Apple CEO John Ternus on how Steve Jobs’ ‘furniture story’ inspires product design at the company
Apple CEO John Ternus, who recently stepped into the top leadership position after guiding the company’s hardware engineering teams across multiple device generations, has shared how an iconic Steve Jobs philosophy continues to dictate Apple’s design standards – even on its most budget-friendly devices. Speaking soon after the launch of the MacBook Neo earlier this year, Ternus revisited one of his favourite stories about the late Apple co-founder, illustrating how attention to unseen details remains the foundation of the company’s product line.
The ‘carpenter’s lesson’
Ternus recounted a quiet moment involving Jobs moving a bedroom dresser away from the wall.“Steve was moving a piece of furniture, a chest of drawers, and pulled it away from the wall and looked at the back and was just reflecting on the carpenter who had made it beautiful. It finished the back as beautifully as the rest of it, even though nobody was going to see it right and I think about that all the time because I think that perfectly exemplifies what we do here,” he said.The mindset of treating internal components and unseen surfaces with the same engineering precision as the exterior casing has been a foundational rule of Apple hardware since the earliest Macintosh models. Ternus connected that design ethos directly to the MacBook Neo, pointing out that cost-effective pricing does not mean cutting corners on aesthetic or structural integrity.“We’ve been talking about the MacBook Neo. Here is our most affordable Mac we’ve ever made, and it’s absolutely beautiful. And if you open it up and look inside, it’s just as beautiful,” Tetanus said.“And that’s true about all products – an iPhone Pro Max or a MacBook Pro or an iPad Pro, but it’s also true on a MacBook Neo,” he added, suggesting that Apple applies the exact same standards to its entry-level hardware.For Ternus, continuing to obsess over hidden details provides a clear roadmap for where the company is headed under his tenure.“That’s what we do, and so, it’s just been really good just to think about that and reflect on that because that is probably the best kind of clue as to where we’re going in the future. We’re going to keep pushing in that same way,” Ternus said.
