Apple is reportedly plotting one of the most ambitious hardware expansions in its history, with incoming CEO John Ternus said to be eyeing as many as 10 entirely new Apple product categories – a number that makes Tim Cook’s already impressive legacy look almost modest by comparison.
For the enterprise technology world, this isn’t just a consumer story. If even half of these categories land in the workplace, the device landscape as we know it is about to get a serious redesign.
Why Now, and Why Ternus?
To understand why this matters, you need to understand the moment Apple finds itself in. Tim Cook has been one of the most successful CEOs in corporate history – he didn’t just keep Steve Jobs’ flame burning, he turned it into a bonfire worth over $3 trillion. Under Cook, Apple expanded into roughly three major new hardware categories: Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro. Three categories, one titan of industry. Not bad.
But the market has changed. AI is rewriting the rules of personal and enterprise computing at a pace that makes Moore’s Law look like it’s running on dial-up. Competitors from Google, Microsoft, Meta, and a wave of Chinese hardware manufacturers are all staking claims in smart glasses, AI-powered wearables, home automation, and ambient computing. Apple, famously deliberate and notoriously tight-lipped, has been watching – and apparently, planning.
Enter John Ternus. Apple’s current SVP of Hardware Engineering, Ternus has been the quiet architect behind some of Apple’s most significant hardware leaps – including the M-series Apple Silicon transition that left Intel looking rather sheepish. He is, by most accounts, the person best positioned to understand not just what Apple can build, but what it should build next.
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The Announcement: 10 New Categories on the Horizon
Reports from ChannelNews Australia and Storyboard18 cite sources suggesting Ternus has identified up to 10 new product categories Apple could pursue in the coming years – a figure that surpasses anything mapped out under Cook’s tenure.
While specific categories haven’t been fully confirmed, Apple’s known development pipeline includes smart home displays and hubs, AI-powered smart glasses (a space Meta’s Ray-Bans already occupy rather smugly), health monitoring devices, domestic robotics, and potentially entirely new form factors in spatial and ambient computing. Apple Vision Pro already gave us a glimpse of what “new category” ambition looks like at Apple. Now imagine that ambition – multiplied by ten.
What This Means for Enterprise Buyers and Workplace Tech
Here’s where it gets interesting for the enterprise. Apple has spent years quietly deepening its grip on the corporate device market – iPhones are staples, MacBooks dominate creative and knowledge worker desks, and iPads have found their way into everything from retail floors to hospital wards.
A wave of new Apple hardware categories designed with the same ecosystem integration Apple is famous for could have major implications for IT procurement, MDM platforms, and workplace infrastructure.
Smart glasses with enterprise overlays. AI-native devices that plug natively into Apple Intelligence. New form factors that challenge how we think about the desk, the meeting room, and the mobile worker.
For CIOs and IT decision-makers, the Ternus era isn’t a distant concern – it’s a procurement and strategy conversation that needs to start now.
As Steve Jobs himself once said:
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
On the available evidence, John Ternus has absorbed that memo thoroughly.
Editorial Insight: The Ternus Signal
Ternus himself has been clear about his vision.
“I think that’s the beauty of what we do, is we tie these things together. We have hardware, we have software, we have services… I look forward to continuing to expand that and continuing to look for the kinds of opportunities between the hardware and software.”
What this story really signals is that Apple is not content to be a mature, category-defending business. The move to articulate a ten-category ambition – whether it fully materialises or not – is a statement of intent: Apple plans to be at the frontier of hardware innovation, not just the premium end of existing markets.
For the enterprise tech world, that means one thing above all else: the device ecosystem your organisation runs on in 2030 may look very different to what it looks like today. And if history is any guide, when Apple decides to move into a category, everybody else ends up playing catch-up.
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The next wave of Apple hardware is already being built – make sure you’re not the last to know.
