transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:02] Welcome to 9to5Mac Daily for Thursday, April 23rd, 2026. I'm your host, Chance Miller. We are supported this week by Card Pointers. Now that John Ternus has been named Apple's next CEO, there have been a lot of questions about what Ternus has done inside Apple, before Apple, and overall in his life. So here is everything we know about John Ternus, who's widely described as just being a super nice guy. Ternus attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1993 to 1997, where he received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics, plus a minor in psychology. During his time at Penn, Ternus was an award-winning member of the school swim team, and was a very good guy according to a former teammate quoted by the Wall Street Journal. Ternus went back to his Penn stomping grounds in 2024 to deliver the commencement address to the Penn engineering class of 2024. During that address, Ternus revealed how he got his college nickname of Crash, his senior year of college. He said, quote, I really appreciate you inviting me back to campus after I nearly destroyed Penn's first, and at the time only, CNC milling machine my senior year. I won't get into the whole story here, but let's just say it was dramatic. They called me Crash for the rest of the year. End quote. Ternus' senior project as Penn was a device that allowed quadriplegics to control a mechanical feeding arm using head movements. After graduating from Penn in 1997, Ternus' first job was as an employee at Virtual Research Systems, a startup developing early virtual reality headsets. The timing on Ternus' tenure at the startup means he likely worked on the V8 headset, which was one of the first commercially available, though very, very expensive, VR systems. Ternus joined Apple in 2001 as a member of its product design team. His first project was the Cinema Display, which Apple first introduced in 1999 alongside the Power Mac G4. It received multiple updates between 1999 and its ultimate discontinuation in 2011 when it was replaced by the Thunderbolt Display. During his commencement address at Penn, Ternus told the story of visiting a supplier and arguing over the number of grooves in the screws used in the back of the Cinema Display. It was during this visit, Ternus says, that he started asking himself, what the hell am I doing during his first year at Apple? But he used this as an example of the fact that the care you put into your work really matters, emphasizing that as a key reminder for these outgoing college students. He said, quote, make no mistake, it's hard to put that much of yourself into something. It's stressful, it requires sacrifice, but it's worth it because our time is finite, end quote. Ternus quickly moved up the ranks at Apple, just three years after joining the company he was promoted to manager. During that time, Ternus' team moved office floors, switching from a closed office plan to a mostly open setting, with just a few private offices. When he was promoted, Ternus had the option to move into one of those offices, but declined. This earned Ternus a reputation as, quote, a man of the people among his peers at Apple. We are sponsored this week by Card Pointers, the best way to earn more from your credit cards every day. Card Pointers shows you in-depth details about rewards and offers for each of your cards. Most Card Pointers users save more than $750 per year with these recommendations. Card Pointers is available on all of Apple's platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. 9to5Mac Daily listeners can exclusively save 30% and get a $100 savings card by hitting the link in the show notes. My thanks to Card Pointers for their support of the show. In 2005, Ternus was promoted again, leading hardware engineering for the iMac team during the iMac G5 era. While Tim Cook often gets painted as Apple's top liaison to the company's supply chain in China, Ternus also played a key role in the expansion of that relationship. He reportedly traveled regularly between Cupertino and Asia as part of his role on the iMac team. In particular, he pushed for Apple to use an innovative way to hold the iMac's glass screen in place with magnets, working closely with Apple's supply chain partners to perfect this unconventional and never-before-done hardware design. Ternus spearheaded hardware engineering for the first iPad and every subsequent model. In 2013, he formally took on oversight of the broader Mac and iPad teams and was promoted to VP of Hardware Engineering. He reported to Dan Riccio, Apple's then Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering. Ternus has been involved with almost every Apple hardware product since that promotion. Bloomberg credits him with shepherding the development of AirPods and the first 5G iPhones, and he also oversaw the expansion of the iPad lineup to new models and form factors. Ternus is credited with coordinating the Mac's transition from Intel to Apple Silicon, alongside Apple's now Chief Hardware Officer, Johnny Suruji. Meanwhile, in the early days of the iPad, Bloomberg reports that Ternus argued the device's hardware capabilities weren't used to the fullest because its software platform wasn't taking advantage of its more powerful processor and bigger screen. Ternus pushed Apple's software group to add new multitasking features while simultaneously leading hardware development of accessories like the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard. But Ternus isn't perfect. Nobody is. He was reportedly a driving force behind the Touch Bar, which replaced the function row on the 2016 MacBook Pro and was widely criticized. One source told Bloomberg that he shoehorned it in, arguing it was something different and a good marketing idea. He also reportedly played a role in the development of the Butterfly Keyboard, which also marred that same design era of the MacBook Pro. In January 2021, Ternus was formally promoted to Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, taking over from his mentor, Dan Riccio. Riccio transitioned to focus on a mystery new project, which turned out to be Apple Vision Pro, before ultimately retiring in 2024. Since that 2021 promotion, Ternus' responsibilities have grown dramatically as Apple started laying the groundwork for him to succeed Tim Cook. He was given formal oversight of the Apple Watch several years ago and then tapped to oversee Apple's design teams just a few months ago. In terms of Ternus' leadership style, it goes back to what I said at the start, the most common way people seem to describe him is that he's just a super nice guy. The Wall Street Journal reported that if you ask anyone from Apple what they think of Ternus, that's exactly what they'll say. People who have worked with him describe him as a great collaborator who inspires fierce loyalty among those who work for him, a level-headed voice who has made few, if any, enemies inside the company that in the past was notorious for its toxic personalities. Staffers also describe his ability to get things done in meetings, which he keeps focused, as well as his preference to deal directly with lower-level staffers more familiar with products rather than their managers who have less specific knowledge. According to Bloomberg, Ternus has a close relationship with Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering. While there's a history of infighting between the software and hardware teams, Federighi and Ternus have developed a more symbiotic relationship. But despite being an engineer at heart, Ternus also has what Bloomberg describes as a cookie-in-eye for cost-cutting, which has led to conflicts with Apple's design team. When overseeing the Mac, for example, Ternus set out to update the Mac Mini. He wanted to do so, however, without working with Johnny Ive's design team. He worried that having to go through Ive could lead to delays. He ultimately accomplished exactly that. Ternus determined that the Mac Mini didn't need a major design change, allowing his team to update the machine without Ive's involvement whatsoever. He didn't dwell on the product's profit margin and instead focused on its value to Apple's overall ecosystem. But Bloomberg also reports on one instance in which Ternus seemingly abandoned his traditional personable management style. Late in the lead up to the release of Apple Vision Pro, engineers uncovered a flaw that threatened one of the device's marquee features. The ability to stream ultra-low latency audio from the headset to AirPods. A capability central to Apple's pitch of seamless experience for immersive video and gaming. The problem stemmed from a missing wireless frequency inside the then newest AirPods Pro. The only fix was to ship a revised version of AirPods Pro, which Apple did in late 2023. But this apparently set Ternus out on a war path to find out who should be blamed for that misstep. The situation reverberated through multiple teams inside Apple, including hardware, software testing, and the separate Vision Pro team. In the aftermath, a senior AirPods executive was reassigned. The episode, according to one person inside Apple, said it ran through the social fabric of the company. But it also stood out in part because it was an outlier under Ternus' leadership. It was an outlier compared to his traditional strategy of looking for systematic problems that could be solved with better leadership, instead of by putting the onus on engineers. And when it comes to new product categories, Ternus is described as being conservative. He was weary of Apple's work on a self-driving car, as well as on Apple Vision Pro to begin with. He was also hesitant to invest in the original HomePod, shooting down the idea of adding camera and more advanced sensors to the product. He's apparently turned a corner on the smart home, however, and now views home devices as central to Apple's future growth. And finally, in terms of Ternus' personal life, we know very little. Even his specific birthday remains a mystery. Until this week, Wikipedia listed him as between 50 and 51 years old. In its financial disclosure this week, Apple confirmed that Ternus is indeed 50 years old, and multiple outlets, including CNBC, had to issue corrections after referring to him as being 51 years old. And we still don't know his actual birthday, so we'll never know when he turns 51. According to the Wall Street Journal, one of Ternus' hobbies is racing his Porsche at California's Laguna Seca Raceway. Ternus reportedly clocks his laps in under a minute and 40 seconds, which is apparently solid for an amateur driver. Bloomberg, meanwhile, has reported that Ternus is a fan of off-road rally racing, and he's reportedly known inside Apple to take his coworkers to upstate Washington to partake. Outside of those small anecdotes, however, Ternus lives an incredibly private life, even more private than his predecessor. Ultimately, if one thing's clear, it's that John Ternus has a storied and successful history that more than proves he's qualified to take over as Apple's CEO on September 1st. He will also have the comfort of Tim Cook serving as the executive chairman, working with policy makers and serving as a shoulder for Ternus to lean on when needed. This of course is vastly different than the circumstances under which Tim Cook took over for Steve Jobs in 2011. During his pin commencement speech, Ternus said, Quote, Always assume you're as smart as anyone else in the room, but never assume that you know as much as they do. With this mindset, you'll find the confidence you need to push forward, but more importantly, the humility to ask questions and learn. End quote. This has apparently become a mantra inside Apple, inspired by Ternus and is an example of his leadership style going forward. There's up another episode and another week of 9to5Mac Daily. We'll be off tomorrow, but back on Monday for a new week of Apple News. But in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this double episode, special look at John Ternus' career. As always, if you like the show, it is very helpful if you head to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and a review. You can find an ad free version of the show at 9to5mac.com/join for $5 a month or $50 a year. You can check out all of the latest Apple News on 9to5mac.com. Follow along with me on threads at Chance H. Miller, and we'll be back on Monday for a new week of Apple News.