With artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping the consumer and technology market, Ternus will have to start from scratch and rebuild Apple’s operating model. On the other hand, he will also have to drive the company amid challenges like memory supply crunches, growing component costs, shifting global manufacturing geography, and intensifying regulatory scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Must read:\u00a0Tim Cook\u2019s 15-year Apple legacy: How he transformed the company after Steve Jobs<\/a><\/p>\n Analyst Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, describes it as a \u201ctransformative phase\u201d for Apple amid hardware diversification, supply chain challenges, and growing pressure for AI. Despite Apple has mature ecosystem, any modest changes in growth, margins or customer upgrade behaviour could have a major impact.<\/p>\n Tim Cook’s legacy beyond iPhone<\/p>\n While Steve Jobs was the man behind Apple, Cook made the company an iconic consumer hardware maker globally. Under his leadership, Apple\u2019s annual revenue quadrupled, and it was achieved through supply chain execution, operational discipline, and smart margin preservation across its product categories.<\/p>\n Beyond iPhones, Cook introduced new hardware categories like Apple Watch and AirPods. He also built Apple\u2019s Services ecosystem, consisting of the App Store, iCloud, Apple Pay, and Apple Music, which is said to be a strategic juggernaut. Reportedly, the service business alone became worth more than $100 billion annually.<\/p>\n “Tim Cook concludes a transformative CEO tenure that saw Apple’s revenue quadruple and its valuation soar into the trillions, leaving behind a formidable legacy of growth across both hardware and services,” Pathak told Business Today. “Under his era, Apple’s strength has been relentless execution and supply chain management at scale. Apple has been able to maintain margins, clock record revenues even in mature product categories, successfully launched new products like Watch and AirPods and scale them into successful product lines.”<\/p>\n Must read:\u00a0How Tim Cook positioned India as the pillar of Apple\u2019s long-term growth beyond the iPhone<\/a><\/p>\n Why did Apple choose John Ternus?<\/p>\n Ternus comes from a hardware background and has spent two decades leading engineering on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. His two decades at Apple and product-engineering background could become an advantage amid AI transforming the tech industry.<\/p>\n Prabhu Ram,\u00a0VP-Industry Research Group, CyberMedia Research (CMR) told Business Today, \u201cUnder John Ternus, Apple is likely to place greater strategic weight on hardware execution, silicon integration and AI-enabled product experiences.\u201d Ram also talked about Johny Srouji taking over Hardware Engineering and Hardware Technologies, and how their synergy could benefit Apple.<\/p>\n \u201cTernus brings deep product-engineering experience across iPhone, iPad, Mac and other major hardware platforms, while Johny Srouji’s expanded role as Chief Hardware Officer brings Hardware Engineering and Hardware Technologies under a single leadership structure. This points to tighter integration across silicon, hardware engineering, product architecture and software, with AI increasingly becoming a reason to upgrade rather than simply another software feature,\u201d Ram said.<\/p>\n Apple has a huge installed base, but convincing millions of existing users to buy new hardware requires more than adding another AI button. The company needs experiences that are materially better because of AI.<\/p>\n However, Pathak argues that AI is currently bringing various changes across chip design, on-device compute power, and how products are interacting with users. He also highlighted that Apple will need to manage new challenges in its supply chain while developing new types of products beyond smartphones.<\/p>\n