Apple is ending its consulting agreement with Jony Ive, its former head of design

Three years after promising to work "long in the future" with the man behind his candy-colored computers, Apple and Mr. Ive have moved on.< / p>

SAN FRANCISCO — When Apple's influential design leader Jony Ive left the company in 2019, its chief executive Tim Cook reassured customers that Mr. Ive, the man who gave the world candy-colored computers, would work exclusively with the company for many years.

Not anymore.

Mr. . Ive and Apple have agreed to stop working together, according to two people familiar with their contractual agreement, ending a three-decade run in which the designer helped define every rounded corner of an iPhone and guided the development of its only new product category in recent times. years, the Apple Watch.

When Mr. Ive left Apple in 2019 to start his own design company, LoveFrom, the iPhone maker signed with him a multi-year contract worth more than $100 million. That made Apple his company's biggest customer, people familiar with the deal said.

The deal prevented Mr. Ive from accepting a work that Apple found competitive and ensured that the designer would inform the development of future products, such as an augmented reality headset that it is expected to ship next year, the people said.

In recent weeks, with the contract coming to an end, the parties have agreed not to extend it. Some Apple executives had questioned how much the company was paying Mr. Ive and grew frustrated after several of its designers left to join Mr. Ive's company. And Mr. Ive wanted the freedom to accept customers without needing Apple's permission, these people said.

Through a spokesman Mr Ive, 55, declined to comment. Apple also declined to comment.

Before he left Apple in June 2019, Mr. Ive had grown disillusioned as Mr. Cook pushed the company further. plus huge focuses more on operations than big design leaps, according to more than a dozen people who worked closely with Mr. Ive. The designer transitioned to a part-time role as Mr. Cook focused on selling more software and services.

In July 2019, Mr. Cook called media coverage of Mr. Ive's frustrations at Apple "absurd" and said it "distorts relationships, decisions and events".

Mr. Cook's strategy has been validated by investors who have added $1.5 trillion to Apple's market valuation in just over two years, even as some analysts chastised him for the lull in his IPO. breakthrough devices.

Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer, will continue to oversee the company's design teams, with industrial design led by Evans Hankey and Software Design by Alan Dye. Apple's product marketing team, led by Greg Joswiak, senior vice president of marketing, took a central role in product choices.

Mr. Ive's business, LoveFrom, will continue to work with clients such as Airbnb and Ferrari, and Mr. Ive will continue his personal work with Sustainable Markets Initiative, the Prince Charles-led nonprofit that focuses on climate change.

Born and raised outside of London, Mr. Ive joined Apple in 1992 and took over as head of its design team. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1997 when Steve Jobs commissioned Mr. Ive's team to design the iMac. The bulbous, translucent computer became, at the time, the best-selling desktop computer in history. This restored Apple's business and made Mr. Ive Mr. Jobs' closest aide.

"He's not just a designer", Mr. Jobs told his biographer, Walter Isaacson. "He has more operational power than anyone at Apple except me."

Mr. I also developed the