Apple will end the Tim Cook CEO era on Sept. 1 and hand management control to hardware chief John Turnus. That has drawn attention to whether Apple’s direction will change.

TechRadar reported on April 22 that Apple’s core operating principles are likely to largely remain in place under Turnus. It added that some changes could emerge in hardware and the smart home.

Turnus has been with Apple for about 25 years. He is senior vice president of hardware engineering and has been deeply involved across product development. Inside Apple, many expect the existing approach of designing hardware and software together to continue under the new leadership.

The design-driven stance is also likely to remain. Bloomberg reported that in internal Apple meetings, Turnus said, "We will keep focusing on design," and added, "Design is at the core of Apple." With Turnus also taking on the role of directly briefing the board on current projects and key issues, some assess that Apple’s design-centric corporate culture is unlikely to change significantly.

No major change is seen in product philosophy, either. Turnus has repeatedly made clear Apple’s view that durability should take priority over ease of repair. He said the goal of a product is to make it usable for a long time, and that focusing too much on making every part repairable could instead produce outcomes that are worse for consumers and the environment. He also said, "We want to make products easier to repair," leaving room for some improvements while maintaining a long-life product approach.

The privacy and security policies strengthened under Cook are also expected to continue. Turnus told employees there would be no change in policy in this area.

Environmental policy is the same. Apple has pursued reducing packaging and cutting emissions, and it aims to achieve carbon neutrality across the company and its entire supply chain by 2030. Turnus said, "There are things that must never change and will not change," and cited environmental protection efforts as one of them.

Hardware is cited first as an area likely to gain more weight under the new CEO. Unlike Cook, who has shown strength in operations and supply chain management, Turnus is a leading product development executive. Having led Apple’s hardware division for a long period, he may place more emphasis on the completeness and innovation of physical products. Devices such as the Vision Pro could become a testbed for such change.

Apple’s smart home business is also a point to watch. Apple is known to be preparing related products, including a smart home display with a robot arm. These projects began under Cook, but there is speculation they could gain momentum as Turnus takes the CEO job. Turnus’s history of developing a mechanical assistive arm for quadriplegic patients as a college graduation project also ties into that view.

Ultimately, analysis suggests the core of the Turnus era is likely to be keeping what has been seen as Apple’s identity — design, integrated development, privacy protection and environmental policy — while adding more of his own imprint in areas where he has strong expertise, such as hardware and the smart home.