John Ternus prepares Apple design overhaul as he takes CEO role

The top priority for new Apple CEO John Ternus should be revamping the company’s design team and putting the focus back on the look and feel of products, writes Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter. He joins Ed Ludlow for more on "Bloomberg Tech." (Source: Bloomberg)

Macworld Following several years of turmoil, Apple’s famous design team is set for a major change when new incoming CEO John Ternus takes charge in the fall. In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman discusses at length the department’s recent upheavals: employee defections and resignations, a decline in influence within Apple, and a general loss of ambition in favor of financially motivated conservatism. Whereas Steve Jobs prioritised product design, Gurman writes, Tim Cook has increasingly prioritised the operations and supply-chain side of the business. This has sidelined the design team, who were once looked upon as rockstars and agenda-setters within the company, but now don’t even have a place in the executive team. And this in turn has led numerous talented designers to leave Apple, and made it harder to attract design talent from outside the company. But this is about to change, according to Gurman’s sources. Cook is set to give up his current role, and in September will be replaced by a new CEO, John Ternus, with different ideas. “The incoming CEO knows a major design shake-up is needed and is getting ready to put his firm imprint on the team, I’m told,” he writes. “He has already spent a considerable amount of time with the ID [Industrial Design] group, a contrast to Cook’s historically limited presence. Now he needs to take that engagement to the next level.” Speaking to employees in internal meetings, Ternus is trying to present his focus on design as continuity rather than change. In one such meeting, Gurman’s sources report, he said Apple “is going to keep focusing on design, because design is core to what we do.” That’s certainly been the case in the past, but it’s debatable whether it has been for the past several years. “Apple has brought truly incredible design to more people than any company in history,” Ternus added at the same meeting. “We’re going to make sure that stays the case.” This verbiage isn’t a surprise: it would be unwise and even discourteous for Ternus to criticize the management style of his predecessor when that predecessor is a) currently still his boss and b) set to stay on at the company in a role that is even more senior, albeit less hands-on. But staying the same isn’t really an option for Apple’s design team, and his comments shouldn’t be taken as a signal that the plan is for things to be business as usual. The new CEO will need to give the design team more influence on company policy and direction, a sense that they are valued, and the ability to work without constantly having to think about profit and practicality. But above all, he needs to find them a strong leader, whether that means recruiting from outside or grooming from within.

John Ternus takes over as Apple CEO on September 1, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says his first big job is rebuilding a design team that's been hollowed out since Jony Ive left. Veterans have fled to LoveFrom and Meta, products have stagnated, and design lost its executive seat. Ternus, already embedded with the studio, says fixing it starts now.

John Ternus needs to prioritise making Apple's products cool again, and the new CEO will place less emphasis on the financial engineering that characterised much of the Cook era. The new CEO will emphasise product engineering, design and innovation. Ternus has reportedly spent considerable time working closely with designers and is expected to take this engagement to the next level after taking over the CEO post.

Apple's incoming chief executive John Ternus has his work cut out for him on the design front, even as the company lines up one of its most ambitious product road maps in years for 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter.Gurman argues that Apple's design influence, visible historically not just in hardware and software but also in packaging and retail outlets, has become less coherent than it once was, despite the company's continued operational efficiency and record profits. Apple's design influence, once visible across hardware, software, packaging and retail experiences, has become increasingly fragmented, even as products remain premium and carefully manufactured. The unified design philosophy that shaped earlier generations has weakened, with hardware families feeling less connected and software facing criticism for prioritising visual changes over clarity and usability.WWDC 2026: 10 Big Things Announced At The Apple EventToday, Apple reportedly has no executive occupying the kind of senior design leadership position once held by Jony Ive, a shift that has led observers to question whether the company has lost the design-focused culture that helped make its products stand out.Ternus's hardware background, and his promise on designTernus, 51, joined Apple in 2001 and rose through the hardware engineering ranks, eventually overseeing product engineering for major lines including the Mac, iPad and iPhone, giving him deep knowledge of hardware development, manufacturing and Apple's custom silicon strategy. His appointment signals confidence in product expertise rather than a leader focused primarily on finance or services. But moving from an engineering and execution role into setting the company's overall creative direction will be a major test of his leadership.According to Gurman's reporting, Ternus has told staff that Apple will keep focusing on design, calling it core to what the company does, a line that sounds like continuity but carries an undertone of reform, since Apple's design influence had diminished relative to engineering and operations in the later Cook years.iPhone 18 Won't Arrive Until 2027, Apple Supply Chain Source SuggestsGurman's piece also notes that Ternus has been spending more time with the company's industrial design teams, a development that matters given design has historically been one of Apple's biggest strengths in shaping products from the iPhone and Mac to the Apple Watch.The real story: a jam-packed 2027The most striking part of Gurman's column, however, is what he says is coming in 2027, a year he frames as Apple's biggest product swing in over a decade.Apple's 2027 line-up is expected to include camera-equipped AirPods, smart glasses, a sequel to its foldable smartphone, and the iPhone 20. Apple is reportedly planning special devices to mark the iPhone's 20th anniversary, potentially including an iPhone 20 Pro and iPhone 20 Pro Max alongside a second-generation foldable iPhone.The iPhone overhaul fits into a longer-running plan Gurman has tracked for months: Apple is in the middle of a three-year plan to "reinvent" the look and feel of the iPhone, covering the redesigned iPhone 17 Pro models and the all-new iPhone Air in September 2025, a foldable iPhone in September 2026, and a special 20th-anniversary iPhone in September 2027.Beyond the phone itself, Gurman's road map includes Apple's wearables push. Apple is planning new AirPods with cameras 'for Siri,' and because these are expected to be priced above the current AirPods Pro 3 (which sells for $249), the company is reportedly considering 'AirPods Ultra' branding for them. On glasses, Apple is developing at least four different styles of smart glasses and is betting that superior design, built from a high-end material called acetate, said to be more durable and luxurious than the standard alternative, will set the products apart from rivals.iPhones Are About to Get Expensive, Apple's Tim Cook Says 'It's Unavoidable' Why this is the real test for Ternus According to Gurman, the throughline across all these launches is that each one functions as a delivery vehicle for Apple's broader AI ambitions - camera AirPods built to give Siri visual context, smart glasses pushing Apple into ambient computing, and a reinvented iPhone chassis built around Apple Intelligence's next generation.Gurman's central argument, as summarised in coverage of the column, is that traditional design thinking alone won't be enough for this shift. Apple's future AI agents will require interfaces built around delegation and context awareness rather than traditional menus and touch interactions, and Ternus will need to strengthen the company's design leadership early in his tenure if these ambitious products are to land.Ternus is set to officially take over as Apple CEO from Tim Cook in September 2026, coinciding with the iPhone 18's launch.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman today posted the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, recapping the last ten years of Apple’s corporate structure in which the influence of the design team waned at the executive levels in the Cook era, fuelled by Jony Ive’s exit and talent departures as finance and operations had an increasingly larger say over product direction. However, Gurman believes that incoming CEO John Ternus may be about to reset that relationship, and reaffirm the importance of the design group for the company’s future.