Masked by a gigantic Frankenstorm, Apple announced yesterday that Scott Forstall, the head of iOS, is leaving the company. Blame skeuomorphism. Blame the Maps disaster. Blame an unsigned letter. The reason for the axe is largely irrelevant; the story is less about Scott Forstall being out than Jony Ive being in.
Jony Ive—the man behind the iMac, the iPhone, and the iPad hardware—will be taking a brand new role as head of human interface design alongside his existing role as leader of industrial design. He will run hardware and software. Apparently, after hinting to The Telegraph earlier this year that he was upset with the skeuomorphic designs of Apple’s software, Ive made a powerplay within the company.
