Apple announced back in April that Tim Cook was stepping down as CEO, and that John Ternus would replace him on September 1. That day has finally arrived, and Tim Cook is no longer in charge of the company – though he remains leading the board of directors.
Tim Cook took the reigns from Steve Jobs all the way back in 2011 and has grown Apple to be one of the biggest companies in the world. During his tenure, Apple debuted the Apple Watch, the Vision Pro, and the company even started making its own CPUs. But it's important to keep in mind that Cook got his start at the company in operations, which is probably a huge reason why Apple grew to focus so much on manufacturing its own hardware.
Ternus, on the other hand, started out as an engineer and has spent time in charge of designing everything from iPhones to Apple Watch, the latter of which has been particularly successful. It's obviously too early to tell what impact Ternus is going to have on the company as a whole, but that doesn't mean I can't speculate a bit about it.
Analysts have already gone on record and said that Ternus' main goal will likely be leading Apple into the age of AI. Whether you love AI or hate it, Apple has fallen short in its implementation of the technology, often leaning on solutions from other companies, like ChatGPT, to power a lot of its Apple Intelligence software suite.
Because Ternus' background has been leading hardware engineering throughout the company, he will likely be trying to solve Apple's AI problems through hardware. Apple's iPhone event is next week, and it's going to be the first Apple keynote with Ternus emceeing. If nothing else, that helps lead credence to the rumors that Apple will finally be revealing its first foldable this year. And if that foldable does exist, it's likely that the new CEO has had a big hand in designing the thing.
Even looking further out, I'd like to imagine that Ternus' time as CEO will lead to more hardware innovation. Apple has had a few hits in the Tim Cook years, but it's also had some flops, like the Apple Vision Pro. To this day, I still don't know quite what Apple was thinking by releasing a $3,499 (now $3,699) AR headset in 2024.
Regardless, I'd love to see Apple create something truly groundbreaking again. I'm not sure if John Ternus is going to be the next Steve Jobs, but he probably has a better chance of doing that than Tim Cook ever did. It's time to let the engineer cook.
Jackie Thomas is the Senior Tech Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/apple-officially-has-a-new-ceo-but-what-does-that-mean
