HTC Loses Another Lead Designer in Less Than a Year

[dgstorm]

It seems that HTC is having a hard time holding on to lead designers. HTC's VP of Industrial Design, Jonah Becker, just announced via Twitter that he is leaving the company. Becker replaced Scott Croyle (the designer who created the One M7 and One M8) not quite a year ago. No details have been shared as to why Becker is leaving the company, although it's easy to speculate that it had something to do with Cher Wang taking over.

Of course, it's also possible he was asked to leave considering the new HTC One M9 didn't really change the design of from the previous generation very much. While many are fans of the subtle changes, it has been widely publicized across the web that it seemed like the "safe" approach. Bloggers have complained that the new HTC One M9 should have taken more chances with a more update aesthetic, or that HTC didn't do good enough PR to convince users on what makes the HTC One M9 special compared to the previous gen.

On top of the Tweet, HTC confirmed Becker's departure,

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.

Source: Engadget