Apple’s September event is usually about new iPhones. This year, there is another story unfolding on stage: for the first time in 15 years, Apple enters its biggest annual product showcase with a new chief executive.
John Ternus officially became Apple CEO on September 1, 2026, succeeding Tim Cook, who has moved into the role of executive chairman. That makes tonight’s September 9 event Ternus’s first major product launch at the helm — and an unusually revealing first test of what the next era of Apple could look like.
Who is John Ternus?
Ternus is not an outsider brought in to reinvent Apple. He is one of the company’s longest-serving product leaders.
He joined Apple’s product design team in 2001, became a vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013 and joined Apple’s executive team as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2021. Apple says he has overseen engineering across products including iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and AirPods.
Before Apple, Ternus worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems and studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.
Why Apple chose a hardware engineer
The choice is significant. Tim Cook came to define Apple through operational discipline, supply-chain expertise and the enormous expansion of the company’s services and installed device base. Ternus arrives from the engineering side of the business.
When Apple announced the succession in April, its board highlighted Ternus’s technical knowledge, leadership and focus on creating products. His career has also included work on reliability, durability, materials, repairability and lower-carbon hardware design.
That background could matter as Apple enters a period in which its next breakthroughs may depend on making difficult technologies feel mature enough for hundreds of millions of mainstream customers.
His first big test arrives immediately
Ternus has barely settled into the CEO role and already faces one of Apple’s most consequential launch events in years.
Apple has confirmed its September 9 special event, while reporting ahead of the keynote points to major changes in the iPhone lineup. Reuters reports that Apple is widely expected to introduce its first folding iPhone, putting Ternus in the position of selling consumers on a new form factor that rivals such as Samsung and Huawei have been developing for years.
The timing makes the event about more than hardware. It is an early opportunity for customers, developers and investors to see how Ternus communicates Apple’s strategy when he is no longer simply the executive explaining the engineering behind a product.
The bigger challenge is AI
A folding iPhone may command the headlines, but artificial intelligence could ultimately be the more important test of the Ternus era.
Apple is competing in a technology market increasingly shaped by generative AI, while companies including Google, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI are moving quickly. Reuters reports that analysts will be watching whether Ternus can convince customers that Apple devices remain the best place to experience increasingly capable AI.
That creates an interesting combination: Apple’s new CEO is fundamentally a hardware engineer taking charge at precisely the moment when software and AI are redefining what consumers expect their devices to do.
Tim Cook hasn’t disappeared
The transition is also unusual because Cook remains deeply connected to Apple. As executive chairman, he will continue supporting aspects of the business, including engagement with policymakers around the world.
That gives Ternus access to the experience of the executive who ran Apple for 15 years, but it also means the company must establish a clear separation between its former CEO and the person now making the final calls.
What the Ternus era could mean for Apple
It is far too early to declare what kind of CEO Ternus will become. But Apple’s choice itself offers a clue.
After an era dominated by extraordinary operational scale, Apple has handed the top job to an engineer whose career has been spent building products. If that background translates into a renewed emphasis on ambitious hardware — while Apple simultaneously catches up in AI — the change at the top could eventually prove more consequential than any single iPhone announcement.
That is what makes tonight different. We are not only waiting to see what Apple launches. We are getting our first major look at the company John Ternus now leads.
Sources: Apple Newsroom and Apple Leadership; Reuters reporting on Apple’s September 9 event and leadership transition.
