After almost a year as HTC's VP of industrial design, Jonah Becker has announced on Twitter his decision to leave. Becker earned his post after replacing Scott Croyle, HTC's longtime chief of design and his co-principal at One & Co. design studio.
In taking over Croyle's industrial design responsibilities, Becker focused more on smartphones, while another co-principal, Claude Zellweger, spent more time on the company's connected devices, such as the Vive VR headset and the HTC Grip fitness band.
Becker, along with Croyle, joined HTC six years ago after the Taiwanese company acquired their design studio One & Co. His announcement came merely a week after HTC had an executive revamp.
Last week, HTC appointed chairwoman Cher Wang as the new CEO. Her predecessor, Peter Chou, will be focusing more on the company's upcoming Future Development Lab.
HTC confirmed Becker's departure and named Creative Director Daniel Hundt as his successor.
"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 endeavors. He has been succeeded by Daniel Hundt, based in our San Francisco design office," HTC told Engadget.
It should be noted that HTC's change of CEOs and now also of its smartphone design head occurred in the month following the company's official announcement of the One M9. So far, the One M9's design has been criticized for bearing similar attributes to those of its older siblings.
Not much has been said on the actual reason behind Becker's decision to leave. One of Becker's past tweets showed him in a photo with co-principals Scott Croyle and Claude Zellweger, which gave the impression that their group was indeed a close-knit team. Now that the M9 project is done and has been fully completed, Becker may just be following Croyle on his way out of the company.
There is also speculation that the reason for leaving is internal pressure. Sources say that an ever increasing power struggle seems to exist between the company's design team and sales team.
Whatever the reason, Becker made sure that his announcement on Twitter had a positive tone.
Becker tweeted:
It's been an amazing seventeen year journey with One & Co and HTC, but it's time for a new adventure. Stay tuned for details of what's next.
— Jonah Becker (@JonahABecker) March 26, 2015
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns I Flickr
