While everyone is careful to note that Apple CEO Tim Cook isn’t likely to retire anytime soon—and that no final decision on his replacement has been made—there seems to be little doubt that John Ternus is currently the heir apparent.
A comprehensive new Bloomberg profile reinforces this view, highlighting both internal signals and external indications that point to him as the company’s favored choice for the top job.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
While [Apple CEO Tim Cook has] given no indication of an imminent transition, he’s made it clear he wants his heir to come from within the company so he can serve as a mentor. The central candidate is John Ternus, senior vice president for hardware engineering, who oversees development of the devices that generate roughly 80% of Apple’s revenue. At 50, Ternus is also younger than many of the company’s other senior leaders, meaning he could be in the top job longer.
Earlier this month, when Apple held an event in New York to announce the MacBook Neo, a $599 laptop, it was Ternus, not Cook, who did the big reveal. The next day, Ternus also appeared on Good Morning America to talk up the device, the type of media appearance Cook has generally done himself.
Such public signs of confidence in Ternus have been accompanied by a steady expansion of his portfolio. Last year he took control of a secretive unit developing robots, including a tabletop device with a screen that swirls to focus on a speaker moving around the room during a FaceTime call. (It’s slated for release as early as next year.) He has taken a bigger role in Apple’s product marketing, sometimes personally editing copy for the website and product event materials, and has become central to the company’s work to make its devices more environmentally sustainable. Ternus has also assumed oversight of the hardware and software design teams, making him the key liaison between Apple’s vaunted design organization and senior management—meaning he’s already one of the most influential people in the company’s history.
Current and former employees and executives who’ve worked closely with Ternus, most of whom requested anonymity to discuss the inner workings of a famously secretive organization, say he has made a mark on Apple’s hardware portfolio, reversing a trend of declining product quality as the company prioritized thinness and sleekness over performance. “He is a very meticulous engineer and a judicious executive,” says Tony Blevins, the company’s procurement chief until 2022, who describes Ternus as an “outstanding and obvious choice” to succeed Cook.
MacDailyNews Take: Thanks for reading, John! 😉
The law of diminishing returns can also be applied to industrial design. Apple’s eternal quest for thinness eventually runs into issues such as bulging camera assemblies, battery capacity, strength (breakability), etc. – is Apple’s quest for thinness now bordering on the quixotic?
So, is it “you can never be too thin” or is it “thin enough is thin enough?” — MacDailyNews, December 21, 2015
Hey, Jony: Enough with the thin.
Everything is thin enough. Sometimes too thin. Thinner isn’t the answer to everything, nor is thinness intrinsic to good design. We’d gladly take a bit more robustness and battery life over more unnecessary thinness, thanks. – MacDailyNews, June 25, 2018
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