The design shakeup at Apple will result in Christie soon leaving the company, with all software designers now working directly under Ive with the rest of his industrial design team instead of within Federighi’s engineering group. Sources say that Christie’s upcoming departure is significant and stems from a falling out with Ive.
Greg Christie is an important figure at Apple and will certainly be a loss for the company, but it makes a lot of sense for all design teams to report to Jony Ive. The news would be much worse if it was Ive leaving.