Apple executive Tang Tan will leave in February next year, and the iPhone department will welcome a new helm.

CTOnews.com, December 9 (Xinhua)-- Tang Tan, Apple's vice president of product design, will leave in February next year, leading to major changes in Apple's hardware engineering department, according to Bloomberg.

Tan reports to John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, and is responsible for the design of iPhone and Apple Watch products.

After the departure of Tan, Apple will promote several employees under Ternus and Tan, with the following major changes attached to CTOnews.com:

Richard Dinh, head of product design at iPhoneiPhone, will take over the iPhone development work of Tan and will report directly to Ternus.

Kate Bergeron, vice president of hardware engineering at Apple WatchMac, will be responsible for the design of Apple Watch.

AirPodsTan also oversees the acoustics team for accessories design and development of AirPods, which were handed over to Matthew Costello;, former chief operating officer of Beats, while Costello is already in charge of the Beats and HomePod product lines.

Employees interviewed by Bloomberg said Tan was in charge of key decisions for iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods, and that his departure would hurt team morale.