Apple on Monday announced that CEO Tim Cook is stepping down, and senior vice president of Hardware Engineering John Ternus is taking his place. Cook will become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors and Ternus will become Apple’s chief executive officer on September 1, 2026.
Now, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says one of the reason Apple chose Ternus as Cook’s successor is for his decision-making style, which is said to be closer to co-founder Steve Jobs than Cook’s more deliberative approach to decision making.
From Gurman’s report:
“Ternus will make decisions” when it comes to product development, said one person who has worked closely with both executives. “If you go to Tim with ‘A’ or ‘B,’ he won’t pick. He’ll ask a series of questions instead if he has concerns.”
Ternus, on the other hand, will choose, said the person, who asked not to be identified in order to speak candidly. “It could be right or wrong, but at least it’s a decision.”
That shift could mark the end of an era in which major product decisions were made collectively by a small group of top executives. Ternus is expected to take a more centralized approach where he will be a singular decision-maker.
Ternus is reportedly pushing to deploy AI quickly throughout Apple to improve its operations, indicating he is willing to shake things up when necessary. Ternus has also indicated he will continue to be closely involved in hardware engineering development.
Ternus is also apparently more than willing to push back on decisions, as he opposed development of the Vision Pro, which has proven to be less-than-successful, as well as the company’s $10 million “Apple Car” project that was ultimately scrapped.
