The world's most famous designer has been at the centre

of Apple's innovations for more than 20 years.

His candy coloured iMacs helped to rescue Apple from the brink

of bankruptcy in the late 1990s.

Then, the iPod and the iPhone changed our relationship

with technology.

So, the clear goal was how we can

make the product accessible, not intimidating;

how we can make it just so simple to use?

But now, Jony is changing his relationship with Apple.

Just don't call it a break-up.

When I spoke to Jony this week, he

told me that he would be starting

a new venture of his own called LoveFrom,

with Apple as his first client.

Jony told me he hopes to stay very

involved in Apple's product development

for many, many years to come.

Still, his departure later this year

will mark the end of an era for Apple.

To create something that's genuinely new,

you have to start again, and I think with great intent,

you disconnect from the past.

Jony was Steve Jobs's closest ally

in dreaming up everything, from breakthrough

new products to its new headquarters at Apple Park.

The incredible run of hits that they produced together

is unmatched in Silicon Valley and beyond,

turning Apple at one point into the world's

most profitable and valuable company.

But despite the continued success

of the iPhone after Jobs's death and the popularity

of wearable devices, such as Apple Watch and AirPods

in the last couple of years, Apple

is no longer the world's most valuable company.

Today, it is Microsoft, not Apple,

that is valued at more than a trillion dollars,

as investors fret about a sudden drop in iPhone sales

and the impact of the US-China trade war.

Jony insists that none of that is why he is leaving right now.

Instead, I got a sense from him that, even

with all the resources at his disposal inside Apple,

he wanted to make his mark outside the tech industry.

That expansion had already begun with his work

on Apple Park, where his tight knit design

team has a new studio designed to foster

greater collaboration.

But it is perhaps telling that despite an expanded design

role for Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating

officer, and an experienced team of designers under him,

nobody else at Apple will be taking Jony's title

of chief design officer.

At Apple, it seems, Jony Ive is irreplaceable,

even when he no longer works there.