A tiny change to a LinkedIn profile has fueled more speculation about Jony Ive's future at Apple

Harper Alexander, a key aide to Apple's newly-promoted Chief Design Officer Johnny Ive, updated his LinkedIn profile this week to indicate that he is no longer working for the senior executive, 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman reports.

Ive was previously senior vice president of design and has since been promoted to chief design officer. However, since the title change announced at the end of May, there has been speculation that the promotion isn't actually a path to take on more responsibility in the company, but a conduit to eventually leave Apple.

The news that one less person will be reporting to Ive - when he should be expanding his managerial duties - adds weight to the theory that Ive's days at Apple are numbered.

Ive is moving away from managerial duties

Two other big changes to the design team were announced at the same time of Ive's promotion in May. Two of Ive's longstanding lieutenants would take up new roles, handling day-to-day responsibilities and letting Ive pursue more "blue sky thinking." Richard Howarth, another Brit, became the new head of industrial design. Alan Dye, an "amiable American" who worked extensively on the Apple Watch, became the new head of user interface.

The assumption had been that the duo, who have worked with Ive in various capacities for years, would directly report to him in his new role as chief design officer. But apparently not.

When Howarth and Dye's executive profiles were added to Apple's website this week, it revealed that they would both report directly to CEO Tim Cook, rather than Ive, the logical choice.

As Business Insider's Jay Yarow points out, "Cook now has 17 direct reports, which is a lot. Jack Welch, the legendary GE CEO, believed CEOs should only have 10-15 direct reports."

Ive could be being paid a LOT of money

So what's going on? One theory - first proposed by fund manager Eric Jackson - is that it's all about keeping Ive's pay package secret. American execs are obliged to declare how much they're paid: It's how we know Apple's head of retail Angela Ahrendts is the best-paid female executive in the US.

Jackson talked to a "prominent securities lawyer," who told him it's possible for Ive to sidestep these disclosure obligations so long as he doesn't have a key policymaking role. Without the design team reporting to him, Ive can avoid declaring his salary - which is almost certain to be substantially greater than most other Apple employees.

As Jackson put it in May: "I believe yesterday's announcement was done entirely to continue to shield Jony Ive's compensation from disclosure to the SEC and therefore from the public."

We may be nearing the end of the Jony Ive-era

There's another - and potentially more plausible - explanation: Ive is nearing the end of his time at Apple.

The news of Ive's "promotion" first came via a highly-positive piece in the Telegraph written by the actor Steve Fry. As well as giving Ive more space for "blue sky thinking," the reorganisation will also let the design chief "travel more," according to Fry.

At the time of the news, Apple blogger John Gruber suggested Ive might return to live in England. And 9to5Mac editor Seth Weintraub pointed out Ive almost left Apple entirely to move home in 2011, until they paid him more to stay on. It's difficult to help manage a company as complex as Apple when you're frequently on the road - much less if you're living on another continent to every other executive. It sounds an awful lot like Ive is divulging his responsibilities ahead of an eventual exit.

The news that Alexander no longer works for Ive, which came by way of an update to his LinkedIn profile on July 1, adds more evidence to this. Alexander's profile now reads:

I was executive assistant to Jonathan Ive - his calendar, travel, media inquiries, correspondence, reservations, contractors, security philanthropy,e vents, expenses, and large-scale personal projects.

Note the key word: Was.

According to Gurman, this mean that Ive no longer has a single person directly reporting to him. (After Gurman reached out to Alexander for comment, the change was reverted, and his website was deleted.)

The Apple Watch: Jony Ive's swan song?

During Steve Jobs' last years, he and Ive had an extraordinarily fruitful relationship. And after Jobs' passing, Ive's influence on Apple grew ever greater. Google Ventures partner MG Siegler recently wrote earlier this year that the Apple Watch stands for "a new Apple that is just as much about fashion as it is about function. This is no longer Steve Jobs' crossroad of technology and liberal arts. It's the fork in the road between technology, liberal arts, and fashion. Jony Ive's fork."

Apple's upper echelons are now increasingly filled with figures from the fashion and luxury goods industries. Ahrendts, formerly of Burberry, is the most obvious example, but the technology company has also poached from Yves Saint Laurent, Nike, and Tag Heuer.

A profile in the New Yorker of the Jony Ive revealed he was the one pushing so hard for a $10,000 Apple Watch - despite the concerns of others at Apple. A former colleague, Clive Grinyer, told the New Yorker that Ive has "always been a bit bling," and that he has "always wanted to do luxury." We're seeing the results of this: In January, it was announced that Apple's products are now the most popular luxury gifts in China, beating out Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel for the top spot.

Under Jony Ive's design stewardship, Apple has made the transformation from a pure technology company to a hybrid luxury goods company. The Apple Watch, selling for a staggering $17,000, is the perfect embodiment of this. And now, with his vision finally realised, Ive may be preparing to stand aside.