Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Apple’s iPhone design chief jumps ship to work with Jony Ive

Apple’s iPhone and Watch design chief is leaving the company to work with Jony Ive, the man who led Apple’s design decisions until 2019 and who was key in creating the look of some of its most iconic products.

Tang Tan, who joined Apple a decade ago, is heading to the LoveFrom, the design firm set up by Ive after departing the tech giant four years ago, according to Apple tipster and Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman.

Recommended Videos

Citing people familiar with the matter, Gurman said that Tan will lead hardware engineering for a new project set up by Ive and Sam Altman, the AI visionary who co-founded and now heads ChatGPT creator OpenAI.

The Ive/Altman-led venture made headlines in September, with the pair reported at the time to be in talks about creating a product dubbed “the iPhone of artificial intelligence.”

There’s been no public announcement about the ambitious-sounding endeavor, but the news of Tan’s reported move to LoveFrom to help with the venture suggests that it’s still very much moving forward.

According to Gurman, Tan will “shape the look and capabilities of the new products,” but he added that the first products — apparently for the home — remain at an early development stage, with the current focus on building a team that will create concepts.

Gurman notes how Tan’s exit marks a further disintegration of the design team that Ive built at Apple, with more than a dozen members having left since Ive’s departure and only about six remaining in post. It’s reported that more than 20 personnel have moved from Apple to Ive’s LoveFrom.

With a team in place and Ive joining forces with Altman, 2024 will hopefully be the year in which the endeavor drops some big news about its ambitions or even reveals its first product. Other firms are already showcasing phone-replacement devices with AI at their core, so Ive and his crew won’t want to leave it too long before unveiling something themselves.

As for who will take over from Tan at Apple, reports suggest that rather than bringing in a replacement, his duties have been divided up among existing personnel.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
I put Google Gemini on my iPhone. Here’s why I’ll never go back to Siri
Siri in background and Gemini widgets on Lock Screen.

The AI frenzy has gripped every smartphone maker in 2025. Unfortunately, not all of it has been as revolutionary as on-stage presentations would have you believe. A few, however, have done a fantastic job with executing practical AI features.

Google is one of those names, and it continues to do so even on iPhones — at the cost of making Siri look like an outdated relic. The latest build of Google’s Gemini app for iPhones puts the AI chatbot everywhere on Apple’s smartphones, from the lock screen to the share sheet.

Read more
Apple’s big AI overhaul for Siri might take until 2027 to arrive
Summoning Siri on an iPhone.

Apple’s progress with bringing AI to its hardware hasn’t exactly hit the same notes as the progress it has made with computing and wearable endeavors. As competitors such as Google and Microsoft have pushed ahead with deep integration of generative AI tools across their software stack, Siri has remained a laggard.

It seems Siri’s planned AI overhaul could extend well into 2027, as per Bloomberg. “People involved in Apple’s AI work say its foundational and large language models — the basis for its homegrown AI features — are reaching their limits,” says the report.

Read more
Early tests confirm Apple’s new chip significantly boosts iPhone 16e battery life
A press image of the iPhone 16e.

The iPhone 16e will launch officially tomorrow, February 27. Today, the results from the first tests of Apple’s all-new C1 modem for this budget phone have been released, and the news is promising.

Chinese review site Geekerwan conducted various 5G tests on the iPhone 16e’s C1 modem, which is noteworthy because it is Apple’s first modem for the iPhone. The tests revealed that the iPhone 16e’s speeds and reliability matched those of the iPhone 16, which is equipped with a Qualcomm modem. Perhaps even more impressively, Geekerwan found that the C1 modem consumed much less power than its competitor.

Read more