If fashion has an analogue in the consumer tech world, Apple would likely take that mantle. The history speaks for itself after years of popularizing entire device categories through the power of design — an ethos that made physical aesthetics as crucial as user experience.
Now the company is ready to sunset the all-important industrial design chief position, after Evans Hankey vacates the role later this year, according to Bloomberg sources.
Hankey, vice president of industrial design and one of WWD and Footwear News’ 50 Most Powerful Women of 2022, took over when legendary Apple design executive Jony Ive resigned in 2019. With more than 20 years at Apple under her belt, she was considered a “lifer” at the company, at least until October, when the company revealed her departure.
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It seemed curious then that no one was named as her successor. Now, with the latest report, it appears that Apple is giving a flatter hierarchy a go, with the 20-person design team reporting directly to Hankey’s boss, chief operating officer Jeff Williams. But the organizational structure may not be entirely flat, as more responsibility will likely go to staffers according to seniority.
Every Apple device goes through rounds of design revisions before landing in the secretive black rooms somewhere deep inside the headquarters, where late-stage units are evaluated and tested. The company takes the look, feel and build quality as seriously as the software features, with few outside high-level executives even seeing the final or even near-final products.
That the company takes design so seriously is no secret. But it makes the decision to end such a crucial role rather surprising. WWD reached out to Apple for comment, but didn’t receive a response before presstime.
The company’s string of technological hits has transformed personal computing, entertainment and commerce, dating all the way back to the snappy new iMac computer in 1998, whose round curves, handle and blue hue enchanted a public tired of big beige boxes. IMacs in fruit-flavored colors followed suit, paving the way for a rainbow of laptops, a sleek iPod, an iPhone smartphone worth standing in blocks-long lines for, a supersized but still elegant experience of the iPad, a premium feeling Apple Watch and more.
Computers, laptops, MP3 players, smartphones, tablets and smartwatches all existed before, but it wasn’t until Apple’s designers, led by Ive, got their hands on them that they became phenomenons.
Hankey has worked on all of these product families and more on the hardware side, while her counterpart on software, Alan Dye, finessed the features and user experience. At least some things will remain the same, though, as Dye isn’t going anywhere.
Cynical analysts and other Apple watchers could see this as simply a cost-cutting measure to eliminate a high-paying position, particularly after Apple’s rare earnings stumble.
This week the company’s earnings for its first fiscal quarter of 2023 showed its first decline in roughly four years and its biggest decrease in seven, with $65.78 billion in revenue marking a drop of 8.17 percent year-over-year. Among other things, the company just wasn’t selling as many devices as the year before, partially because of lockdowns in China that impacted one of its key factories there.
That could all change if Apple introduces an augmented or mixed-reality headset to market, as rumored, particularly if it’s another tech and cultural phenomenon.
But then one must wonder if this would be the most optimal time for the company to ditch its industrial design lead and put a chief operating officer in charge of wrangling that creative team. Apparently, according to the report, they’re not too thrilled with that. (The exception is the Apple Watch, whose hardware engineering falls under another executive, Jon Ternus.)
What happens next could change Apple’s recent fortunes, as well as set a course during an important period for the metaverse and other digital-reality initiatives. This could be the time that cements these technologies for years to come — or tosses them out as just a fad.
Hankey’s words to WWD last year seem as relevant now as they were then: “If we can maintain a tenacious focus on the work, the principles that drive the work, and the people who come together to make it happen, the rest sorts itself out,” she said. “Doing so creates a culture of curiosity, trust and care, where ambition is not about personal ego but rather a force that unites us to make the very best products possible.”