A CNET roundup positions John Ternus, the executive widely expected to take over as Apple's CEO on September 1, 2026, as the figure who will define the rumored 2027 redesign.
Apple has not meaningfully redesigned its flagship iPhone in years, and the device widely expected to ship for the iPhone's 20th anniversary in 2027 is now the subject of a fast-thickening rumor cycle. The person positioned to inherit that moment, according to a CNET roundup by Prakhar Khanna published June 13, 2026, is John Ternus, the executive widely expected to take over as Apple's CEO on September 1, 2026. That collision, between a round-number product milestone and the first year of a new chief executive, is the real story underneath all the hardware whispers.
The hardware whispers are familiar territory. The CNET piece, framed as a guide to everything known about the iPhone 20, recycles the rumor template that surfaces before every iPhone launch: a chassis made entirely of glass, no physical buttons, and a Samsung Display panel with equal-depth quad-curved edges, each cited to unnamed analyst notes or supply-chain leaks rather than to any Apple announcement. CNET also flags an unresolved debate over whether Apple will hide the front camera under the display, with the reports it cites pointing in opposite directions.
What makes this cycle worth taking seriously is the precedent for round-number resets. The last time Apple used a major iPhone anniversary to push the design forward was 2017, when the iPhone X, the device that killed the home button, introduced the notch, and reset the price ceiling, launched for the 10th anniversary. That bet defined the look of every iPhone sold for the next nine years. A 20th-anniversary pivot in 2027, if it lands, would be the first major design statement of the Ternus era, and the first visible signal of whether Apple's industrial design culture will continue Cook-era incrementalism or break from it.
Ternus's background is the reason that question is open rather than settled. He ran Apple's hardware engineering organization under Cook and has long been associated with the same industrial design group that produced the unibody MacBook, the iPhone 4, and the original iPad. Apple's current leadership page lists Ternus as Senior Vice President Hardware Engineering; the CEO transition claim is reported by CNET as a widely held industry expectation, not a formally announced Apple succession. A buttonless, all-glass iPhone in 2027 would be the kind of clean industrial statement that profile pieces about Ternus have described as his instinct for years, but it would also be a bet that buyers want a more dramatic change after a long stretch of marginal updates. The rumors are thin evidence on their own; they are useful evidence because they line up with what Ternus's career has signaled.
None of this is confirmed. Apple does not comment on unannounced hardware, and the September 2027 window is an analyst and supply-chain expectation rather than a roadmap item the company has published. The under-display selfie camera question, in particular, is the kind of feature that often gets floated in the year before a launch and quietly dropped from the final design, and CNET's own summary acknowledges the conflicting reports. The CEO transition date, similarly, is widely expected in reporting but is not listed on Apple's official leadership page as of the roundup's publication.
The watch items for the next eighteen months are concrete. WWDC 2027, the software preview event that traditionally sets the stage for the next iPhone generation, will be the first public moment when Apple has to either match or contradict the supply-chain narrative. The industrial design hires and promotions inside Apple's hardware engineering group over the next two quarters will signal whether the buttonless chassis rumor has internal support. And the first credible teardown of a Samsung Display panel rumored to match the equal-depth curve spec will tell buyers and competitors whether the hardware is real or wishful. The story to follow is not which rumors turn out to be true, but whether the new CEO decides to ship a design that breaks the pattern his predecessor left behind.