{"id":23055,"date":"2026-09-05T18:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/?p=23055"},"modified":"2026-09-05T18:19:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:19:26","slug":"john-ternus-just-called-september-9-phenomenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/05\/john-ternus-just-called-september-9-phenomenal\/","title":{"rendered":"John Ternus Just Called September 9 \u201cPhenomenal\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s one word in John Ternus\u2019s latest memo<\/a> that has caught my attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPhenomenal.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s how Ternus described September 9<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not exciting.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not busy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not important.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

–<\/em>– Phenomenal.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image via LinkedIn<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here’s what he actually said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“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.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And honestly, that\u2019s quite a word for an Apple executive to use when talking about a day that, until now, we\u2019ve mostly been expecting to be another big product event<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there\u2019s plenty we already expect from September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be new iPhones<\/strong>. There will probably be new Apple Watches<\/strong>. There will be plenty of discussion around software, cameras, displays, batteries and all the other details that we\u2019ve spent the last few months dissecting before Apple has even officially shown us anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But \u201cphenomenal\u201d makes me wonder whether Ternus sees the day slightly differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could, of course, simply be enthusiastic executive language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple executives are hardly going to send a memo to employees saying, \u201cSeptember 9 should be reasonably good.<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the word still stands out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Especially because Ternus isn\u2019t Tim Cook<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s arriving at this moment with a slightly different relationship to Apple and its products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when someone with that background describes a particular day as \u201cphenomenal\u201d, it\u2019s difficult not to wonder what he knows that we don\u2019t.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where things get pretty interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple has become remarkably predictable at giving us a general idea of what to expect from an event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leaks<\/strong> arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The renders<\/strong> appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The specifications<\/strong> circulate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone finds a reference in a database<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone else discovers a case that seemingly gives away the design<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time Apple finally sends out the invitation<\/a>, we\u2019ve often spent weeks trying to reconstruct the entire event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet there is still something Apple can keep from us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The feeling.<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We can know what products are coming and still have no idea how Apple is going to present them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can know roughly what a new iPhone looks like<\/a> and still have no idea whether the thing that actually gets people talking will be something completely different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why a word like \u201cphenomenal\u201d<\/strong> is fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It creates just enough uncertainty. Just enough hype.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Apple<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maybe September 9 really will be a huge day for Apple<\/strong>. Maybe there\u2019s something we\u2019re not properly accounting for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe there\u2019s a product or feature that hasn\u2019t leaked in the way we\u2019ve come to expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or maybe Ternus is simply excited about the biggest event of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could be any of those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

For once, we\u2019re left with a tiny mystery<\/strong>.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I also think there\u2019s something fitting about Ternus being the person to create it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His arrival as Apple\u2019s CEO has already changed the atmosphere around the company in subtle ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s not an outsider brought in to shake everything up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s someone who has spent decades inside Apple\u2019s machinery<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knows how the company works. He knows its products. He knows its engineers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now he\u2019s the person standing at the front of it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tim Cook (L), CEO of Apple, walks with John Ternus, incoming CEO of Apple, at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference at the Sun Valley Lodge on July 7, 2026 in Sun Valley, Idaho. – Gulf News<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

September 9<\/strong> will be one of the first opportunities for us to see what that actually feels like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not necessarily because he\u2019ll suddenly turn Apple into a completely different company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But because every new CEO eventually has to put their own fingerprints on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps that\u2019s what makes the word \u201cphenomenal\u201d more interesting than it otherwise would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just describing an event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s coming from the person who will ultimately be responsible for the Apple events, products and decisions that follow it<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe September 9 will come and go and we\u2019ll all decide that Ternus was simply being enthusiastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s entirely possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s also a small part of me hoping he chose that word deliberately<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because after years of knowing almost everything before Apple tells us, I\u2019d quite like to be surprised again<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if John Ternus genuinely believes September 9<\/strong> is going to be truly \u201cphenomenal\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I, for one, will be paying attention.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s one word in John Ternus\u2019s latest memo that has caught my attention. \u201cPhenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2786,174,16],"tags":[4,1363,3501,3537,3574,3573,3568],"class_list":["post-23055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple-blog","category-blog","category-iphone","tag-apple","tag-ceo","tag-iphone","tag-john-ternus","tag-memo","tag-phenomenal","tag-sep-9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23055"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23064,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23055\/revisions\/23064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}