There's a perception, whether deserved or not, that Apple can't seem to retain truly innovative talent these days. As a case in point, look no further than the designer of the iPhone Air, Abidur Chowdhury, who has now left Apple for greener pastures.
Mark Gurman: The designer of iPhone Air, Abidur Chowdhury, has left Apple for a stint at an unnamed startup
As per the latest reporting by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Abidur Chowdhury, the designer of iPhone Air and a rising star within Apple, has left his cushy job with the Cupertino giant to pursue a stint at an AI startup. Interestingly, Chowdhury's LinkedIn profile still displays Apple as his current employer.
Gurman does take pains to note that Chowdhury's departure appears unrelated to the flagging sales of the ultra-thin iPhone. After all, as per a separate report from Gurman over the weekend, Apple always expected the iPhone Air to constitute between 6 percent and 8 percent of its annual iPhone sales, and that the ultra-thin smartphone retains utility for Apple as an experimental platform for testing out new technology.
We noted recently that Apple might be delaying the iPhone Air 2 to 2027 to equip it with a dual camera setup. Gurman, however, does not buy into that theory, arguing that redesigning the smartphone's plateau for the "least used iPhone camera seems like a lot of work for a phone that few people are buying."
Instead, the Bloomberg tipster thinks the delay might have a lot to do with the upcoming A20 chip that will leverage TSMC's 2nm process, replete with Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module (WMCM) packaging, which would allow components such as the SoC and the DRAM to be directly integrated at the wafer level.
Given the production constraints around TSMC's 2nm node, Apple's launch cadence changes - which would see the iPhone Air launch with the iPhone 18 and the iPhone 18e in the spring of 2027 instead of the fall of 2026 - might be an efficient way of managing limited supply for the A20 chip.
Apple's chronic talent bleed problem
Meanwhile, as stated earlier, Apple appears to be bleeding talent left, right, and center, and not just in the highly competitive AI space. In fact, Apple's core iPhone design team is also bleeding talent to Jony Ive's io, which was recently acquired by OpenAI in its quest for an "iPhone Killer" device, packaged in a screenless, pocket-sized form factor.
As per the latest available news on the device's status, OpenAI has hired around two dozen Apple employees, including designers, hardware engineers, and user interface specialists, to work on the so-called "iPhone Killer." Some of these prominent hires from Apple include Matt Theobald, a manufacturing design expert, and Cyrus Daniel Irani, the lead on human interface design.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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