Jony Ive is Leaving Apple, But His Departure Started Long Ago – Wall Street Journal

As the deadline loomed for the 10th anniversary iPhone, Apple Inc.’s top software designers gathered in the penthouse of an exclusive San Francisco club called The Battery.

They had been summoned some 50 miles from the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters to demonstrate planned features of the product to Jony Ive, Apple’s design chief, who seldom came to the office anymore from his San Francisco home.

For…