Apple CEO John Ternus
John Ternus has officially taken over from Tim Cook as Apple CEO. With his first major Apple event just days away, attention is already turning to what a hardware engineer might do differently — and Apple fans have plenty of suggestions.
Apple has entered a new era.
After 15 years with Tim Cook as chief executive, John Ternus officially took over the top job on 1 September, with Cook moving into the role of executive chairman.
Ternus isn’t an outsider brought in to shake things up. He has spent years inside Apple and, most importantly, comes from the part of the company responsible for actually building its products.
Before becoming CEO, Ternus was Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering and had been closely involved with products including the iPhone, Mac, iPad, AirPods and Apple Watch.
That makes his appointment particularly interesting.
For years, Apple has been judged not simply on whether its devices work, but on whether it can still produce the sort of product that makes people stop, look and immediately want one.
Now a hardware engineer is sitting in the CEO’s chair.
And Apple customers already have a shopping list.
Forget the distant future — some people just want the iPhone mini back
Much of the technology industry is currently obsessed with artificial intelligence, smart glasses, wearable computing and whatever might eventually replace the smartphone.
Apple undoubtedly has to think about all of those things.
Its customers, however, sometimes have considerably simpler requests.
Bring back the smaller iPhone.
Give us an iPod again.
Put useful accessories in the box.
And, while you’re at it, could somebody finally redesign the Magic Mouse so it doesn’t need to be turned over while charging?
That last one has become one of Apple’s longest-running design jokes.
It highlights something important about the challenge facing Ternus: innovation doesn’t always have to mean inventing an entirely new category of device.
Sometimes it means fixing the little things that annoy people every single day.
Could Apple rediscover some of its old product magic?
There is a certain nostalgia around Apple products that shouldn’t be underestimated.
The iPod wasn’t merely a music player. For an entire generation, it was one of the defining pieces of technology they owned.
The smaller iPhone mini also developed a loyal following among people who didn’t want every new smartphone to become increasingly enormous.
Neither necessarily needs to return exactly as it was.
But the enthusiasm surrounding older Apple products tells the new CEO something useful: customers still care deeply about physical design.
That’s potentially good news for Ternus.
His background isn’t primarily in finance, marketing or services. It is hardware engineering.
Apple’s board highlighted his technical knowledge and focus on creating products when announcing him as Cook’s successor.
So perhaps the most interesting question isn’t whether Ternus will reinvent Apple overnight.
It’s whether Apple will start feeling a little more product-led again.
AI is the much bigger challenge
There is, of course, an elephant in Cupertino.
Artificial intelligence.
Apple is competing in a technology landscape increasingly shaped by AI assistants and generative AI. The smartphone itself could eventually change significantly if intelligent assistants become capable of completing tasks without users constantly opening and navigating individual apps.
That presents Apple with both a threat and an enormous opportunity.
The company controls an ecosystem containing hundreds of millions of devices and an extraordinary amount of hardware, software and services.
If it can make AI genuinely useful across that ecosystem — rather than simply adding AI features because everybody else is doing it — Apple remains in an exceptionally powerful position.
But expectations are much higher now.
People won’t be impressed simply because an iPhone can generate text or edit a photograph. They increasingly expect their devices to understand context, anticipate what they need and help complete real tasks.
Ternus therefore has to protect the thing Apple has traditionally been brilliant at — the relationship between hardware and software — while pushing the company into an AI era that is moving extraordinarily quickly.
Health could become one of Apple’s biggest opportunities
Another area worth watching is health technology.
The Apple Watch has already transformed Apple’s relationship with personal health and fitness, turning what began as another screen on your wrist into a device capable of tracking an expanding range of health information.
It isn’t difficult to imagine Apple pushing much further into this space.
Wearables, sensors and increasingly intelligent software could make personal technology considerably more proactive.
For Apple, that could ultimately prove more significant than producing another slightly thinner phone.
First big test: 9 September
We won’t have to wait long to see Ternus front Apple’s biggest stage.
Apple has confirmed a special event for Wednesday 9 September 2026, beginning at 10am Pacific Time — 6pm in the UK.
It will be Ternus’s first major product event as CEO.
Apple itself is keeping the product announcements under wraps, but industry reports point towards new iPhones and Apple Watches, while speculation continues around Apple’s long-rumoured first foldable iPhone.
Ternus has already raised expectations internally, describing next week’s launch as a major moment for the company.
Whatever appears on stage, it will inevitably be interpreted as the opening chapter of the Ternus era — even though most of the products being unveiled will have been in development long before he became CEO.
The LoveBelfast view
There is something refreshing about the idea of Apple being led by someone whose career has been built around hardware.
The technology industry currently has no shortage of companies promising an AI-powered future. Apple doesn’t need to become another one shouting the loudest about artificial intelligence.
It needs to make brilliant products.
Give people technology that’s beautifully designed, genuinely useful and occasionally surprising.
And perhaps listen when customers point out the obvious stuff too.
A revolutionary AI device would be fascinating.
But we’d also happily accept a Magic Mouse that can be used while it’s charging.
Sometimes innovation can start there.
What would you change if you were running Apple? Would you bring back the iPhone mini or iPod, focus on AI and health technology — or do something completely different?
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