Apple 'Shakes Up' Oversight of Product Design Ahead of CEO Change

[MacRumors]

In his new role as Chief Hardware Officer, Apple's longtime chipmaking chief Johny Srouji has reorganized the company's hardware development leadership "to speed up work on future devices," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

The reshuffling is aimed at bringing chip and product development closer together.

"The hardware shake-up is also meant to better integrate teams working on in-house silicon with those creating products," explained Gurman.

The report said oversight of Apple's product design is moving from Kate Bergeron to two of her longtime deputies: Shelly Goldberg and Dave Pakula. Goldberg was already in charge of Mac product design, while Pakula led Apple Watch, iPad, and AirPods product design, but now they will oversee all of Apple's products.

Apple's product design group is distinct from the industrial design group, the report explained.

"Industrial design drives the overall vision and appearance of new devices, while product design focuses on translating those concepts into actual products that can be shipped to consumers," said Gurman.

Bergeron is gaining oversight of product reliability across all Apple devices, and she will continue to lead the team overseeing which materials are used for products.

With John Ternus set to become Apple CEO on September 1, the report said two of Ternus' former deputies will now report directly to Srouji: Matt Costello, who has led development of Apple's home and audio products, and Kevin Lynch, who runs a special projects group focused on the development of robotics devices.

The report outlines many other role changes, with the reorganization sounding quite significant overall heading into the Ternus era of Apple.

Article Link: Apple 'Shakes Up' Oversight of Product Design Ahead of CEO Change

 

[Justin Cymbal]

The reshuffling is aimed at bringing chip and product development closer together.

"The hardware shake-up is also meant to better integrate teams working on in-house silicon with those creating products,"

Nice. Can’t wait to see the affects of these new changes on upcoming products 😎

 

[spartan1967]

Now do the software.👍

 

[delsoul]

If anything, it's the software team that needs a shakeup. Like San Andreas fault kind of shakeup.

 

[ShivneelSingh]

Make iPhones fun again. Loved the iPhone 3GS design. Bring the cute, vibrant colors to the PRO line.

I just want a pink iPhone Pro model!!

 

[winxmac]

Why is it that on Apple Leadership page he is still shown as SVP, Hardware Technologies? Will the change take effect on 1st September 2026?

 

[ClaraStahlbaum]

I have hopes the Iphone 18 has a different design. I long for the day they remove the dynamic island, and have edge to edge displays.

 

[BSDnostalgia]

I guess what this means is that since everything is Apple Silicon for the foreseeable future, the hardware development process doesn't need to consider alternatives.

In the meantime, like many people, I'm hoping that Apple starts pushing harder on software quality. Specifically, bugs.

 

[letsGoOn2]

Yeah, let’s GO!!! And more cosmic orange too!!!

 

[Joe Rossignol]

Why is it that on Apple Leadership page he is still shown as SVP, Hardware Technologies? Will the change take effect on 1st September 2026?

Apple said Srouji was CHO effective immediately, but his profile is not yet updated I guess.

 

[Nyx1]

Apple really need hire a man like Panos panay

 

[thebeans]

I have hopes the Iphone 18 has a different design. I long for the day they remove the dynamic island, and have edge to edge displays.

Dynamic Island being gone would be fine, though I don’t really mind it. Edge to edge displays that everyone seems obsessed with, I don’t want. There need ms to be enough edge that is not display to allow a case to wrap ever so slightly around.

 

[winxmac]

I have hopes the Iphone 18 has a different design. I long for the day they remove the dynamic island, and have edge to edge displays.

Ever since the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, they already have edge to edge displays. If you're saying it has thick bezels, you still won't consider the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max and even the iPhone 17 having edge to edge displays? Yes, they just have a hole punch but they have edge to edge displays since 2022.

 

[smithrh]

Now do the software.👍

While I agree, Ternus is doing what he knows best first. Software will take a bit longer to unwind, then decide what to do.

 

[gummybear2026]

Johny must be in charge of product downgrades as well since the iPhone 18 is being treated like a red headed step child.

 

[gummybear2026]

Now do the software.👍

iOS 27 is cleaning up the disaster of Liquid Glass hopefully but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[BSDnostalgia]

Software will take a bit longer to unwind, then decide what to do.

They had most of it worked out by 2009. They just need to ramp up the ratio of debug&security to "appearance".

 

[ChrisA]

Ideally, they would find a person like Steve Jobs who could stay involved with every department and personally make sure the chip people knew what the software people were doing. But leaders like that are rare. I was lucky enough to work for a person like that once. My boss told me his job was to walk around and talk to everyone so we would not have to waste time in meetings and could get our work done.

 

[gummybear2026]

Ideally, they would find a person like Steve Jobs who could stay involved with every department and personally make sure the chip people knew what the software people were doing. But leaders like that are rare. I was lucky enough to work for a person like that once. My boss told me his job was to walk around and talk to everyone so we would not have to waste time in meetings and could get our work done.

No CEO can run a trillion dollar company like that. He needs to make sure his leadership team is executing well and get rid of the dead weight.

 

[DocMultimedia]

Ugh. Kevin Lynch is still around. He managed to kill various Adobe products years ago, and was involved in the Watch when they had gold stuff and cost thousands before jumping away from the Watch. I don't want a robotic lamp that costs 5k and is coated with silver. Lol. We'll see how it goes.

 

[sully54]

This is an interesting move. Apple teams are infamously siloed from each other

 

[now i see it]

So all the same people but they’ll be able to talk to somebody else.

 

[AppleTO]

Industrial design drives the overall vision and appearance of new devices

"Hi Team, we just had a brief meeting and decided the iPhone x+1 will have the same design as the current model. Enjoy your year off with full pay!"

😉

 

[Veoronox]

I am curious and hopeful to see how this "shake up" will influence the quality of the hardware products! If it works out, lets hope they will do the same on the software side. Especially to iron out bugs and optimize the system since IOS 26 has not really that best of a reputation online afaik. But first lets see how IOS27 will be.

 

[name99]

I guess what this means is that since everything is Apple Silicon for the foreseeable future, the hardware development process doesn't need to consider alternatives.

In the meantime, like many people, I'm hoping that Apple starts pushing harder on software quality. Specifically, bugs.

I think it's more like Industrial design might ask "Suppose we added hyperspectral imaging to the camera. Would that have any value? Maybe health in seeing disease/problems in [people/animals/plants]? Maybe for home and vehicle maintenance?"
Then if they conclude it's worthwhile, they go to the product design team who consider things like what suppliers are available, how much will it cost, how much volume does it add, etc.

Vision vs implementation.