Apple’s incoming chief executive John Ternus has a long heritage at the tech giant.
Long touted as the successor to the Apple throne, Ternus first joined Apple in 2001, working initially on the Apple Cinema display.
By 2013, he had risen to vice president of hardware engineering, overseeing some of Apple’s biggest products, namely the iPad, Mac and AirPods.
In 2020, he took over iPhone hardware, with Apple Watch following in 2022. He joined Apple’s executive team in 2021 when he was promoted to senior vice president.
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In recent months the 50-year-old has emerged as the likely successor to Tim Cook when he chose to retire, a succession plan that was considered sealed when chief operating officer Jeff Williams left Apple last year.
Ternus has a big legacy to maintain. Under Cook, the company has gone from strength to strength. He took over the role in August 2011, after Apple cofounder Steve Jobs stepped back due to ill health. Jobs was named chairman, and continued to work for the company until shortly before his death six weeks later.
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Cook oversaw Apple’s growth to become the first public $1 trillion (€849 billion) company; it has since grown to become worth more than $4 trillion. The iPhone, meanwhile, has extended its reach globally, and its services have expanded. Apple has also taken some gambles, including the shift away from Intel to Apple-designed chips.
But Ternus is facing some big challenges. First on the agenda is Apple’s artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, which has been under scrutiny for some time.
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The tech giant has struggled to keep pace with its rivals, taking a more cautious approach to the technology as it tried to balance it with user privacy. Its smarter version of Siri, which has been long awaited, has been delayed. Apple has turned to external partners such as OpenAI to help deliver some of its AI services.
A more long-term issue for Ternus is Apple’s future product roadmap, specifically what comes after the iPhone in terms of volume growth. The company has long focused on the popular smartphone, but recent years have seen the wider smartphone market slow in growth as it matures, and there is an appetite for more innovation at the company.
Although Apple has brought in new products, most notably the Vision Pro headset, much of the development has been seen in expanding its services. Apple has been steadily growing revenue in its services division, reaching a record-breaking level in 2025.
In recent years, it has grown from the App Store to include iCloud+ storage and services, music streaming through Apple Music, its fitness platform and the Apple TV streaming service.
But Ternus will be under pressure to find a new hardware product to fuel growth into the future. There has been speculation that Apple is readying its first foldable iPhone, and is also exploring smart glasses similar to Meta collaboration with Ray-Ban.
The choice of a new chief executive with a hardware background could usher in a new era of innovation at the company.
