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Whether it’s due to stagnant visions on smartphone design or something as simple as the inevitable motions of life, for one reason or another HTC has yet again lost their lead product designer. Jonah Becker announced his departure from the company today.
Becker was part of One & Co., a design firm that was acquired by HTC about 6 years ago. His business partner Scott Croyle had been the vice president of industrial design since the deal was made back in 2008, and Becker found himself promoted to that position once Croyle vacated it.
So what’s next? HTC has already decided to slot creative director Daniel Hundt into the role and focus on product design for mobile devices. Meanwhile, the lone remaining figurehead from One & Co. — Claude Zellweger — will continue in the role he has played as lead designer for HTC’s connected devices (such as the HTC RE Camera, Vive and Grip).
We can confirm that Jonah Becker has left HTC; he had been with the Company since HTC acquired One & Co over six years ago. We would like to thank Jonah for his work with HTC, and wish him all the best in his future endeavours. He has been succeeded by Daniel Hundt, based in our San Francisco design office.
Many will likely jump to conclusions and point to the underwhelming response of the HTC One M9 as the driving force behind this move, but it’s never wise to speculate. It’s important to remember that HTC is going through a very significant shift from the top down, with Cher Wang — co-founder to the Taiwanese company — having been announced as Peter Chou’s successor just a week ago. We imagine many more changes in executive management are on tap, and we’d do well not to overreact.
[via Engadget]
Surprising since the design transformation between the M8 and M9 was so drastic! /s
I think we can forgive HTC for barely altering the look between two phones. Apple takes it a step further. They will not change the look at all with the “s” phones, but put a small bump in specs.
The design of their phone has not changed since the M7, that is now 3 generations of the same big bezels and wasted space
A lot of people have amnesia when it comes to HTC. Laziness/complacency will hurry them most, failure to adapt to the changing market. Big bezels is their trade mark, like the home button is for Samsung
Rats and a sinking ship come to mind.. Kind of like RIM…
not surprised….maybe he got a job at Apple?
HTC will be Blackberry 2.0! This company sucks. People can see a sinking ship, that’s good he left before it did
I had high hopes since I had the DNA but have been disappointed by the size of the phone. Was hoping they would fix that on the M9 or the M9 plus but nothing doing. I agree HTC is pretty much done. But unlike blackberry which has a huge global presence still HTC does not. Blackberry passport looks promising with Amazon Appstore on board. We will see
He probably saw the results of Phandroid’s Galaxy S6 vs HTC M9 poll yesterday.
lol Ouch.
Not surprised. I’m severely disappointed by HTC… and their sales numbers will show that several people feel the same. I talked my GF into getting an M8 and returning her S5. I’d slap her silly if she even thought of going for the M9 this year tho…?
Domestic violence is not the answer
When the pimp hand is strong… it’s always the answer.
HTC has settled on a design so they don’t need any designers at this point.
I’ll take the M7 with no black bar and micro sd, with upgraded internals and screen, I loved that M7, Look
That’s what I’m saying!! The M7 looks very nice!! I like the design over the M8/M9.
He probably didn’t get along with the new CEO.
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