Apple’s new CEO John Ternus is reportedly pushing for a leaner organization that can move faster and experiment more aggressively. He plans to focus on engineering and push to release more products, more often.
Ternus also could move the company away from its tradition of a few monumental product launches. Rather than concentrating major product announcements into a few annual events, he supposedly wants Apple to introduce products throughout the year.
The planned changes reportedly come with layoffs and other staff reductions as Ternus shakes up the ranks at Apple.
John Ternus lives up to his rep as a ‘hardware guy’
Previous Apple CEO Tim Cook focused on operations, efficiency and the enormous global machine required to turn Apple’s products into a massive business that reliably cranked out revenues. But John Ternus brings a different background to the job. As Apple’s former hardware engineering chief, he is fundamentally a product and engineering executive, with years of experience overseeing the development of the devices that define the company.
Now that he’s in charge, Ternus appears focused on making Apple more nimble so new products move from the engineering lab to customers more quickly.
Inside the company headquarters, he’s discussed plans to accelerate product development and expand the company’s range of devices, according to a report published Tuesday by Bloomberg.
“Ternus has indicated that Apple must introduce products more quickly and become more experimental to remain competitive in the artificial intelligence era,” according to the report. “Managers in product-development groups are being pushed to deliver more products, more frequently and on shorter timelines.”
Take Apple smart glasses as an example
To understand what Apple’s new CEO is trying to overcome, consider the company’s much-rumored efforts to develop smart glasses. Apple has reportedly been working on these since at least 2024. But the latest rumors say they won’t reach the market until late 2027.
Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses are a hot item, and Meta is already on the third generation of its version. Meanwhile, Apple has nothing to compete with them, and apparently won’t for another year.
While Cupertino built its reputation on releasing the best products, not the first ones, the long, long development time for Apple smart glasses could be an argument that the company has become too relaxed and lacks urgency when developing new products.
Other rumored products that should break new ground for Apple in the coming months include a touchscreen MacBook, the first camera-equipped AirPods and a smart home hub. (The company reportedly put a planned AI pendant on the back burner.)
Apple: A new broom sweeps clean
New CEOs traditionally bring new priorities, and that generally means layoffs as companies get reconfigured to meet the new head honcho’s vision.
That’s apparently happening at Apple. Before becoming CEO, Ternus argued for a leaner organization for years. Now he has the authority to make it happen.
Apple’s hardware engineering division allegedly recently dismissed a number of engineering program managers, according to Bloomberg.
Plus, Apple recently cut jobs in other areas, including Siri, Vision Pro and AI-related software engineering. The company also recently reduced staffing in its Fitness+ organization.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 26 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
