Apple vice president of iPhone and Apple Watch product design Tang Tan is departing the company in a move that will lead to changes in the hardware engineering group, reports Bloomberg. Tan, who reports to Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus, is set to leave Apple in February.
Tan's exit from the company will see several employees that work under Ternus and Tan receiving expanded roles. Head of iPhone product design Richard Dinh will take over iPhone development for Tan and will report directly to Ternus, while Mac hardware engineering vice president Kate Bergeron will handle Apple Watch design.
Tan also oversaw accessory design and the acoustics team that develops the AirPods, with those two groups being handed over to Matthew Costello, the former chief operating officer of Beats. Costello is in already in charge of Beats and the HomePod.
Apple employees that spoke to Bloomberg have called Tan's departure "a blow" because he is responsible for making critical decisions about the iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods. His team has control over product features and design.
News of Tan's departure comes just a few days after Bloomberg reported that Steve Hotelling, an Apple hardware VP, is set to retire. Hotelling leads the camera engineering team and has worked on Face ID, Touch ID, haptic feedback, ProMotion, and other key Apple technologies.
