Apple’s industrial design studio was once the heart and soul of the company. It was the room where the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad were dreamed up, and where every other team came to rally around the next big thing.
A decade later, that room has gone quiet.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s industrial design organization no longer holds a seat at the executive table, has less influence and credibility than at any point in decades, and has been reduced to a service bureau that hands over prototypes and color choices on request.
Incoming CEO John Ternus, who takes over from Tim Cook on September 1, says putting it right is his first job. He is preparing what Gurman calls a major shake-up, and has already spent considerable time with the design group well before the title is officially his.
Here is what happened, why it matters, and why I am not holding my breath.
How the Decline Started 📉
The slide began in 2015, when Jony Ive stepped back from daily management to become chief design officer. Apple framed it as a promotion, but it was really the start of a long drift away from the design-first culture Ive built.
Ive left outright in 2019 to form LoveFrom, the firm that now works with OpenAI. His successor, Evans Hankey, ran the studio but never got Ive’s seat at the executive team. She reported instead to operations chief Jeff Williams, a supply-chain executive with no design background.
Gurman sums it up bluntly: Apple replaced one of the most influential designers in history with its top logistics executive. That decision spoke volumes about how priorities had evolved under Cook.
When Hankey left in 2022, the exits turned into an exodus. Bart Andre, Apple’s longest-serving designer who had been with the company since 1992, retired. Colin Burns, Peter Russell-Clarke, and Shota Aoyagi all left around the same time. Others scattered to LoveFrom or their own ventures. Hankey went on to cofound io, the AI hardware startup Ive built and OpenAI later bought for $6.5 billion.
Williams’ answer was to take direct control rather than appoint a real successor, afraid that picking one designer over another would spark more departures. They came anyway.
By Williams’ retirement in 2025, Apple had run out of obvious options. It settled on Molly Anderson, a respected Apple Watch designer who, by Gurman’s account, had never managed a team. Apple chose continuity over ambition exactly when boldness was needed.
The bench behind Anderson is thin, stocked with junior hires rather than the marquee names the studio once collected. Interface chief Alan Dye left for Meta, taking software designers with him. Apple has reportedly dangled retention bonuses to stem the bleeding to OpenAI and Ive.
What Was Lost 🧱
The cost shows in the products. The iPhone barely changed for five years. The Watch, AirPods, and Mac have worn the same look for a decade, a stretch that would have been unthinkable under Jobs and Ive.
But the deeper loss is cultural. The design studio that once set the agenda for the entire company now takes orders from other teams. It has become, in Gurman’s telling, a place where people come to get what they need and then leave.
That is not a design studio. That is a service desk.
The Engineering Paradox 🛠️
Here is where the standard narrative gets interesting. When people hear that Apple’s design team lost its way, they usually assume the fix is to put a designer back in charge. That is not what is happening.
John Ternus is not a finance guy like Tim Cook. He is not a supply-chain executive like Jeff Williams. He is a mechanical engineer by training. Before Apple, he worked as a mechanical engineer designing virtual reality headsets. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Ternus has been at Apple for 25 years. He joined the product design team in 2001, became vice president of hardware engineering in 2013, and joined the executive team in 2021 as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.
An engineer taking direct oversight to resurrect industrial design flips the standard corporate-drift narrative on its head. Ternus is not an outsider coming in to fix design. He is one of the people who helped build the hardware that design used to inspire.
And he has already shown he can deliver. In March 2026, Ternus launched the MacBook Neo, a $599 laptop that uses the same A18 Pro chip as the iPhone 16 Pro. It sold out its initial inventory, forcing Apple to double its 2026 production target to 10 million units. At $599, or $499 for education buyers, it represents Apple’s most aggressive play in the budget laptop market in years.
That product is Ternus’ calling card. It shows he understands how to align engineering, supply chain, and design to create something that actually moves the needle.
The OpenAI Irony 🤝
Here is the punchline the story requires. The designers who gave the iPhone its physical identity a decade ago are now using OpenAI’s $6.5 billion war chest to build the alternative, post-iPhone physical hardware landscape.
OpenAI announced on May 21, 2025, that it was acquiring io, Jony Ive’s AI hardware startup, in a $6.5 billion all-equity deal, which stands as the largest acquisition in OpenAI’s history. The firm had about 55 employees, including a number of former Apple designers who had followed Ive out the door. Hankey, Ive’s successor at Apple, had cofounded the company.
The deal means that the people who once defined Apple’s physical identity are now working for OpenAI. They are designing the hardware that OpenAI hopes will replace the smartphone, or at least redefine what a personal device looks like.
Ternus is trying to rebuild a design team that has been raided by the very company now building the post-Apple future. That is not just a talent problem. That is an existential problem.
My Take 🧠
Everyone who has read my writing over the years knows I am not an Apple fan. That is not new. So when I hear that Apple’s design team has lost its way and the new CEO is going to fix it, my ears perk up, but not with optimism.
Here is the pattern I have watched play out over and over in technology companies:
- A company builds something great because design and engineering are aligned.
- The company gets huge.
- Operations, supply chain, and finance people take over.
- Design becomes a service department.
- The products stagnate.
- Leadership notices and says they are going to restore design.
Apple is at step six.
The problem is that you cannot just declare that design matters again. You have to rebuild the culture, the talent pipeline, the decision-making authority, and the willingness to let designers drive product direction rather than just color the boxes operations people already decided to build.
Ternus has a better shot than most because he is an engineer, not a finance guy. He has actually built things. He has shipped products. He understands that design and engineering are not separate disciplines; they are two sides of the same coin.
But he is also walking into a situation where nearly every designer from the Ive era has left, and many of them are now working for OpenAI. He is trying to rebuild a team that has been hollowed out by the very company that is now his biggest long-term competitor.
The proof will be in the products. If the foldable iPhone, the smart glasses, and the AI devices actually look and feel like something Apple would have built in 2010, maybe Ternus pulled it off. If they look like the same rounded rectangles with slightly better cameras, then we will know design is still just a service desk.
Either way, it will be interesting to watch. And for once, I am not entirely sure which way it goes.
Quick Summary ✅
- The Executive Shift: Apple Senior VP John Ternus will officially succeed Tim Cook as CEO on September 1, 2026.
- The Studio Crisis: The industrial design team has seen a major loss of authority and core veteran talent over the last decade, reporting under logistics workspaces.
- The Engineering Edge: Ternus is a career mechanical engineer who spearheaded the launch of the budget-friendly $599 MacBook Neo in March 2026.
- The Competitor Pipeline: Former design leads like Jony Ive and Evans Hankey have transitioned to OpenAI via its massive $6.5B acquisition of hardware startup io.
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This article originally appeared on BereaOnline.com — your home for Madison County news, community events, and local updates.
About the Author ✍️
Dr. Chad Hembree serves as the Executive Director of Spotlight Acting School, The Spotlight Playhouse, and Spotlight Performing Arts. His professional history includes 30 years as a certified network engineer and former technology executive, alongside extensive media experience hosting the nationally syndicated radio program Tech Talk. Having operated BereaOnline.com since 1995, his technology journalism focuses on translating complex digital advancements, cloud infrastructures, and emerging tech trends into clear, practical insights for everyday families and local businesses.
Sources 📌
- Bloomberg Technology Group Executive Leadership & Succession Tracking (June 2026)
- OpenAI Corporate Acquisition and Institutional Policy Logs (May 2025)
- Apple Investor Relations Product Infrastructure Summaries (March 2026)