❯ Apple’s new CEO Ternus takes charge of design himself, and the touch-screen OLED MacBook Pro will be noticeably lighter

The design chief is himBloomberg’s Mark Gurman writes in his newsletter that after years without one person overseeing both hardware and software design, new Apple CEO John Ternus has found a candidate: himself. As relayed by The Apple Post, Ternus is in the design studio several times a week, sometimes several times a day, working directly with the industrial design and human interface teams.

Unlike CookFormer CEO Tim Cook typically visited the design organization for about an hour a month. Before becoming CEO, Ternus led hardware engineering and managed product development for iPhone, iPad and Mac. The report says he also plans to cut management layers and give engineers more direct access to senior leadership.

A lighter MacBook ProGurman also reports that the upcoming touch-screen OLED MacBook Pro will be “significantly lighter,” with Apple having reengineered the interior, miniaturizing parts and rearranging components. As relayed by Engadget, the new machine is expected next month with existing high-end M5 chips. The current 14-inch model starts at 3.4 pounds and the 16-inch weighs up to 4.7 pounds.

A CEO from hardwareTernus is putting his energy first into what he knows best, product design. With design teams dealing directly with the CEO, the decision chain is shorter, and the projects under way reportedly also include foldable devices and new smart home products. Whether software keeps pace depends on whether he manages the human interface team the same way.

▪ SIGNALWith a hardware person as CEO, the first thing to change at Apple is how it makes things: products come to resemble whoever shows up in the design studio every day.