Apple is preparing for its biggest product event of the year by opening a lottery that gives U.S. retail employees a chance to help staff the in-person unveiling, according to Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman.
“With Apple Inc. gearing up for its biggest product launch of the year, the company is opening a lottery for U.S. retail employees who want to help staff the in-person unveiling,” Gurman reported.
The lottery allows retail employees to apply to work the event, where they’ll help organize lines, check in guests, greet attendees, offer directions and support the security teams, according to a memo that was seen by Bloomberg News.
In the memo, Apple said it was “excited to offer U.S. store team members the opportunity to participate in the Event Support Experience Program.” Apple has relied on retail employees to help staff major product launches for years.
The launch event will take place during the first half of September, the company told staff, without providing a more specific date. Historically, Apple’s iPhone presentations have taken place on the second Tuesday or Wednesday of that month. Since Labor Day in the U.S. falls on Monday, Sept. 7th, a Wednesday event appears slightly more likely, as it would preserve the workday travel window Apple has historically provided for attendees.
Workers who participated in either this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference or last year’s iPhone launch aren’t eligible for the upcoming program. Interested employees must apply by Aug. 8th, and Apple will notify those selected by Aug. 17th, according to the memo. MacDailyNews Take: This year’s September event carries added significance. It will be the first major product unveiling under Chief Executive Officer John Ternus, who is set to take over from Tim Cook on Sept. 1st. The company is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone — rumored to be called “iPhone Ultra” – as well as the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, new Apple Watch models (Series 12 and Ultra 4), and, perhaps, new AirPods and Apple Home products.
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Apple exceeded $10 billion in annual sales in India for the first time last fiscal year, underscoring surging demand for its pricey devices in a market where it’s steadily ramping up its retail network.
Apple exceeded $10 billion in annual sales in India for the first time last fiscal year, underscoring surging demand for its pricey devices in a market where it’s steadily ramping up its retail network.
Revenue grew at a double-digit percentage rate in the 12 months through March from about $9 billion a year earlier, Bloomberg News reports citing a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.
Apple’s iPhone lineup accounted for a significant majority of the sales, while demand for iPads and MacBooks also rose, the person said.
The milestone highlights Apple’s expanding presence in India through a broader retail network. MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote four years ago, “The sky’s the limit for Apple in India!”
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Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus is bringing back a trusted lieutenant from his time running hardware engineering to join his new management team.
Ternus has hired Laura Legros, who served as a vice president of hardware engineering until retiring in 2022, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Legros will report to Ternus when he takes the CEO role on Sept. 1st, Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman reports citing people who asked not to be identified because the personnel change hasn’t been announced.
The move shows that Ternus is starting to put his stamp on the company’s leadership ranks. It also marks a rare case of an Apple executive returning to the company after retirement. In her new role, Legros will act as a vice president working cross-functionally with different parts of the company.
According to Gurman, during her career at Apple, Legros helped manage product delivery, development schedules and coordination across engineering teams to ensure they remained aligned. Before retiring, she was one of Ternus’ most trusted deputies. In 2018, she appeared during an Apple product launch event to introduce a new version of the MacBook Air. Two years later, she unveiled the current iPad Air design.
Over the past several months, Ternus has been shadowing Cook and helping lead executive meetings. The incoming CEO has already met with leaders across the company and participated in roadmap reviews for a number of divisions for the coming year. Ternus has also been spending considerable time with Apple’s industrial design group.
Ternus will have a slew of executive changes to oversee in the coming years as multiple members of Apple’s leadership team approach retirement age. This includes the likes of App Store boss Phil Schiller and Luca Maestri, who oversees real estate and information systems. Kate Adams, who transitioned to overseeing government affairs after serving as general counsel, plans to retire at the end of this year.Ternus, currently Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, is set to succeed Tim Cook as CEO on September 1st. Cook will become executive chairman of the board.
MacDailyNews Take: Under Tim Cook, Apple systematically strayed from Steve Jobs’ core vision. Product Design, the very soul of the company Jobs rebuilt, was demoted, sidelined, and subordinated to operations, supply-chain efficiency, and services revenue. The result? Fifteen long years of polished but profoundly boring iteration: thinner bezels, faster chips, incremental camera bumps, and endless “Pro” variants that rarely moved the industry forward the way the original iPhone, iPad, or even the aluminum unibody MacBooks once did.
Jobs put Design at the absolute top of the food chain. Jony Ive’s group wasn’t a service department; it was the engine. Cook flipped the hierarchy. Hardware engineering, operations, and finance called the shots (poorly; witness Luca Maestri famously rejecting calls to invest in AI early on which is why he’s now sidelined). Design became reactive instead of directive. The Vision Pro launched as an impressive, but overpriced, underbaked curiosity. After billions spent, the Apple Car evaporated. True category-defining leaps simply did not happen.
Now comes John Ternus, a product person, a hardware guy who has spent his career shipping actual devices rather than optimizing margins. Early signals are encouraging: bringing trusted hardware lieutenants back into the fold and already embedding himself with the industrial design group. That is exactly the right instinct.
If Ternus moves quickly to restore Design to its rightful place at the apex of Apple’s decision-making, the company might finally escape the long, comfortable, lucrative mediocrity of the Cook era. Apple doesn’t need another fifteen years of safer, prettier, or just fifferent iterations. It needs the return of products that make people stop, stare, and rethink what a computer in their pocket, on their wrist, or on their face can be.
The hardware engineer is about to become CEO. The question is whether he has the will — and the authority with Cook looming as Executive Chairman — to put Design back on top where Jobs left it. The next few years will tell us if Apple can innovate again… or if the iteration treadmill simply continues under a new CEO.
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