Apple CEO Tim Cook is about to take over one of the most significant parts of Apple’s business: its design team. The team currently reports to COO Jeff Williams, but once Williams begins his just-announced retirement “late in the year,” the design team “will then transition to reporting directly to Cook,” Apple says.
The company is currently in the midst of a huge software design transition with its new “universal” Liquid Glass design language, which will roll out across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other devices later this year. It uses real-time rendering to show things like content scrolling under glassy buttons.
Liquid Glass “combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve, as it transforms depending on your content or context,” according to Alan Dye, Apple’s VP of Human Interface Design. “It lays the foundation for new experiences in the future and, ultimately, it makes even the simplest of interactions more fun and magical.”
Apple calls Liquid Glass its “broadest software design update ever,” taking inspiration from the Vision Pro’s AR interfaces with heavy doses of transparency and glass shine effects everywhere. But recent beta releases have slightly toned down the glass effect with more frost applied for readability.
Mark Gurman has reported for Bloomberg that the glass concept will also extend to its hardware, like the “Glasswing” 20th anniversary iPhone in 2027 that’s rumored to have slim bezels, curved glass sides all around, and no cutout section in the screen.
That unified approach could apply to rumored products like a slimmer iPhone “Air,” a foldable iPhone, and entirely new types of devices like a potential smart home display or smart glasses.
When former chief design officer Jony Ive left Apple, the company announced that Dye and Evans Hankey, who headed up hardware, would report to Williams. Hankey eventually left Apple and is now working on OpenAI’s design team following its acquisition of Ive’s hardware company.
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