John Ternus sent his first memo to Apple employees as CEO on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, telling staff that the company has a “huge launch next week” that will be “phenomenal.” The memo, reported by Bloomberg, arrives just eight days before Apple’s annual iPhone event on September 9, where the company is widely expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone and expand the rollout of its upgraded Siri AI assistant.
Ternus, who previously served as Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, took the helm from Tim Cook, who held the CEO role for 15 years. Cook’s parting message to staff praised Ternus as “brilliant and wonderful and capable,” noting that few people understand product development the way Ternus does.
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What the September 9 event is expected to deliver
The upcoming event is shaping up to be one of Apple’s most consequential in years. According to multiple reports, the centerpiece will be a foldable iPhone — a device Apple has been developing for years while competitors like Samsung have dominated the foldable market. A foldable iPhone would mark Apple’s first major form-factor shift since the Apple Watch launched in 2015.
Alongside the hardware, Apple is expected to roll out its revamped Siri AI more broadly. The upgraded assistant, built on larger language models, is designed to compete directly with chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Apple first previewed the new Siri at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2026, but the September event is likely to bring the feature to all compatible iPhones.
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Analysts see the Siri upgrade as a critical test for Apple’s AI strategy. The company has been slower than rivals to ship generative AI features, and a polished Siri could help it close the gap. “Apple is betting that on-device AI plus deep system integration will be its differentiator,” said tech industry analyst Carolina Milanesi. “The foldable iPhone gets the headlines, but Siri’s performance will determine whether Apple is seen as an AI leader or a follower.”
Ternus takes over at a central moment
Ternus inherits a company at a crossroads. Apple’s hardware business remains highly profitable, but iPhone sales have plateaued in mature markets, and the company is under pressure to find new growth areas. In his memo, Ternus acknowledged the immediate launch but also looked further ahead, writing that he is “just as excited about what lies beyond that, including the incredible products already in the works and the ones we haven’t even imagined yet.”
Reports suggest Apple is developing several ambitious products beyond the foldable iPhone, including camera-equipped AirPods, smart glasses, and a touchscreen laptop. These projects, some of which have been in the works for years, could define Ternus’s tenure as much as the iPhone defined Cook’s.
Cook, who led Apple from 2011 to 2026, oversaw the company’s rise to a $3 trillion market valuation and the launch of products like the Apple Watch, AirPods, and the M-series chips. Ternus, who joined Apple in 2001 and played a key role in the development of the M1 chip and the Mac transition to Apple Silicon, is seen as a product-focused executive in the mold of Steve Jobs.
“John is a product builder first,” said a former Apple engineer who worked with Ternus. “He cares about the details of how things feel in your hand. That’s rare at the top of a company this size.”
Investors have responded positively to the leadership change, with Apple’s stock rising slightly in early trading on Tuesday. The market’s attention now turns to September 9, where Ternus will deliver his first keynote as CEO — a moment that will set the tone for his leadership.
For consumers, the event will offer the clearest signal yet of Apple’s direction under new management. The foldable iPhone, if released, would test whether Apple can still command premium prices for innovative hardware. And the Siri AI rollout will determine whether the company can turn its assistant into a genuinely useful tool rather than a punchline.
As Ternus wrote in his memo, the company is focused on what comes next. “We’ll dream up and create together,” he told staff. The next chapter begins on September 9.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The technology market is volatile and subject to rapid change; readers should conduct their own research before making any investment decisions.
