Apple’s New CEO Hypes Product Launch in First Employee Address

Apple’s new CEO previewed a “phenomenal” iPhone launch in his first comments to employees.

John Ternus became Apple’s chief executive Monday (Sept. 1), and used part of his introductory memo to workers to tout the company’s annual September product showcase next week, Bloomberg News reported.

“We have a huge launch next week that’s going to be phenomenal,” wrote Ternus, who previously headed Apple’s hardware division.

“I’m 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 that we’ll dream up and create together.”

Ternus also thanked outgoing CEO Tim Cook, who headed Apple for 15 years and will remain with the company as executive chairman.

Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak said that Ternus would have more to say at the company’s event next week, Bloomberg added. Apple is planning to introduce its first foldable iPhone and is preparing to introduce smart home devices.

Eventually, the report said, Apple wants to roll out AirPods with cameras, smart glasses, a tabletop home robot and a touch-screen MacBook.

Cook had sent his own message to employees Monday (Aug. 31), saying that his “my title changes tomorrow, but the love I have for the Apple community never will.”

Writing about the transition earlier this week, PYMNTS noted that Ternus is “taking over a company whose defining strength has always been tight control of its own technology stack, hardware, software and the chips connecting them, but whose current artificial intelligence strategy runs largely on outside partners.”

A rebuilt version of the company’s Siri assistant – powered by Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) model, is also scheduled to be part of the Sept. 9 product launch.

Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said ahead of the announcement that the upgraded Siri needed to be a “10 out of 10” upon arrival. As PYMNTS wrote, that is “a bar that has effectively become Ternus’ opening review as CEO rather than a one-time product launch he can distance himself from.”

The challenge, the report added, is not just catching up to OpenAI or Google on raw model capability, but showing that Apple can create products users trust and prefer around someone else’s AI model.

“A Siri built primarily on licensed technology only works commercially if it still feels distinctly like an Apple product once a user is talking to it, not simply a wrapper around Gemini with an Apple logo attached,” the report said.

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