...it seems logical and of sound business mind to me that Josh Hon is keeping to the latest stuff he oversaw development of, instead of taking a whole new direction, which would be very risky. He improved on one of the major weaknesses, the hinges and their locks.
Yep. Of course the Tern marketing has said that "Tern" is a pun on "turn" and that Mr. J. Hon wanted to call the new company "180" as in "change course and go in the completely opposite direction". The hardware - which actually seems like a nice evolutionary step - doesn't really match the Tern marketing spiel.