John Ternus Becomes Apple's CEO, From Major Successes to Fatal Blunders

After 15 years at the helm, Tim Cook has officially announced his resignation from the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Apple. The baton of leadership for the iPhone maker will be handed over to John Ternus, who will officially assume the role on 1 September 2026. To the general public, the name John Ternus may not be as well-known as Jony Ive or Phil Schiller. However, in the innovation kitchen of Cupertino, he is the king of Apple’s hardware. Ternus is a key figure behind the birth of cutting-edge devices such as the iPhone 17, though on the other hand, he is also known as the executive who produced Apple’s most failed innovation in modern history. Ternus’s track record at Apple spans 25 years, filled with brilliant innovations, but not without flaws. Ternus and his team are the main actors behind the development of Apple’s gadget lines, such as the iPhone 17 and the affordable MacBook Neo laptop. He is also a central figure who successfully led the historic transition of the Mac from Intel processors to in-house chips, Apple Silicon (M-Series). That secondary touch screen feature was eventually discontinued because it was deemed impractical and lacked user interest. His biggest blunder occurred when he approved the design of the “butterfly keyboard” in the MacBook line. This innovation, aimed at making the laptop body extremely thin, instead resulted in a disaster of mass complaints. The keyboard mechanism was highly fragile to dust, triggering widespread key damage, leading to lawsuits from consumers that harmed Apple’s reputation. For example, he often takes the front line to defend Apple’s spare parts service restriction policies, arguing logically that the move is purely to ensure user device security, not merely to monopolise the repair business. The career of this California native, a Mechanical Engineering graduate from the University of Pennsylvania (1997), is remarkably focused. During university, his final project was to create a mechanical arm controlled by head movements to assist paralysed patients. This is considered a “prophecy” of his involvement in Apple’s robotics and smart glasses projects in the future. Here is Ternus’s illustrious track record before reaching the top of Apple’s hierarchy: