`Apple taps John Ternus as CEO to replace Tim Cook, who will become chairman
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A bit of a shuffle, not unexpected, rumored for a while now, so good to see it finalized… Relive in interesting times!
I like Ternus, and hopefully so will the Market. Glad to see Cook remaining involved. His operations and supply chain genius is invaluable.
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CNN’s take:
Read Tim Cook’s letter to the Apple community
To the Apple community:
For the past 15 years I’ve started just about every morning the same way. I open my email and I read notes I received the day before from Apple’s users all over the world.
You share little pieces of your lives with me and tell me things you want me to know about how Apple has touched you. About the moment your mom was saved by her Apple Watch. About the perfect selfie you captured at the summit of a mountain that seemed impossible to climb. You thank me for the ways Mac has changed what you can do at work and sometimes give me a hard time because something you care about isn’t working like it should.
In every one of those emails I feel the beating heart of our shared humanity. I feel a sense of deepening obligation to work harder and push further. But most of all, I feel a gratitude that I cannot put into words, that I somehow got to be the person on the other end of those emails, the leader of a company that ignites imaginations and enriches lives in such profound ways it defies description. What an honor and a privilege it has been.
Today we announced that I’m taking the next step in my journey at Apple. Over the coming months I will be transitioning into a new role, leaving the CEO job behind in September and becoming Apple’s executive chairman. A new person will be stepping into what I know in my heart is the best job in the world. That leader is John Ternus, a brilliant engineer and thinker who has spent the past 25 years building the Apple products our users love so much, obsessed with every detail, focused on every possible way we can make something better, bolder, more beautiful, and more meaningful. He is the perfect person for the job.
John cares so much about who we are at Apple, what we do at Apple, who we reach at Apple, and he has the heart and character to lead with extraordinary integrity. I am so proud to call him Apple’s next CEO. This company will reach such incredible heights under his leadership, and you will feel his impact in every bit of delight and discovery that grows out of the products and services to come. I can’t wait for you to get to know him like I do.
This is not goodbye. But at this moment of transition, I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you. Not on behalf of the company, this time, though there is a wellspring of gratitude for you that overflows inside our walls. But simply on behalf of me. Tim. A person who grew up in a rural place in a different time and, for these magical moments, got to be the CEO of the greatest company in the world. Thank you for the confidence and kindness you’ve shown me. Thank you for saying hi to me on the street and in our stores. Thank you for cheering alongside me when we unveiled a new product or service. Thank you, most of all, for believing in me to lead the company that has always put you at the center of our work. Every day we get up and think about what we can do to make your life a little bit better. And every day, you’ve made mine the best I could have asked for.
Thank you.
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Our billionaire oligarchs see the writing on the wall. Time to decamp to the bunker in New Zealand.
intercst
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Well, Tim is still on the Boards of Apple & Nije, so we’ll still keep tabs on him and he can help out here n there…
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I’m happy to see an actual engineer take the helm. He’s a hardware guy, not software, but I hope he will still be able to have a say in the software direction as well:
Career
Ternus began his career as a mechanical engineer designing virtual reality headsets at Virtual Research Systems.[7] He joined Apple in 2001 as a member of the product design team, working first on the Apple Cinema Display.[8][9] In 2013, he was appointed vice president of hardware engineering under Dan Riccio, overseeing the development of the AirPod, Mac and iPad product lines.
In 2020, he was also put in charge of iPhone hardware, previously overseen directly by Riccio.[10][11] He was promoted to senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2021, replacing Riccio,[10] and was put in charge of Apple Watch hardware in late 2022.[12] Bloomberg News reported that Ternus was the “youngest member of Apple’s executive team”, and described him as “charismatic and well-liked”.[10][11] He had been widely reported by media to be the potential successor to Tim Cook as the company’s next chief executive.[8][13][14]
Ternus has presented new hardware at several WWDC events, revealing refreshes of the iMac and MacBook Pro, the 2018 iPad Pros, the iMac Pro and the redesigned 2019 Mac Pro. He has subsequently appeared as a regular presenter at Apple events.[15][16][17]
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He’s the CEO. He has a say in everything.
Interesting but not surprising that they chose a hardware guy, while Microsoft and similar are run by software people. A strong indication of where Cook & Co think the market not only IS, but where it will be going for the next decade, at least for Apple.
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I won’t claim to know anything about anything here, but I will say that Apple’s hardware has been largely excellent, while their software(s) have been getting worse and worse. From iOS bloat, lack of any significant AI enterprise (again, I can’t really say how important that is), and what I see on my little screens, I’m not impressed.
Siri has always and forever been a laggard in the “helpful” department. Google, even Amazon’s pushes into the smart home and smart helper category have been light years ahead of Apple. While I’ve been an Apple guy since my ][+, I now also have Alexa some places and Google hardware in lots of others - and I find both of them superior to Siri, which often has no idea what to do. Or sometimes reads me the answer while driving, but sometimes just links to a web page (while driving!)
I have Nest thermostats and smoke alarms, Switchbot switches on everything from curtains to the water heater, Eufy cameras and other “smart home” devices, most of which have to go through a Google Home hub, not anything connected to Apple (which would have been my choice, especially after the painful job of setting up by people who can write software but not speak English or Common Sense for Dummies).’
Then again, iOS is becoming harder and harder to deal with, the explosion of meaningless options it makes me think of how Word went from decent to poor to terrible with the software bloat “just because we can.”
Jobs managed to “keep it simple” while at the same time expanding the product portfolio (jellybean Macs, iPod, iPhone, earbuds, etc.) That’s what I would hope for. That’s also not what I really expect going forward.
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I guess we have Craig Federighi to blame, though I wonder how much Tim Cook might have nixed his ideas:
Another perspective via the MacWorld guys…