Crazy Consumer Electronics World: Head of design Scott Croyle departs HTC, leaving a legacy of One handsets

The head of design behind HTC's stunning HTC One and HTC One (M8) handsets, Scott Croyle is leaving the Taiwanese company.

HTC confirmed Croyle's plans to leave the smartphone making company with The Verge. After leading HTC's industrial design and user experience teams since 2008, Croyle says he's departing to work on his own project.

However, the former HTC head of design won't sever ties with the company completely. HTC described the move as a "long-term transition" where he will remain involved with HTC product development in a consultancy role for a few months to come.

Projects we imagine include the company's rumored Nexus 8 tablet and smartwatch, and perhaps a future HTC One (M9).

Passing the baton

With Croyle moving out of the limelight Jonah Becker will assume responsibility of the studio after standing in as the former head of design's right-hand man.

In one other design team shuffle, Drew Bamford will now oversee all of HTC's software and service instead of just the Sense user experience. With these changes the company plans consolidate its user experience team in the same way it restructured the industrial design and engineering team.

Over the past year many members of HTC's executive team have jumped ship, but Croyle's departure could represent a tonal shift for the company's products. Croyle was responsible for not only the machined industrial design of the HTC One line but the continued use of the Ultra Pixel camera.

We'll likely see the legacy of Croyle craftsmanship for the near future but who knows what HTC will have in store for us in the next year or two.