New York Times: Portrait of Apple’s possible new CEO John Ternus – capable but afraid of innovation | News

It is now an open secret that Apple is preparing to fill the CEO position. Although Tim Cook shows no signs of wanting to relinquish leadership in the near future, a billion-dollar company like Apple naturally wants to protect itself and have a potential successor on hand. The New York Times now has a portrait of hardware boss John Ternus: Although Tim Cook is also considering Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue, Deirdre O’Brien and Greg Joswiak as a possible successor, Ternus is the most promising candidate.

LiDAR scanner only for iPhone Pro: An idea from Ternus
The New York Times highlights some of the stages in Ternus’ career: He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. His final project was a device that allows paraplegics to use head movements to move a mechanical arm to eat. He then designed headsets and other products in a startup that worked on VR technology. Ternus then moved to Apple. When he later became a manager, he stood out for his “prudent and unobtrusive management style”. According to the report, Ternus succeeds in integrating new functions into Apple’s products while at the same time paying attention to profitability: For example, it is due to him that only the Pro models of the iPhone have a LiDAR scanner.

Criticism: Ternus good at managing – but too little potential for innovation?
However, there are also critical voices: According to The Information, Ternus employees say that they are not allowed to take any risks and hardly receive any funding for new types of projects (see here). The New York Times summarizes the dilemma as follows: Apple must ask itself whether the company needs another capable manager – or someone who will innovate. Cameron Rogers, who worked at Apple in product and software project management from 2005 to 2022, sees Ternus as the right choice “if you want to bring an iPhone onto the market every year”. He’s a nice guy, says Rogers: “It’s a pleasure to spend time with him.” However, he admits that Ternus has not yet made any difficult decisions or solved complex hardware problems.