Why does he have to go somewhere? Why not retire? Or do something he like? The problem with designing iPhone or any Apple products, is that he has so much constraint he cant really do much creative thinking any more. You need a new iPhone every year, and new design every few years, with tweaking of design in between. The design has to be able to be manufactured up to 100M unit a year. I suppose they even measure output with units per day. Materials will now have to be recyclable. And they cant cost more than X amount etc.

Then there is burn out I presume? He said he was deeply tired after doing the Apple Watch. That is roughly 3 years after Steve Jobs pass away. Steve was his best friend, and they both lift each other, and I assume Steve would motivate people, challenge each of these genius do something they thought they cant, but somehow all managed. Without their spiritual leader I assume the heavy burden is quite hard to bear. And people would burn out...

May be when Steve was around, working was fun at Apple. Now it is more like work for him. And so he decided to leave and enjoy life doing things he like.

Why Bizarrely? The guy is probably worth millions if not tens of millions. He can probably live a lavish life off of 4% gains for the rest of his life and there is nothing wrong with that.

I said bizarrely because in these situations the media & general public seem to always think that people like this can't survive without work. The guy is undoubtedly incredibly passionate about design and almost certainly a workaholic. The grandparent is talking about him going on design the future of automobiles - maybe, maybe not. It felt like I was suggesting something against the grain, which was why I prefaced it with "bizarrely".

The guy is worth north of 400 million.

I think you mean, how would he top this. Why does he need to? Why can't he just ... pull a Woz and kinda tinker around?