According to at least one observer, Apple investors and fans seeking insight into the philosophy of new Chief Executive Officer John Ternus were left disappointed after his first earnings call on Monday. The 51-year-old former hardware engineering chief, who took over as CEO on September 1, stuck closely to a prepared script amid questions from analysts, according to Bloomberg Opinion‘s Dave Lee.
The call coincided with record results. Apple reported all-time record fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $114.5 billion, up 12% year over year and a September-quarter record, with solid performance in iPhone and Mac. After-hours trading began roughly flat to slightly positive. By the time the call ended roughly an hour later, shares had fallen nearly 3%.
Much of the sell-off reflected the company’s cautious guidance for the key holiday quarter. Management projected revenue growth of 7% to 10% for the December period — a slowdown from the just-reported 12% — while flagging pressure from elevated memory-chip costs, supply constraints, and other factors. Gross-margin expectations also came in softer than some had hoped.
Lee described the performance as a missed opportunity. With Wall Street and observers looking for outlines of a “Ternus Doctrine” — how the self-described product executive intends to steer Apple into a new era of innovation — Ternus instead deferred frequently to Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh and Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan. Apple has said the broader executive group will participate more regularly in future calls, a shift from the prior CEO-and-CFO format. Ternus projected confidence, but remained tightly on-script, speaking, in Lee’s personal assessment, like someone eager for the session to end rather than using the platform to articulate a broader vision.
The debut comes as Apple navigates a competitive landscape shaped by AI investment elsewhere, rising component costs, and high investor expectations following a substantial market-value run-up earlier in the year. While the September-quarter numbers themselves were robust, the combination of measured outlook and restrained leadership style on the call left some observers underwhelmed about the immediate tone set by the new chief executive.
MacDailyNews Take: Lee’s assessment sounds like he’s never listened to even one of Ternus’ successor’s highly scripted conference calls. Ternus did just fine.
Again, as we wrote earlier this morning:
Everybody is dealing wth soaring memory costs and Apple customers are, by far, the best positioned to absorb price increases while Apple is, by far, the company that’s best positioned to absorb component price fluctuations thanks to margins that are the envy of the industry. Apple’s so called “competitors” have no such luxuries. They have only price-sensitive (read: cheap and/or poor) customers and little room to maneuver with low or no margins. Net result: As Apple customers keep buying while rivals’ customers balk, Apple gains market share in every market in which they participate.
Patience, AAPL padawans. This too shall pass. Profit from the laughably overwrought panic of others.
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Corrected.
John Ternus needs to forget Tim Cooke’s legacy. John released the products Tim Cook was sitting on while Tim leveraged everything to the maximum. John now needs to go back to basics support innovation and let the pent up and returning talent – let the company fly. With Tim Cook in the shadows John needs to become his own man or hell just become a poor second to a bad third degree innovator
It’s still better than Steve Ballmer’s attempts at propping M$ up with his “I like that strategy, I like it a lot” comment. What, exactly, did his strategy accomplish between the era of Zune and the Windows 8/10/11 touchscreen PCs? Ternus already seems like a better public speaker than anyone Microsoft ever had.
«Pensu Malsame»
Ternus needs to take the edge off. Two shots of tequila will do the trick next time.
Scripted, or not, Ternus spoke more concrete value in the weeks leading up to this conf call than Cook did in the last decade.
My perceptions could be wrong, but because of his recent words, I have more confidence since Jobs that AAPL’s trajectory is solid.
I listened to the entire call, Ternus was average if not mediocre. What he read at the beginning could have been pre-recorded or prepared with AI for all we know. His lieutenants kept jumping in to take harder questions which no one gave a good answer to. There were a few decent questions which didn’t get replied to and lots of glazing by the slavish ‘journalists’ and basically nothing new. Apple will be fine but the memory prices pose a challenge and to a lesser extent its fumbling of the Duo launch and hinge failures.
For such a high-profile position, essentially one of the top public figures in America and the world, Ternus leaves much to be desired. Above all he’s an engineer, not a politician or a businessman. It’s clearer by the day why Cook is still on board. Apple basically has two CEOs now, one is Board-facing the other is Operations-facing.
Who cares? He was never a product designer, he was an engineer.
He’s not Steve Jobs, just move on guys.
I dont see CEO material in Ternus !
Just Dont!
Tim was amazing at his roll….
Thank God he is still there!
As for the duo hinge….
Im just shocked… absolutely shocked …. When Trenus was supposedly placed where he is to inspire product invocation and product confidence!!!
Sorry .. meant to say innovation not invocation!