

One source of frustration, the Journal writes, is that those in Apple's design studio rarely saw Cook, and so Ive was "dispirited" by Cook showing "little interest in the product development process." Additionally, Ive was reportedly "frustrated as Apple's board became increasingly populated by directors with backgrounds in finance and operations rather than technology or other areas of the company’s core business."

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Bloomberg had previously reported on the lead-up to Ive's departure at Apple, noting that following the Apple Watch's launch in 2015, he began coming into headquarters "as little as twice a week."

Ive had reportedly clashed with Apple's leadership over this Apple Watch launch, with The Wall Street Journal reporting that he saw it as being primarily a fashion accessory rather than an iPhone extension, as Apple's leaders wanted to position it as. "The result was a compromise," the Journal notes. Read the full report at The Wall Street Journal.