John Ternus embodies a unique blend of Steve Jobs’ and Tim Cook’s leadership traits. To Wall Street, he is seen as a reliable candidate for continuity, while within Apple, he is recognized as a rare perfectionist with a deep commitment to product excellence.

Written by | Landong Business Jianfan

Leadership transitions in corporate empires often signal shifts in strategic direction.

In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple and, through groundbreaking product innovation, rescued the company from the brink of collapse. In 2011, Jobs handed the reins to Tim Cook, recognizing the need for an operations expert to globally market Apple’s revolutionary iPhone and iPad and solidify its market position. Over the next 15 years, Cook expanded Apple’s market value by over $3.5 trillion.

On April 20, 2026, Apple announced that Cook would step down as CEO in September, with John Ternus, currently Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, set to succeed him. Ternus, who previously worked under Jobs and referred to Cook as his mentor in his appointment statement, is poised to lead the company.

Ternus assumes leadership amid a more complex landscape. Since 2022, Apple’s average annual revenue growth has slowed to just 3.4%, trailing behind competitors like Meta in emerging areas such as smart glasses. Today, over half of Apple’s profits still stem from the iPhone, a product nearing its 20th anniversary.

Apple’s Revenue Growth Under Steve Jobs and Tim Cook (2011 vs. 2026)

In recent years, while tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have heavily invested in AI, Apple has remained on the sidelines, even delaying the release of its revamped Siri. Apple now stands at a critical juncture, needing to deeply integrate AI technology into its hardware products.

Clearly, high hopes are pinned on Ternus, who is seen as a fusion of Jobs’ and Cook’s leadership styles. He is a steady “continuity candidate” in Wall Street’s eyes and a rare “perfectionist product person” at Apple.

In terms of management style, Ternus is often viewed as “Cook 2.0.”

Unlike Jobs’ sharp and occasionally abrasive approach with employees, Ternus is known for his kindness and approachability.

“I’ve personally witnessed John’s deep collaboration with various departments at Apple,” said Chris Deaver, former Apple HR head. “He works closely not just with hardware and product teams but also with software and operations. This collaborative approach has earned him the full trust of his partners.” Deaver emphasized, “At this moment, having an exceptional product leader at the helm is a positive sign for Apple.”

When The Wall Street Journal asked Apple employees about their assessment of Ternus, they almost unanimously praised him.

Those who have worked with Ternus describe him as an excellent collaborator who commands absolute loyalty from his subordinates. Employees note that Ternus stays focused on core issues during meetings, efficiently driving work forward. He prefers direct engagement with grassroots employees familiar with product details over managers with only superficial knowledge of specific businesses.

In Apple’s notoriously factional internal environment, Ternus remains composed and rarely makes enemies. A typical example: A decade ago, as one of the core executives involved in AirPods development, Ternus stayed out of the fray while other executives argued endlessly over the Bluetooth connectivity solution for wireless earbuds. This internal strife ultimately forced one executive to leave and another to be transferred abroad. Ternus, still not yet 40 at the time, remained focused on advancing the project.

Ternus’s ability and boldness in advancing projects internally may be one of the reasons Cook sees him as his successor.

Years ago, when Ternus was responsible for Apple’s Mac hardware business, he faced a thorny issue: the Mac Mini needed an upgrade, but a new design would require intervention from the industrial design department led by designer Jony Ive, inevitably causing delays.

After judging that the product design did not require significant changes, Ternus immediately decided to proceed with the update. He did not dwell on the product’s profit potential but instead focused on its value to Apple’s overall ecosystem.

“This incident is just a microcosm that highlights his decisiveness, deep understanding of Apple’s culture and products, and his ability to advance matters within the company,” said a source familiar with the matter. “In this closed-off company, this is just one of the many positions he has climbed through, and it has also taught him to navigate Apple’s unique personnel rules.”

The Wall Street Journal commented: Ternus’s tact and seniority at Apple will play a crucial role in his new position. Apple’s organizational structure is unique: while other large companies have general managers overseeing each business line, Apple adopts a functional structure. Therefore, an insider deeply familiar with the workings of various departments has a natural advantage in becoming CEO.

In 2024, Ternus shared a story during a speech at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.

One late night, he argued with a supplier over the number of grooves on the back of an Apple monitor. For consumers, these screws were almost invisible, but Ternus noticed that the supplier had made 35 grooves instead of the 25 specified by Apple. After much debate, the supplier ultimately had to revert to 25 grooves.

“If you’re going to spend so much time on something, you should put in all your effort,” Ternus said. This pathological attention to detail is reminiscent of Jobs.

On many occasions, Cook has repeatedly mentioned a piece of advice he received from Jobs before his death: “Never ask what Jobs would do; just do what’s right.”

“In the long run, people’s perceptions of the company will change, but we are always ready and give our all,” Cook said at a media event shortly after taking over. “Our goal is always to make the best products.”

Despite his gentle management style, Ternus is an engineer with extremely high product standards, even displaying a Jobs-like “perfectionism.”

Ternus’s resume is heavily focused on hardware products.

He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 with an engineering degree, majoring in mechanical engineering. Before joining Apple’s product design team in 2001, he had four years of engineering experience.

In 2013, Ternus succeeded Dan Riccio as Apple’s Vice President of Hardware Engineering. He oversaw Apple’s most critical hardware, from the iPad to AirPods, from the ultra-thin iPhone Air to the MacBook Neo, which sold out in the U.S.

One of Ternus’s core achievements is leading the development of Apple’s M-series chips, enabling Mac computers to switch to Apple’s in-house processors and ending over a decade of reliance on Intel. This move improved Mac’s performance and battery life, with Mac’s market share increasing by 23% over five years.

Recalling how the new chips enabled thinner and faster Macs, Ternus told CNBC in 2023, “It almost felt like the laws of physics had been rewritten.”

After becoming Apple’s new CEO, the urgent question for Ternus is how to create Apple’s next iPhone in the AI era.

“His entire career has been guided by the idea that the best defense is to build better devices,” Reuters said of Ternus.

In the AI era, Ternus has made it clear: Apple never releases technology for the sake of it but instead thinks about how to use technology to create exceptional products.

This echoes Jobs’ statement about technology back in the day: “You have to start with the user experience and work backward to the technology.”

The “perfectionist product person” is about to return to lead Apple. This philosophy of prioritizing hardware experience over pure technology places Ternus closer to Jobs than Cook, who comes from an operations background.

The ultimate test for Ternus is what Apple will offer in the AI era.

Apple needs to complete the long-overdue comprehensive upgrade of Siri this year. The new Siri was supposed to be announced in 2024 but has been repeatedly delayed. Although Apple hopes to unveil the new version at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, it is reportedly still facing significant work.

According to The Information, Apple has repeatedly attempted to reorganize its AI team to address underlying issues in the development of the new Siri. Last year, Apple stripped the Siri business from its original AI head, John Giannandrea, and placed it under software chief Craig Federighi. Last week, Apple reorganized the Siri team again, transferring a large number of members to an AI programming bootcamp.

Additionally, AI capabilities at the system level have been very restrained, with Apple Intelligence failing to garner much attention among users. Even in January this year, Apple reached an agreement with Google to build its next-generation foundational model based on the Gemini large model and cloud technology, providing core technical support for the personalized Siri set to launch this year.

Apple’s AI software and technical issues may also be hindering the company’s speed in developing new hardware. Apple is reportedly working on new smart home hardware and wearable brooch devices, both of which rely heavily on AI assistants for their core interaction methods.

Besides internal challenges, there are external threats. Apple’s competitors are also waiting for opportunities, seeking new paths to challenge Apple’s hardware dominance.

OpenAI is collaborating with Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive to poach talent from Apple’s hardware department, aiming to build its own AI devices. Ternus must decide: Should Apple continue to focus on the smartphone business or fully invest in hardware categories that could become new entry points for AI interaction?

The bigger challenge is how to reignite Apple’s innovative spirit.

Critics argue that under Cook’s leadership, Apple has lost its passion for innovation, as evidenced by the poor sales of Vision Pro and the cancellation of its car project. As Apple’s head of hardware engineering, Ternus has only led the continuous expansion of the iPhone and Mac product lines but lacks the disruptive innovation of the Jobs era.

Perhaps Ternus has his own answers in mind.

In a previous interview with ABC News, Ternus said that Apple has always focused on “delivering experiences.” The ideal state of AI is to make things feel easier and more intuitive for users, to the point where they may not even consciously realize it’s AI behind the scenes.

He is a manager who knows how to keep the company running smoothly like Cook and an engineer with an almost obsessive passion for hardware like Jobs.

Outside of Apple, Ternus loves to drive Porsches on the Laguna Seca Raceway in California. He can complete a lap in under 1 minute and 40 seconds, which is quite impressive for an amateur racer. Clearly, he will not become the next Jobs or Cook, but he has his own track where he needs to push the limits: AI.