Tim Cook resigns, John Ternus appointed
Apple has announced that Tim Cook will step down as CEO and that John Tarnas will take over as CEO on September 1, subject to board approval.
There may be a glimpse of what Apple’s future will look like under John Tarnas’ new leadership, based on interviews he has given in the past.
Ternus, Apple’s current senior vice president of hardware engineering and a 25-year veteran of the company, will succeed Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO on September 1. The tech giant announced that Cook will step down on April 20th.
Brian Tong, host of the podcast Apple Bitz, who has covered Apple for 18 years, said it makes sense for Ternas to take the reins.
“This seems like a natural transition, and John Tarnas has really been training for this,” Tong told USA TODAY.
And Ternas has previously said Apple’s ability to blend its designs with its own technology rather than external technology allows the tech giant to push the boundaries of innovation.
“I think the biggest, or one of the biggest changes in Apple’s products over the last 20 years is that we’ve started to do a lot of these technologies in-house,” he said in a Dec. 23, 2023, interview with CNBC. “I’m really excited about the products we’re building and even more excited about what we have to offer in the future.” There’s a lot of opportunity here for us. ”
Ternas has been making efforts.
Mr. Ternus, who has worked at Apple since 2001, has had the benefit of working for both Mr. Cook and the late Steve Jobs.
“He understands how Apple has evolved,” Tong said.
Still, Ternus will be under pressure to show whether Apple can come up with the next big thing under his leadership, Tong said.
“Will they be able to solve problems like flip phones, wearable glasses or artificial intelligence? Up until this point, they haven’t been able to do it,” he said.
Many people wonder who Tim Cook was when he replaced Jobs as Apple’s CEO 15 years ago, and the same can be said about Ternas, said Marcus Nelson, a serial tech entrepreneur and CEO of AI for Main Street.
“But Ternas will soon become famous,” Nelson said. “Cook was the logistics guy at a time when Apple needed guidance, and Ternas was the hardware guy at a time when AI was on the rise and Apple was trying to dominate market share.”
Nelson said Ternus’s footprint has been in almost everything Apple has done over the past 20 years, from updated iPhones to the development of faster M-Series chips to the new, more affordable MacBook Neo.
“He’s the right player for this moment,” Nelson said of Ternas. “If Tim Cook is the man of the moment, John Ternus is the man of the moment.”
Apple is always innovating
In a 2023 CNBC interview with Apple’s head of silicon, Johnny Srouzi, Ternas said the Mac was an “interesting turning point” for Apple. Because “the only product we had been making for years using other people’s silicon was suddenly being made with our own silicon.”
When asked if the launch of hardware associated with the company using proprietary silicon was his proudest moment, Tarnas told CNBC, “It’s very hard to pick one… I can name a few. Airpods were great. It was made possible by the technology we built in-house, and I think… it fundamentally changed the way people use earphones.” He also mentioned the launch of the iPad and Mac computers.
Three years later, Ternus reiterated that Apple is always coming up with new ideas, including new materials, electrical and silicon designs. In an interview with Tom’s Guide’s Global Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer and Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg “Jos” Jozwiak, Tarnas talked about innovations since the launch of the Macbook Neo.
In an April 15 interview, Ternas said of the differences between the iPad and the MacBook Neo, a new budget laptop that went on sale last month for $599. “We’re always focused on how to make the product we’re given better. What’s next? We’re always moving forward.”
But even in developing a low-cost product, he said, “We didn’t lower the bar. We still created an amazing, high-quality Mac at this incredible price point.”
He said the Apple team will continue to develop advancements for all products.
Mac Neo “has a lot of great new features,” Ternus said, “and it’s definitely going to impact how we look at other products and how we incorporate core technologies and components to make them better.”
Contributor: Terry Collins
Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA TODAY. Contact her at blinfisher@USATODAY.com or follow her at @blinfisher on X, Facebook and Instagram and @blinfisher.bsky.social on Bluesky.. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, breaking down complex consumer and financial news. Subscribe here.
