What could be next for Apple with new CEO John Ternus

There may be some glimpses of what the future of Apple will look like under the new leadership of John Ternus based on interviews he has done 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 CEO as of Sept. 1. The tech giant announced Cook was stepping down on April 20.

Ternus makes sense to take the reins, said Brian Tong, host of the Apple Bitz podcast who has covered Apple for 18 years.

"It seems like a natural transition and John Ternus has really been groomed for this," Tong told USA TODAY.

And Ternus has previously said that Apple's ability to blend its designs with its own in house technologies, rather than those from an outside company, has allowed the tech giant to push the envelope when it comes to innovation.

"I think one of the most, if not the most,  profound change at Apple certainly in our products over the last 20 years is how we now do so many of those technologies in house,'' he said in an interview with CNBC on Dec. 23, 2023. “I’m really excited about the products that we're making and even more excited about the things that we’re going to be delivering in the future. There’s just so much opportunity here for us.’’

Ternus has worked his way up

Ternus, who has worked at Apple since 2001, has had the benefit of working for both Cook and the late Steve Jobs.

"He understands how Apple has evolved," said Tong.

Still, Ternus will be under pressure to show if Apple can come up with the next big thing under his leadership, Tong said.

"Will they be able to crack that nut of the foldable phone, the wearable glasses or artificial intelligence, which up until this point they’ve failed to do," he said.

Many wondered who Tim Cook was when he replaced Jobs as Apple CEO 15 years ago, and the same can be said about Ternus, said serial tech entrepreneur Marcus Nelson, CEO for AI for Main Street.

“But Ternus will become a household name in no time,” Nelson said. “Cook was a logistics guy when Apple needed his guidance, and Ternus is a hardware guy at a time when AI is emerging and Apple is looking to dominate its share of the market.”

Ternus has had his imprint on almost everything Apple has done for the past two decades ranging from updated iPhones, to creating its high-speed M-series chips, to its new and more affordable MacBook Neo, Nelson said.  

“This is the guy for this moment," Nelson said about Ternus. "If Tim Cook was the guy for that moment, then John Ternus is the guy for this moment."

Apple is always innovating

In the 2023 CNBC interview, given alongside Apple’s head of silicon, Johny Srouji, Ternus said the Mac was an "interesting inflection point" for Apple because "it was the one product where we had for years been building with other people's silicon and then we, all of a sudden got to build with our own."

Asked what hardware launch tied to the company using its own silicon was his proudest moment, Ternus told CNBC that “It’s very hard for me to pick one … I can name a few. Airpods was an amazing thing, right, that was enabled by technology that we built in house and I think … it fundamentally changed how people use ear phones.'' He also noted the launch of the iPad and Mac computer.

Three years later, Ternus reiterated that Apple is always coming up with new ideas, including new materials, electrical and silicon design. In an interview he gave to Mark Spoonauer, global editor in chief of Tom's Guide, with Greg "Joz" Joswiak, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Ternus discussed innovations after the launch of the Macbook Neo.

In speaking about the difference between Ipads and the MacBook Neo, a new budget-focused laptop introduced the previous month for $599, Ternus said in the April 15 interview that "we're always focused on how do we make a given product better. What are we doing next? We're always pushing."

But even in developing a budget product, he said, "we didn't lower the bar. We still made an amazing high quality Mac at this incredible price point."

The Apple team will continue to develop advancements for all of its products, he said.

"There's so much good new stuff" in the Mac Neo, Ternus said, that "will certainly influence how we look at other products and how we can take core technologies and pieces to make them better as well."

Contributing: Terry Collins

Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] or follow her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher and @blinfisher.bsky.social on Bluesky. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, which breaks down complex consumer and financial news. Subscribe here.