Apple Event’s static structure and Ternus exists

In this week’s Sunday Reboot, the Apple Event rolled on as expected, but while it was his first big show as CEO, John Ternus had a muted introduction.

Sunday Reboot is a weekly column covering some of the lighter stories within the Apple reality distortion field from the past seven days. All to get next week underway with a good first step.

Apple Event is Apple Event

Being in a role for a long period of time means you get to see patterns. For someone working the Apple beat, they’ll experience that all the time.

In my case, the pattern wasn’t just that there would be an event in September to introduce new iPhones. That’s so ingrained into society that even newborn babies know that now.

I’m talking about the flow of the event itself. The format of the presentation, what happens on which beat, and so on.

The usual schedule for an event is:

1. Entertaining introduction before CEO appears.
2. CEO welcomes the viewers and passes initial comments before hinting at the first thing to launch.
3. Flashy camera sequence passing to another executive to handle the actual product launch.
4. Another sequence to pass to an underling about a specific feature of a product then back to the previous executive. Repeat as necessary.
5. Executive either repeats with a second product from the same family or wraps up launch details, potentially leaving some for CEO to utter. Hands back to CEO.
6. Repeat from 3 for X number of products.
7. Depending on the rumors, a 1-in-3 chance of a final major product launch, possibly framed as “One more thing,” complete with transition sequence to managing executive to present. Similar treatment of features before final hand-back to CEO
8. CEO sums up the last item, covers all products, thanks viewers for watching.
9. Presentation ends with another final sequence, Apple logo, and YouTube suggesting you watch one of the Underdogs ads.

A lot has already been written about the products Apple has shown during the event, but it’s worth pointing out that the structure of the overall presentation didn’t change one bit.

Even with a new CEO in the form of John Ternus, there wasn’t any real thing that jumped out as an obvious alteration.

For Apple, this was ideal. It shows that, even with a new pair of hands at the wheel, the company is plodding on as usual.

That said, there is one bit about the event that doesn’t seem to quite fit: the run time.

At 1 hour and 17 minutes, it was a brisk presentation to show off two smartphone models (three if you include the iPhone 18 Pro Max), the AirPods 5, and the new Apple Watch lineup.

That’s not a long time at all, really. And yet Apple managed to pack a lot of stuff in there.

But at the same time, it felt a little empty. The rumors said there were massive smart home changes on the way, and maybe even an OLED iPad mini.

We didn’t get that, but we did get the signs that the company is still stable, via the medium of prepared product launches and flashy editing.

John who?

As the first major event after becoming CEO you would think the presentation would be very heavy-handed about it. Ternus, a relative unknown to the general public, was to have his first prominent appearance as the face of the iPhone maker.

Thankfully, Apple didn’t go down that route. Though to be fair, Ternus didn’t need that anyway.

The only thing Ternus really needed was provided by a brief appearance by the guy he replaced. Tim Cook, famous for “Good morning,” was brought onboard for a few seconds so viewers could be assured it definitely was an Apple Event, before handing over to the next chief.

Old CEO Tim Cook saying to look at the distant and blurry visage of the new CEO, John Ternus – Image Credit: Apple

Quite frankly, this was needed, because my mother knows who Tim Cook is, and that he’s no longer CEO. She has no idea who John Ternus is, and after the event, still isn’t entirely sure.

I’d bet that some members of the public watching it will also wonder who this new face is. Cook’s fame at least helps Ternus make a splash in people’s minds.

I say “make a splash.” It’s more “tried not to rock the boat.”

For being the brand new CEO at a major company, it’s weird that the event doesn’t actually go out of its way to mention the guy’s name.

His introduction talks about spending a lot of his life at Apple, and how it is an “extraordinary privilege” it is to show what the teams at Apple have come up with this year. It’s very much a team effort, with Ternus almost taking the role of a generic host figure.

Sure, it’s good for the company morale if his first words are all about the people working at the company. But while he’s the frontman, he’s practically anonymous to the public.

A check of the transcript reveals that “John” is said four times (and “Johny” once) and “Ternus” isn’t mentioned at all. It’s not brought up in the video notes on YouTube, seen by almost 50 million people by Sunday.

It would’ve cost a few seconds to say something like “Hi, I’m John, the new CEO at Apple,” before going into the “doing it for the teams” talk. Or even Cook uttering “John” once would have done the trick.

After a few events, there will have been time for Ternus to make a bigger impact on the world. He will be a more well-known figure through interviews and other appearances in the coming years.

Eventually, he will get the public fame Tim Cook achieved. At some point, my mother will look at him and actually know his first name and that he’s “that guy who does the iPhones.”

But, for the moment, he will be known by some as “that guy who replaced Tim Cook.” Hopefully that will change sooner rather than later.

Last week’s Sunday Reboot discussed the transition from Cook to Ternus.