There’s one word in John Ternus’s latest memo that has caught my attention.
“Phenomenal.”
That’s how Ternus described September 9.
Not exciting.
Not busy.
Not important.
–– Phenomenal.
Here’s what he actually said:
“I’m honored to be stepping into this role at what is truly the greatest company in the world, and I am so excited about everything we have in store. We have a huge launch next week that’s going to be phenomenal. Thanks for everything you’ve all done to make it possible.”
And honestly, that’s quite a word for an Apple executive to use when talking about a day that, until now, we’ve mostly been expecting to be another big product event.
Of course, there’s plenty we already expect from September.
There will be new iPhones. There will probably be new Apple Watches. There will be plenty of discussion around software, cameras, displays, batteries and all the other details that we’ve spent the last few months dissecting before Apple has even officially shown us anything.
But “phenomenal” makes me wonder whether Ternus sees the day slightly differently.
It could, of course, simply be enthusiastic executive language.
Apple executives are hardly going to send a memo to employees saying, “September 9 should be reasonably good.”
But the word still stands out.
Especially because Ternus isn’t Tim Cook.
He’s arriving at this moment with a slightly different relationship to Apple and its products.
He has spent years on the engineering side of the company, watching products develop long before the public ever gets to see them. He knows what goes into getting something from an idea on a whiteboard to something sitting on a table in an Apple Store.
So when someone with that background describes a particular day as “phenomenal”, it’s difficult not to wonder what he knows that we don’t.
That’s where things get pretty interesting.
Apple has become remarkably predictable at giving us a general idea of what to expect from an event.
The leaks arrive.
The renders appear.
The specifications circulate.
Someone finds a reference in a database.
Someone else discovers a case that seemingly gives away the design.
By the time Apple finally sends out the invitation, we’ve often spent weeks trying to reconstruct the entire event.
And yet there is still something Apple can keep from us.
The feeling.
We can know what products are coming and still have no idea how Apple is going to present them.
We can know roughly what a new iPhone looks like and still have no idea whether the thing that actually gets people talking will be something completely different.
That’s why a word like “phenomenal” is fun.
It creates just enough uncertainty. Just enough hype.
Maybe September 9 really will be a huge day for Apple. Maybe there’s something we’re not properly accounting for.
Maybe there’s a product or feature that hasn’t leaked in the way we’ve come to expect.
Or maybe Ternus is simply excited about the biggest event of the year.
It could be any of those things.
And that’s the point.
For once, we’re left with a tiny mystery.
I also think there’s something fitting about Ternus being the person to create it.
His arrival as Apple’s CEO has already changed the atmosphere around the company in subtle ways.
He’s not an outsider brought in to shake everything up.
He’s someone who has spent decades inside Apple’s machinery.
He knows how the company works. He knows its products. He knows its engineers.
And now he’s the person standing at the front of it.
September 9 will be one of the first opportunities for us to see what that actually feels like.
Not necessarily because he’ll suddenly turn Apple into a completely different company.
But because every new CEO eventually has to put their own fingerprints on the job.
Perhaps that’s what makes the word “phenomenal” more interesting than it otherwise would be.
It’s not just describing an event.
It’s coming from the person who will ultimately be responsible for the Apple events, products and decisions that follow it.
Maybe September 9 will come and go and we’ll all decide that Ternus was simply being enthusiastic.
That’s entirely possible.
But there’s also a small part of me hoping he chose that word deliberately.
Because after years of knowing almost everything before Apple tells us, I’d quite like to be surprised again.
And if John Ternus genuinely believes September 9 is going to be truly “phenomenal”?
Well…
I, for one, will be paying attention.
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