Apple starts John Ternus’s CEO tenure with a Sept. 9 product event featuring new iPhones, Apple Watches, and its first foldable phone.
Apple has spent years refining devices and expanding services, but investors now want proof that new hardware categories can still move the company. Ternus has inherited a $4.7T company whose growth story needs more than steady iPhone upgrades.
The expected foldable iPhone is the cleanest test. Bloomberg reported that the device may be called iPhone Ultra internally, with a passport-sized folded design, Touch ID, split-view multitasking, and a price above $2K.
For retail investors, that price point cuts both ways. A premium foldable could lift revenue per device, but limited supply or weak demand would make the launch look narrower than the headline suggests.
Ternus brings product credibility to a harder Apple job
Ternus took over this week after Tim Cook’s 15-year run, while Cook moved to executive chair and remains involved with policymakers.
That continuity matters because Apple also faces rising memory costs, AI competition, and pressure to explain where its next growth engine comes from.
"They went with a product person."
Ternus has spent 25 years at Apple and led hardware engineering before becoming CEO, giving investors a leader tied directly to products.
That’s useful, but it doesn’t remove the market’s core question. Apple must show whether its hardware discipline can still create categories that customers treat as must-have devices.
The foldable launch could set the tone
The foldable iPhone is expected to be shipped Sept. 18 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro. Reports still point to possible limited availability, which could make early sales signals harder to read.
A constrained rollout can create buzz, but investors should separate waitlists from durable demand. Apple’s broader pipeline includes touch-screen MacBooks, OLED iPads, smart home hubs, camera-equipped AirPods, smart glasses, and possible robotics products.
That slate gives Ternus more chances than a single iPhone cycle to prove Apple’s product engine is accelerating. His public profile remains unusually small for a CEO of Apple’s scale, despite nearly 1M X followers after a one-word debut post.
The first judgment starts on the Sept. 9 stage, where investors will look past polish and focus on pricing, supply, and demand.