Seth Weintraub, writing for 9to5mac, digs into the Jony Ive’s promotion to Chief Design Officer over the Memorial Day Weekend.

Seth makes some interesting and well-reasoned points. This announcement was made via the press (in this Telegraph article written by Stephen Fry) and not yet announced on Apple’s press release page. Add to that the fact that a big holiday weekend in the US is traditionally a hidden news cycle, a time when stories are released to blunt their impact.

As an example, it’s unlikely that Apple would announce a new product on Memorial Day weekend. Is it possible this was an unintentional leak, that Apple had a PR plan in place for a later date? Or was this hidden news cycle approach an intentional part of the plan, perhaps designed to ease the stock shock?

Bottom line, Seth makes the case that Jony is one foot out the door, that this promotion is the start of succession planning at Apple. Good read.