In the weeks after taking the reins at Apple, John Ternus has been thrust into the spotlight as the face of the company’s next chapter. Featured on the cover of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026 issue, the longtime hardware executive is profiled alongside the iPhone Duo — the foldable smartphone that represents Apple’s most significant design departure for its flagship product since the original iPhone in 2007. Ternus, who became CEO on September 1, 2026, succeeded Tim Cook after a 15-year tenure noted for iteration of products developed and conceived under Steve Jobs, operational excellence, supply-chain mastery, and subscription services growth. Where Cook rose through operations, Ternus is a product guy; an engineering veteran. He joined Apple in 2001 as a product design engineer after working at a virtual reality company, having studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Over more than two decades, he rose to senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2021, overseeing development across the Mac, iPad, iPhone, AirPods, and other lines. Colleagues describe him as pragmatic, meticulous, and collaborative—someone who embodies Apple’s design-first culture. The TIME profile centers on the iPhone Duo as both a product milestone and a window into Ternus’s approach. Apple’s interest in foldables dates back years; in 2011, under CEO Jobs, Ternus and five other engineers filed a patent exploring batteries and circuit boards for such devices. “It felt clear that we were going to eventually get to a place where OLED displays were going to be flexible,” Ternus said. He has been blunt about the competition that arrived first: “The other examples in the world felt kind of cheap and crappy.” He added that competing surfaces “don’t feel good to the touch. They’re kind of wavy, wrinkly, and the nano texture just wipes that all out. It’s beautifully flat. It feels amazing to touch, and it’s incredibly durable.”
Ternus encouraged teams to hold out rather than settle. Apple’s vice president of product design, Richard Dinh, recalled asking whether they should proceed with materials similar to rivals’ despite their flaws. Ternus told him he would know when it was right, giving the team confidence to push further. On the Duo’s overall design, Ternus explained, “I think for us, it’s always about when do we feel like we have a product idea that meets our bar for quality and durability but also design? What I think is particularly amazing about the Duo is that it’s such a good example of hardware and software coming together to make something really special.” He described a defining moment in development: “It was like, ‘yes, that’s it.’ ‘This is what I want. And then once we have that, then it’s like okay, how do we go make it happen and make it real?’”
He also detailed the software and form-factor choices: “I think it’s something new and unique, right? But I think we didn’t want to just do what we’d seen other people do, which is sort of take two phone shapes and stick them together and then you get this weird square thing. We came at it from we want to build a large screen experience that feels right to us. And obviously we’ve been doing that for a long time with iPad. And so we knew kind of the shape, you know, we came up with this new aspect ratio.” On the relocated controls, he said, “It turns out to be an incredibly intuitive control system, because it’s there under your right thumb when it’s closed. You open it up, it’s there under your right thumb again. So I think that’s one of the biggest things with iOS is you’re going to have two screens. How do you make sure that it feels continuous?” On the $1,999 starting price, Ternus noted, “We’re always focused on building cool things that people love, but also are a really good value.” Ternus’s early leadership style contrasts with his predessor’s. Reports indicate he has immersed himself in Apple’s industrial design and human interface teams, working hands-on in the studio multiple times a week. At the September event unveiling the Duo (just days after he became CEO), Ternus admitted, “I was on such a moment of adrenaline and caffeine and excitement for the day.” He has emphasized focus: “You can’t do everything… we kind of try to constrain ourselves to the stuff that matters most—and then put all of our effort into those things.” On artificial intelligence — the area where Apple has faced the most scrutiny of late — Ternus defends a pragmatic path. The company has integrated Google’s Gemini technology into the revamped Siri and Apple Intelligence features. “There’s not really a goal that we have to make every single thing in a product,” he said. “We make the things where we can really bring differentiation.” Apple’s edge, he argues, lies in on-device processing, Private Cloud Compute privacy protections, and deep access to a user’s personal data. “Everything in your life is on your phone. With Siri AI, you can leverage all that information to do things, learn things, and figure out things in a way that nobody else can do.” He also pushes back against visions of AI eliminating the need for devices: “People want physical things. They want to talk, to see images of loved ones, to take pictures. So I don’t see a scenario where all of a sudden, our devices disappear and we don’t have a need for an iPhone.” Ternus inherits significant challenges, including component shortages. “The constraints in memory are absolutely a crisis… all options should be on the table,” he said. Early signs point to a CEO who leans into Apple’s traditional strengths — design excellence, hardware – decisions more directly, his era is beginning with a clear emphasis on engineering the products that have long defined the company. Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon. The post Apple’s new CEO John Ternus puts engineering and design first as foldable iPhone Duo debuts appeared first on MacDailyNews. You're currently a free subscriber to MacDailyNews. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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