Joe Rossignol:

Apple’s former hardware engineering chief John Ternus officially became CEO of the company today, with the change now reflected on Apple’s leadership page.

[…]

Tim Cook is now executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors, after a 15-year run as CEO.

Apple:

John joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and became a vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013. He joined the executive team in 2021 as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. Throughout his tenure at Apple, John has overseen hardware engineering work on a variety of groundbreaking products and was instrumental in the introduction of multiple new product lines, including iPad and AirPods, as well as many generations of products across iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch.

John has led much of the company’s focus in areas like reliability and durability, introducing new techniques that have made Apple products remarkably resilient. He has also driven much of Apple’s innovation in materials and hardware design that have reduced the carbon footprint of its products, including the creation of a new recycled aluminum compound that has been introduced across multiple product lines, the use of 3D-printed titanium in Apple Watch Ultra, and advancements in reparability that have increased the life spans of several Apple products.

Prior to Apple, John worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Myke Hurley (9To5Mac):

This feels like Apple really trying to remind us of a previous product-focused CEO.

[…]

I would not have predicted this [reliability and durability] angle being so prominent, so I can only assume it’s something that’s important to Ternus.

[…]

One of the key tenets of the Cook era was Apple making a series of environmental pledges. I am very happy to see this called out as something Ternus is interested in.

There’s no mention of software.

Juli Clover:

Ternus sent his first memo as CEO to employees this morning, praising Cook and sharing his excitement for Apple’s future.

Benjamin Mayo:

The 5 GB free iCloud tier lasted Tim Cook’s entire career as CEO, how will Ternus stack up?

Previously:

• App Store Moves From Phil Schiller to Eddy Cue
• John Ternus Replaces Tim Cook
• A Letter to John Ternus
• Apple Succession Planning

Update (2026-09-02): Juli Clover:

Apple has set new CEO John Ternus’ target compensation at $58 million, according to an updated SEC filing [PDF]. Tim Cook’s target compensation is $47 million in his new role as executive chairman.

Update (2026-09-07): Ryan Christoffel:

But a new profile published today at the Financial Times adds fresh details and insights to the story.

Regarding Ternus’s reputation inside Apple, it says he “is known within the company for being both highly competent and unshowy.”

It doesn’t seem like there was actually much insight, but I’m linking to this for completeness.

Previously:

• Ternus and the App Store

Apple Apple Watch Ultra Business Environment iCloud iOS John Ternus Mac Tim Cook