Abidur Chowdhury, the industrial designer who debuted Apple’s iPhone Air to the world just two months ago when the company tapped him to talk about the phone in its launch video, has left the company for an unnamed artificial intelligence startup. Bloomberg messages. The departure adds to the challenges for the ultra-slim device, which has struggled with disappointing sales since its September launch. It’s another big loss for Apple’s design division, which has seen near-total turnover since 2019. legendary design chief Jony Ive has left.
Chowdhury spent more than six years at Apple and earned a high-profile assignment narrating a two-minute iPhone Air design video at the company’s September event. His departure reportedly caused an internal shake-up given his growing importance in the design team. However Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman said that his departure was not related to the extraordinary market performance of the iPhone Air.
The timing highlights the difficult trajectory for the iPhone Air, which Apple has positioned between the base iPhone 17 and the higher-end iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max in terms of price, even though the phone’s camera and battery life aren’t as good as either of those phones, including the cheaper iPhone 17. The iPhone Air starts at $999 or $999. the total iPhone 17 Pro package is just $100 more at $1,099.
Despite its design accolades — the iPhone Air is Apple’s thinnest iPhone at 5.6 millimeters — the device has faced what industry analysts describe as “virtually no demand.” Apple expected the device to account for 6 to 8% of new iPhone sales, which would roughly match the replacement iPhone 16 Plus. Bloomberg. Instead, production has been cut sharply, with reports from Apple’s supply chain showing that phone production has been cut by more than 80 percent by the new year, one supply chain executive said. Nikkei Asia that production orders have been reduced to near “end of production” levels
Despite disappointing sales, the second-generation iPhone Air in 2027 Bloomberg. The update will focus on improving battery life and possibly adding another camera lens to convince customers that buying an Air isn’t a step down if you care about smartphone photography.
Chowdhury joined Apple in 2019, around the same time Ive left the company, ending an era that lasted until Steve Jobs’ tenure. Before Apple, Chowdhury worked at UK-based companies including Layer, Cambridge Consultants and Curventa, according to his LinkedIn profile, and in 2018-2019 ran his consultancy Abidur Chowdhury Design. He holds a BA in Product Design and Technology from Loughborough University in the UK.