Mark Kawano, Storehouse Founder, was a senior designer at Apple for seven years.
I recommend you to read the interview from Fast Co.Design
The best part, for me, is right under the first myth:
Apple Has The Best Designers
It’s actually the engineering culture, and the way the organization is structured to appreciate and support design. Everybody there is thinking about UX and design, not just the designers. And that’s what makes everything about the product so much better… much more than any individual designer or design team.
I believe in that, designers and developers have to work close togheter in order to achieve higher and higher results.