In the midst of Apple’s struggle with AI, rumours of a new top management replacement are doing the rounds on the internet. Apple CEO Tim Cook is nearing his retirement age, and Apple is pinning its hopes on one of its engineers to take his place and drive Apple into a massively changing tech landscape. Meet John Ternus, the 50-year-old engineer who is presently Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering and is a crucial part of the company’s upper management.
Rumours have been going high about Ternus stepping into the shoes of Tim Cook, who succeeded Steve Jobs in the previous decade and has played a key role in navigating Apple towards a glorious future. With Ternus, the expectations are sky high considering his laurels and his role in Apple’s recent past.
John Ternus could be the new Apple CEO
The spotlight on Ternus comes as Apple faces pressure to accelerate its AI roadmap, an area where the Cupertino-based tech giant has largely lacked. In fact, the company had to sign a deal with arch-rival Google for using the latter’s Gemini AI model to power its next-gen Siri voice assistant and Apple Intelligence features.
With Ternus’ background in product and engineering, rather than operations or finance, industry insiders expect Apple to turn over a new leaf in the AI era. This shift is seen as a move to return a product-focused executive to the helm, a legacy established by Steve Jobs. Mark Gurman, a reliable source on internal Apple affairs, reported in his newsletter that the company is currently intensifying its focus on Ternus as the likely successor to Cook.
John Ternus and his professional background
Ternus has been at Apple as one of the key architects behind the company’s most significant hardware transitions, as well as important product lines.
Ternus has spent over two decades at Apple, climbing the ranks within the hardware engineering department. He joined Apple as a member of the Product Design team in 2001 and made his way to the position of vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013. In his present role, Ternus has overseen the engineering teams responsible for flagship products across Apple’s entire hardware portfolio, including:
– iPhone
– iPad
– Mac
Ternus has played a role in overseeing the transition to Apple Silicon (M-series chips), which is considered one of the most critical engineering feats in the company’s recent history. The M series chips have elevated the Mac products to entirely different levels of performance, setting high standards for these lightweight laptops.
Will Ternus help Apple’s AI causes?
The most recent development concerning Ternus’s profile is an internal realignment that places hardware at the core of Apple’s AI efforts. Apple recently moved its advanced robotics work from the AI organisation into the hardware division that Ternus oversees. This restructuring signals a plan to integrate next-generation AI directly into future Apple devices. WIth Google’s Gemini powering Apple Intelligence for now, you can expect the next-gen iPhones, Macs and wearables to help embed more AI into products.
While there is no official indication that Tim Cook is planning an imminent departure, Ternus is viewed as the long-term successor to steer Apple in the right direction.
