Apple's new CEO Ternus takes direct charge of design upon taking office, with a dense slate of new product launches in October to offset the services business slowdown.

Technology reporter Mark Gurman reported in his column that John Ternus, who succeeded Tim Cook as Apple CEO, has devoted much of his energy to product and design work within weeks of taking office, personally serving as the company's final decision-maker on design. According to the report, Ternus, who comes from a hardware engineering background, is delegating finance and supply chain responsibilities to CFO Kevan Parekh and COO Sabih Khan respectively, while he himself frequently embeds with the industrial design and human interface teams, visiting the design studio multiple times a weeka stark contrast to the Cook era, when visits amounted to at most one hour per month. Gurman learned that Apple did not look externally for a chief design officer, and that Ternus has effectively chosen himself for the role. On the product front, Apple plans to hold an event on October 13 to unveil a smart home hub with a display, a new HomePod mini, and an upgraded Apple TV, all three centered on Siri AI; the iPhone Duo will go on sale on October 23. The report said this fall will also bring a MacBook Pro featuring OLED and a touchscreen for the first time, along with a significant weight reduction, as well as the first OLED iPad mini. Gurman said Ternus aims to accelerate product development and cut costs to offset the slowdown in the services business.