John Ternus plans to shake up Apple’s design work

John Ternus has been talking about focusing on Apple’s core strength of design once he takes over as CEO, and a now a questionable report extrapolates that this means he’ll shake up the design team.

John Ternus is now best known for taking over as Apple CEO from Tim Cook, but as recently as January 2026, he took control of the firm’s design team. Now according to Bloomberg, far from leaving that because of other CEO duties, he is planning to continue working on Apple’s whole design philosophy.

Reportedly, Ternus told staff that under him, Apple will “keep focusing on design, because design is core to what we do in Apple.”

He said that Apple has brought “truly incredible design” to customers, and done so more than any other firm. Ternus claims that the best-designed item that most customers have, is an Apple product.

“We’re going to make sure that stays the case,” he said.

There are no further details, although the report echoes claims from January 2026 that Ternus plans a shakeup of the design teams. What is clear, though, is that this is going to mark a clear difference between Ternus and his predecessor, Tim Cook.

Cook was once criticized by Steve Jobs for not being a product person, in the way that Jobs or Jony Ive would obsess over them. It’s repeatedly been reported that Cook did not often visit the design teams, and now it’s said that Ternus has already devoted a lot of his time to the design division.

The first products to come out under Ternus’s aegis will be the iPhone 18 range in September 2026, the month he officially takes over. It’s said that Apple is aiming to mark the 20th anniversary of the original iPhone with a series of new devices, including a new iPhone Fold, and AirPods with cameras, in 2027.

Even those, though, are already at the testing stage. So while Ternus has been involved with them, it could take a couple of years before Apple releases a device that was made entirely on his watch.