Apple’s Next Big Risk Isn’t AVP – It’s Making John Ternus CEO. Nice Guy, Wrong Job.

So Apple is reportedly preparing for Tim Cook’s eventual retirement as he nears 65. Hardware chief John Ternus, 50, is seen as the leading successor, apparently “favoured for his engineering background.”

But let’s look at this morning closely:

Ternus is directly linked to misses in what Apple calls:

• “mixed reality,”
• generative AI,
• smart home,
• autonomy.
• .. and most recently, the iPhone Air flop.
• .. and who know knows his involvement in failed and shelved Apple projects, or many of its other flops. Being “The Hardware Guy” isn’t really a badge of honour at Apple, right now, given the track record of the last 5 years+

Apple Marketing (responsible for such fantastic names as “Apple Intelligence” and the “Plateau”) is apparently boosting his public profile, which is why he introduced the iPhone Air at the September event, a base for the next iPhone generation.

Well that didn’t turn out to well, did it.

Observers (Chiefly Mark Gurman rumourmongering on Bloomberg) are reported to say Ternus is likely to become CEO. Now CNBC have cottoned onto it.

I brought up the subject of succession a few months ago, amidst a backwash of ill-considered responses in reply.

Suddenly though, it’s OK to talk about succession, presumably because it wasn’t me who raised the prospect. Now it’s open season on speculation about Tim Cook’s departure, so we’re back to where I started:

Who is right for this role?

And remember, it used to be three roles:

• Steve Jobs (product man/sales man/visionary),
• Tim Cook (operations guru par excellence and the originator of supply chain dominance) and
• Jony Ive - creator of Apple’s, in fact the world’s, most iconic designs, for all his few later mistakes of form over function.

The Holy Trinity, Undone.

It stagnated after Jobs death, which left Ive desolated and also alone in his own thoughts: Jobs was very much a mentor for him, and the two vibed off one another in a way which is hard to describe unless you witnessed it.

Then with Ive gone, Cook was on his own, and he turned Apple into an operational Free Cash Flow and supply chain monster.

But not all for the best, because since 2020 there have been so many flawed fundamentally wrong strategic and tactical mistakes made, and so many enormous errors of judgment (AVP, Car, Siri, AI, iterative iPhone releases, no cell-enabled MacBooks, iPadOS left to rot until 2025) and such a revolving door on talent, that Apple seems to have lost any idea of what it is anymore, except a hubris machine full of CGI-laden events using special FX and British accents to lull people into false hope they’re delivering and shipping anything noteworthy, rather than actually doing so.

Let’s look at Ternus record

Because considering his misses, I’d say for all his skills, he’s shown he maybe doesn’t have the right grasp on what Apple needs, let alone its consumers, and who its market actually is.

• ”Mixed Reality: - epic fail
• ”Gen-AI”- epic fail
• “Smart Home” -epic fail
• ”Autonomy” - epic what??
• ”iPhone Air” - Not really an Air, closer to an iPhone 6 with titanium edges and a huge boob tube “plateau” excuse. Reinventing a 10 year old iPhone, sticking a huge bump on the back of it. So far? Seemingly cancelled.
• New MacBooks with modems - no-show, for no reason anyone can explain.

If this is Apple’s future, I question whether he’s the right man for it. Who is? I’d rather have a maverick like Eddy Cue, tempered with some strong lieutenants.

John Ternus, nice guy, but I’d love to know how much he had to do with the iPhone Sock.

Maybe we need Perplexity to do a reverse takeover of Apple, the way Jobs did when Apple bought NExT, and get some fresh blood in?

Apple has turned into an exceptional operation under Cook, without parallel. But innovation and execution, and good judgment? Nothing but failure, Apple Silicon aside, for over five years. And of course, superb financial engineering, even if hardware engineering? Not so much.

Et Tu, Ternus?

— Tommo_UK, London. Monday 17th November 2025.

Any comments, or thoughts, from investors, as opposed to 20-year long buy-and-holders who couldn’t care less because they’re just glad to be living off the dividends from their 11,000% share price increase? Leave them below 😎

X: @tommo_uk

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