Apple’s new CEO John Ternus wrote “hello” in his first X post this week after taking the helm from former chief Tim Cook, and his replies were immediately inundated with requests for products and product design changes.
A mechanical engineer who previously oversaw Apple’s hardware engineering, Ternus has significantly shaped the look and feel of Apple products that sell hundreds of millions of units cumulatively every year. For a company known for the elevated look and feel of its physical products, multiple tech outlets point out how Ternus is uniquely positioned to bring Apple into a new era, hence the slew of unsolicited requests online following his appointment.
Ternus graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in mechanical engineering, and his only job before joining Apple was in VR. He worked as a mechanical engineer at the virtual reality hardware company Virtual Research Systems before joining Apple’s product design team in 2001. Ternus became Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering in 2013 and its senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2021.
His time in leadership came as Apple grew into a $4.6 trillion company under Cook’s tenure as CEO, driven by factors including rising iPhone sales, recurring subscription revenue from services such as Apple Music and Apple TV, and new products that Ternus played a pivotal role in shaping.
Ternus was key to introducing the iPad and AirPods, as well as new generations of products such as the iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch, and, in March, the $600 MacBook Neo.
He has also helped shape the materiality of Apple’s products, leading the development of recycled aluminium that has become a signature material for products such as iPhones and laptops.
Cook called Ternus “the perfect person for the job” and a “brilliant engineer” in an open letter in which he praised the new CEO’s experience in product design and highlighted traits such as his obsession with details and making everything “better, bolder, more beautiful, and more meaningful.” Cook clearly views Ternus’s experience in designing and building hardware as an important strength.
Ternus takes over at a pivotal moment for Apple, as more tech companies increasingly see themselves as hardware companies. Meta has been partnering with EssilorLuxottica on smartglasses, while OpenAI is planning its own hardware, reportedly including a smart speaker.
In the replies to Ternus’s social media post, commenters seemed less concerned with Apple’s response to AI-equipped devices and other high-level, future-forward decisions than with bringing back old favourites or fixing their personal product design pet peeves.
Some called for the revival of the iPhone mini or iPods, while others asked for changes such as packaging headphones with iPhones again or creating a way to charge the Apple Mouse without having to turn it upside down.
Apple will hold its first event with its new CEO on September 9, giving Ternus a public platform to unveil, for the first time, the direction of Apple’s designs with him now at the helm.
By Nazrin Sadigova
