As speculation mounts over Tim Cook’s eventual successor at Apple, John Ternus — the company’s senior vice president of hardware engineering and widely viewed as the frontrunner — faces scrutiny for mirroring Cook’s cautious, stability-focused leadership style. While this approach has sustained Apple’s dominance through incremental refinements and massive profitability, critics argue it may not suffice for navigating the transformative challenges ahead, particularly in artificial intelligence where Apple continues to trail competitors. With the company’s future growth hinging on bold innovation and catching up in AI, the debate intensifies: Is Ternus the safe, steady hand Apple needs, or does the next era demand a more disruptive leader?
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Ternus, like Cook, is risk averse and reluctant to, as one person close to him puts it, “upset the Apple cart.” As one longtime executive says: “If you think Tim Cook’s doing a good job, then you’ll think John Ternus is going to do a good job.”
The main case against Ternus may be that Apple needs someone more willing to shake things up. Although its products helped define the past 50 years of consumer technology, thriving for another 50 will inevitably require the company to transform in ways that aren’t entirely clear today. On AI, Cook’s successor will likely inherit a company that’s fallen behind competitors…
Ternus has yet to prove he can shepherd a truly new class of products to market, or push the company into its next growth phase. He’s also been criticized for not doing as much as previous hardware chiefs to implement breakthrough technologies. During a 2023 television interview, Ternus also laughed off the idea that Apple should worry about being late to generative AI. When Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker’s take on modern AI, came soon after, it was such a disappointment that some industry watchers began calling for Cook’s job. Almost two years later, Apple has failed to introduce any competitive AI services. It has several times delayed the release of a more capable version of Siri, which will, somewhat embarrassingly, depend on technology from Google.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple fairly screams for a charismatic outsider to inject new vision, excitement, and drive into the company.
As we wrote last July:
For its NeXT CEO, Apple needs relative YOUTH, not another 50- or 60-something calcified company lifer who was part of the so-called team that blindly missed the GenAI paradigm shift.
Steve Jobs was 42 years old when he returned to Apple as interim CEO in September 1997. pic.twitter.com/Bk0kdul7QF
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) July 10, 2025
MacDailyNews via X, July 14, 2025:
What should happen at Apple:
1. Tim Cook retires (yesterday, preferably)
2. Cook does not get Chairman of the Board position
3. Apple hires a charismatic, visionary CEO in the mold of Jobs
4. Company returns to path of inventive innovationWhat likely will happen at Apple:
1. Tim Cook hangs on for years
2. When he finally retires as CEO, he becomes Chairman
3. Apple hires another bland, myopic CEO in the mold of Cook
4. Company continues on path of iterative stagnation
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
