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iPhone Air designer Abidur Chowdhury quits Apple
CUPERTINO: Apple has lost one of its rising stars. Abidur Chowdhury, the industrial designer who helped build the iPhone Air and fronted its slick launch video, has quit the California giant to join an artificial intelligence startup, the LA Times reported on Tuesday, 18 November.
The move has caused a flutter inside Apple, say people familiar with the matter, given Chowdhury’s growing clout within the design ranks. He was hand-picked to introduce the iPhone Air at the firm’s September 2025 event, appearing in a two-minute film detailing the device’s design journey, an assignment usually reserved for the company’s most trusted creatives. Apple refused to comment.
Chowdhury, born and raised in England, studied product design and technology at Loughborough University. He began his career as an industrial design intern at Cambridge Consultants in 2015, followed by a stint at Curventa in 2016. In 2017, he joined Layer Design as an industrial designer before moving into freelance consulting in 2018. Apple hired him in January 2019, shortly after design chief Jony Ive’s departure marked the end of an era stretching back to Steve Jobs.
During his six-plus years in Cupertino, Chowdhury played a key role in shaping the iPhone Air and contributed heavily to its marketing push, according to the news report. His LinkedIn profile still lists him as an Apple employee as of 18 November 2025.
His exit is said to be unrelated to the phone’s debut. Apple is already gearing up for a second generation of the iPhone Air in 2027, Bloomberg reported. Silicon Valley is now watching what Chowdhury cooks up next, as his shift from hardware hero to AI adventurer signals that the real design battles may only just be starting.
