Executive shakeups in big companies aren't a new thing. Many of these resignations and replacements have come and gone. Sometimes, it's a necessary strategy for the company; other times, it's rather complicated and uncalled for.

Latest news of these shakeups is the retirement of Apple's vice president of the design department, Greg Christie. The company confirms in a statement that the long-time software designer has laid down his final cards.

"Greg has been planning to retire later this year after nearly 20 years at Apple. He has made vital contributions to Apple products across the board, and built a world-class Human Interface team which has worked closely with Jony for many years," an Apple spokesperson said to several media outlets.

With his exit, his former team will soon start to report to senior vice president Jony Ive, the latter incorporating the software design group in his current responsibilities.

Christie's retirement seems to leave along a controversy. Research says the retirement allegedly came after a friction ensued between Christie and Ive.

One report claimed that it all started when Ive instructed the Human Interface team to redesign the iOS 7 with an entirely new look. The friction between Christie and Ive turned to have stemmed from the design direction. After which Ive has bypassed allegedly the leadership of Christie while in the process of developing the new operating system.

Then again, as they say, there are always two sides of a story.

Another report said that several sources in and out of Apple revealed the retirement has long been known and planned for. Christie's leaving has been planned to make way for a leadership transition in the Human Interface group. These sources have also said that, if there were any misunderstanding between Christie and Ive, it doesn't seem to have left a gap between the two and be the reason behind the retirement.

Christie has been placed in a role with no direct reports, said to be most often the indicator of retirement at the company, and will still be at the company for a while handling special projects till he finally leaves, the sources also said.

Although these reports have opposing information on what seems to be the real reason behind the retirement, the hardware and software design department has been severely shaken up by the retirement, says additional research.

What's also clear is that Christie's departure occurs months before the significant updates to iOS and OS X. His departure also happens in the midst of a high-profile legal battle between Apple and Samsung in the court of San Jose, California where he recently testified as a witness against Samsung. His retirement has been regarded as possibly the software design team's highest profile departure, too, since Scott Forstall left the company in 2012.

Software creators at the App Store have considered Christie as the herald of Apple's design aesthetic because he regularly holds sessions on application design and review meetings on user-interface with developers at the company's WWDC conferences. He has played a very important role in the company, predominantly with the creation of the first iPhone OS. He also has hundreds of Apple patents under his belt, for instance is the "Slide to Unlock" patent that is now the subject of a second legal battle between Apple and Samsung. He used to work under co-founder Steve Jobs.

Nothing is also clear as to whether he plans to completely retire from the industry or to jump ship.