Does Apple's key designer want out?

According to a report in the UK’s Sunday Times, Jonathan Ive (pictured), Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, wants to move back to the UK.

Ive is the man responsible for the look and design of Apple’s biggest hardware products such as the iPod.

In 2008 the Daily Telegraph rated him the most influential Briton in America.

While Apple is keeping tight-lipped on the subject, Ive reportedly wants to commute back and forth to Cupertino, California from his manor house in Somerset.

Apple’s board is said to be against the idea.

Apparently a friend of the Ive family told the Sunday Times, "Unfortunately he is just too valuable to Apple and they told him in no uncertain terms that if he headed back to England he would not be able to sustain his position with them.”

Read up on the many hardware products Ive has listed on his CV over on this Wiki page.