Apple’s latest product event began with an unusual moment of self-awareness – and what many viewers saw as a carefully staged passing of the torch.
A cinematic opening video showed a camera following a mysterious figure before a voiceover announced that the shot would eventually reveal the event’s “main character”. The man walking towards the camera was then revealed to be Tim Cook.
But the former chief executive quickly rejected the suggestion.
“No, no, no, not me. That’s your guy, that’s your opener,” Cook said, before entered the frame and took over the presentation.
The moment marked Ternus’s first major Apple event as chief executive and immediately triggered discussion online, with viewers interpreting the opening as a symbolic handover after Cook’s long tenure leading the company.
“This is beautiful 🥹 Tim Cook handing the keys to the kingdom to John Ternus,” one user wrote on X.
Another described the scene as the moment “the baton” was being passed. “15 years of Tim Cook leading these stages, and now we’re literally watching the baton get passed in real time,” the user wrote, adding that regardless of the products announced, the leadership transition could become one of the event’s most memorable moments.
The reaction was understandable. Apple did not simply introduce a new executive before beginning a routine presentation. It used its opening minutes to make the change in leadership part of the show itself.
Ternus, who previously led Apple’s engineering division, has been a key figure behind some of the company’s biggest products but has maintained a much lower public profile than Cook.
His first appearance as chief executive therefore carried particular significance, especially at an event centred on the , the product responsible for more than half of Apple’s sales.
The leadership transition came alongside a major slate of hardware announcements.
Ternus introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple’s latest high-end smartphones, alongside the iPhone Duo, the company’s first foldable iPhone. The three devices formed the centrepiece of the event, signalling an expansion of the iPhone line-up as Apple moves into the foldable smartphone market.
The and iPhone 18 Pro Max bring upgrades to battery life, camera performance and processing power, while the new models also place greater emphasis on Apple’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
The Pro duo is powered by the new A20 Pro chip, while Apple continues to position privacy and on-device processing as key parts of its approach to .
The event also featured the , Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, giving Ternus a broad product line-up for his first major presentation as chief executive.
