Apple’s next CEO is a ‘hardware guy.’ Here’s what I hope that means
It’s understandable that following the announcement that John Ternus will succeed Tim Cook as Apple CEO, people will pore over his résumé for signs of how the company might change. Cook was famously an operations and logistics wizard, handpicked by Steve Jobs to manage Apple with his trademark efficiency. But his successor is more of a mystery.
Ternus has been a senior vice president of hardware engineering at Apple for five years, and a VP since 2013, but beyond that he hasn’t been credited with steering the company in a particular direction. All anyone can really say for now is that Apple will be led by someone who is strongly experienced in hardware, which sounds like a meaningful change from Cook.
Of course, Ternus’s stewardship will be defined by a lot more than how he chooses to manage the hardware portfolio. The state of Apple’s software and how it handles developer relations will continue to be hot topics, not to mention how it adapts to the destabilizing impact of AI. As CEO, those issues will land at Ternus’s door.
Still, as a hardware enthusiast myself, I have to admit it’s encouraging to think that Apple will soon be led by someone who may share some of the same passions. And following many years of Ternus’s influence, it’s hard to say that Apple’s hardware is in a bad spot. The iPhone 17 lineup is excellent, while the new $599 MacBook Neo might be the most impressive example yet of the Apple Silicon advantage.
But as someone who uses a wide range of devices, I do know that Apple doesn’t always ship the best hardware available. Let’s dream for a minute and imagine that Ternus makes it a priority to change that reality. Here’s where I’d want him to focus.
Cameras
Apple will tell you that the iPhone is the most popular camera in the world, and it would be correct. That doesn’t make it the best, though, even if we’re only talking about phones.
Even the iPhone 17 Pro Max has pedestrian sensors and optics when compared to the best Android phones out there. Apple regularly introduces features like periscope lenses and 48-megapixel sensors many years after the competition, without having the usual excuse of a better implementation when it does get around to it.
And it’s not just about the hardware. Whether it’s Oppo’s work with Hasselblad or Xiaomi’s partnership with Leica, other smartphone brands have made huge strides when it comes to delivering more natural, tasteful image processing compared to the iPhone’s artificial results.
Outside of China, many of these high-end Android phones have niche appeal among hardcore enthusiasts. But they do show what’s actually possible to ship in a practical smartphone. Apple should always strive to ship the best technology available, and right now it simply isn’t.
Batteries
Apple is under far more scrutiny than other companies because of its sheer scale and mainstream appeal, so it can perhaps be forgiven for a degree of caution regarding any component that could pose a fire risk. The Galaxy Note 7 debacle was bad enough for Samsung. Remember those flight warnings?
That said, there’s little evidence at this point that the latest generation of smartphone battery technology should be cause for concern, while there is a lot of evidence that Apple is lagging behind. Silicon-carbon batteries have enabled competing manufacturers to include much higher-capacity cells or design much thinner devices—or both.
Last year’s Oppo Find X9 Pro, for example, is not a particularly exotic or expensive device. But its 7,500 mAh battery has more than 50% the capacity of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and that’s in a frame that’s half a millimeter thinner. It also charges much faster, at up to 80 watts.
If there’s a good reason for Apple to be biding its time on better batteries, I’m yet to hear it. It’s not like the 17 Pro Max has terrible battery life, but the ultrathin iPhone Air would have been a great opportunity to get on board.
Displays
Ever since making the belated switch to OLED displays with the iPhone X nine years ago, Apple’s record when it comes to its most important screen has been impeccable. The high-end iPhones always get the best panels Samsung has to offer, and Apple does an impeccable job both tuning them and providing them with ideal content—whether it’s Dolby Vision video through iTunes or HDR flourishes throughout the iOS user interface.
But the story is less convincing across the rest of Apple’s lineup. Important devices like the MacBook Air and iPad Air are saddled with basic 60 Hz LCDs that don’t feel appropriate for the price point. Apple’s stand-alone Studio Display for the Mac is similarly uncompetitive.
There are some signs of improvement here. The MacBook Pro is rumored to be getting a redesign with an OLED screen in the near future, and last year the base-model iPhone finally adopted a 120 Hz ProMotion panel. But Apple still has some way to go to make a lot of its displays feel like they’re worth paying for, and I’d like to think Ternus might want to demand higher standards here.
Ternus once gave a commencement speech at Penn Engineering School, where he explained how he paid attention to detail on the original Cinema Display, right down to the finish on the individual screws on the back. It’s a great anecdote told well; I hope he pays the same attention to the panel quality available from Apple’s competitors at the same price as some of its current offerings.
There are undoubtedly other hardware conundrums that Ternus will have to solve once he takes the reins. What will become of the Vision Pro, for example? What’s next for the meandering iPad line? And how, if at all, will Apple approach dedicated AI devices?
But it doesn’t get more fundamental than cameras, displays, and batteries. If Ternus really is a hardware guy, I hope that his first priority is to focus on the basics up and down Apple’s product lineup.