If you pay attention to Apple rumors as much as I do, you'll have noticed that we start hearing about future Apple products years before they're ever released. Whether we're talking about the iPhone Fold, Apple Vision Pro, HomePad display or any number of things, it feels like Apple has a problem bringing products to market.
According to a report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Johny Srouji, Apple's new Chief Hardware Officer, is reorganizing the hardware division with the aim of speeding up work on future Apple devices. Hopefully, this means we don't have multi-year gaps between reports of a device's existence and the actual release date.
Apple's new Chief Hardware Officer, is reorganizing the hardware division with the aim of speeding up work on future Apple devices.
Srouji took over the role of Chief Hardware Officer from John Ternus, who is set to take over as Apple CEO on September 1. However, it seems that won't be the only departmental change going on, with a management shake-up of various hardware teams, including Product Design.
Product Design is distinct from Industrial Design, which used to be headed up by the famous Jony Ive and answers directly to the Apple CEO. Industrial Design creates the look of future devices, while Product Design is the team tasked with turning them into actual products. Speeding up their work would hopefully mean that long-gestating Apple devices will arrive a little sooner than they otherwise would.
There are a lot of transfers and promotions detailed in Gurman's report, and there doesn't seem to be any single change that will ensure faster development. However, it's been clear for a while that Apple likes to take its time when upcoming products are concerned.
What this means for future Apple products
We're at the point where certain devices arrive several years after the rest of the industry got on the bandwagon — like the iPhone Fold. Then there are the products that have to be canceled because they soaked up so many resources and years of development time, with absolutely nothing to show for it — like the Apple Car.
An increase in speed isn't going to happen overnight, though. Multiple Apple products are reportedly in different stages of development right now, and it's unclear whether the change will help bring their release dates forward.
Naturally, products like the iPhone Fold and Apple HomePad are not likely to be affected by the change — at least based on what we know from leaks and reports. The iPhone Fold is expected to launch this fall, and is on the verge of mass production, which means the design team doesn't have much else to do. Likewise, the HomePad has reportedly been ready to go for a while, and its delay all comes down to the fact that Apple royally fumbled the launch of Siri's AI upgrade.
Then we have products like the MacBook Ultra, which are supposedly delayed due to external factors — specifically, the ongoing memory shortages that have affected the entire tech industry.
But then there are other rumors coming out of Apple that have yet to bear fruit. There are the weird stories, like the alleged robotics push going on within the company, or the more sensible products like a doorbell/smart lock combo that uses Face ID to unlock your door.
We've also heard some outlandish rumors about the iPhone 20 getting a curved screen that wraps over all four edges of the phone.
These are all things that could benefit from greater cohesion within Apple's hardware team, and avoid years of development and rumors that seem to end up going nowhere.
Heck, if speed were more of a priority over the past few years, we may have seen the Apple Vision Pro headset a little sooner. Then again, the fact we saw it at all was a little miraculous, since the Industrial Design team was reportedly against releasing it at all, and had to be overruled by CEO Tim Cook.
I just hope that Apple's inherent need to develop the perfect first-generation product doesn't get in the way of getting devices in consumers' hands, and keep development time slower than a tortoise after a sugar crash.
