AIRPODS 5 IS APPLE'S FIRST HARDWARE UNDER NEW CEO TERNUS

John Ternus Has Run AirPods Since 2013

John Ternus became vice president of Hardware Engineering at Apple in 2013 and took direct responsibility for three product lines that day: AirPods, Mac, and iPad. He added iPhone hardware in 2020 and Apple Watch in late 2022, then became Apple's chief executive on September 1, 2026, succeeding Tim Cook after fifteen years. AirPods 5, which goes on sale Friday, September 18, is the first product Apple has shipped since that handoff.

Ternus joined Apple's product design team in 2001 with a mechanical engineering degree, twenty five years before the board handed him the company. Every promotion in between added hardware to his desk rather than moving him away from it, which is unusual for a chief executive candidate anywhere in tech. Most CEOs inherit a portfolio. Ternus built pieces of his by hand first.

That timing turns a routine spec bump into a signal. Ternus built the AirPods hardware team from its earliest generation, and the first product to carry his name as chief executive instead of engineer is the one line on his own resume he has touched longest. His first keynote as CEO landed on September 9, covered here the same week, when the iPhone Duo folded out onstage alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Apple Watch Series 12. The fold got the headline. The earbuds are the quieter release, and they are the one Ternus can claim as his own engineering.

The Twenty Dollar Gap Is the Whole Update

Both AirPods 5 models now include Active Noise Cancellation, a change from the outgoing AirPods 4 lineup, where only one of two versions carried it. Apple says the new ANC blocks up to fifty percent more outside noise than AirPods 4 did, alongside Adaptive Audio, an upgraded Transparency mode, and a new Conversation Awareness feature that lowers playback volume when the wearer starts talking.

The base model costs $129. The $149 version adds a wireless charging case, longer battery life, and swipe based volume control on the stem, the only real differences between the two. Both versions carry an IP57 water resistance rating, up from IP54 on AirPods 4, and both support Live Translation when paired with an iPhone 15 Pro or later running Apple Intelligence. None of that required a new CEO's signature. All of it shipped eight days into his tenure anyway.

An Open Ear Design Built for People Who Are Moving

AirPods 5 keep the open ear shape that skips silicone tips entirely, the same design choice that makes them a staple for runners and cyclists who need to hear traffic over their own playlist. The IP57 rating exists for the same reason, sweat and rain resistance for people who do not stop moving to answer a call.

That positions Apple against a wearable audio market that spent 2026 arguing about design as much as sound. Nothing built its entire Ear (open) marketing pitch around color and copywriting rather than specs, a choice covered here in May when the earbuds went blue with no hardware change underneath. Apple took the opposite approach with AirPods 5. Ternus's team added measurable features, ANC on every model instead of one, a fifty percent noise reduction claim, and a real IP rating jump, then let a twenty dollar price gap carry the argument that Nothing spends a full campaign making.

Skeptics Are Not Wrong. They Are Not Right Either.

The skeptical read is obvious. A CEO transition does not mean the new chief executive personally approved a stem length or a battery cell. Ternus inherited a product roadmap locked months before he had the job, and AirPods 5 would have shipped on September 18 no matter who sat in Apple's top chair. Apple has shipped plenty of hardware in the handoff month between one chief executive and the next without anyone reading corporate meaning into the specs.

That reasoning holds and still undersells what happened. Apple could have opened the Ternus era with the iPhone Duo alone, the fold that dominated every headline from the September 9 event, and let AirPods 5 slip quietly onto shelves a week later without comment. Instead the earbuds Ternus personally engineered starting in 2013 are the first product carrying his name as chief executive rather than as hardware lead. Call the update underrated as a leadership marker and overrated as a hardware release. The harder test comes next, whenever Ternus has to sign off on something he did not spend a decade building with his own team.