Apple CEO Ternus trims middle management to speed launches

John Ternus plans to reduce middle-management engineering roles to give engineers a more direct line to senior executives, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports.

Gurman writes that Ternus, who previously served as Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, wants to create a "leaner organization" focused on engineering, more willing to experiment and able to ship products faster. The reported changes are intended to shorten chains of coordination between engineers and top leadership.

Apple has begun reducing the number of engineering program managers, the staff who coordinate teams and help deliver products. Those program managers were not immediately dismissed; they were given time to find other roles inside Apple, and Gurman says employees who cannot secure new positions will be laid off later this year.

Separately, Ternus has cancelled a number of in-development products, prompting several small rounds of layoffs. Gurman identifies affected groups including teams working on Siri, AI-related projects and work tied to the Apple Vision Pro XR headset.

In one high-profile reversal, Apple reportedly considered cutting 5,000 AppleCare positions and replacing them with AI-driven systems but has since decided not to replace AppleCare staff with AI for now.

The company is also rethinking its product calendar. Ternus may move away from the traditional large September launch cadence, and Apple’s recent September event illustrated that shift: the company presented only the Pro iPhone models and a new Duo, while the standard iPhone and a new iPad Air are slated for announcement next year.

Services and revenue

Beyond hardware, Apple’s senior leaders are pursuing new services to grow revenue from existing devices. The App Store, long a primary revenue source, faces pressure from regulators in the United States, the European Union, Japan and elsewhere, and Gurman reports that revenue growth there is slowing. Ternus, Eddy Cue — Apple’s senior vice president of Services and Health — and CFO Kevan Parekh are discussing potential new services as part of the company’s revenue strategy.