Can John Ternus turn the tide for Apple in the AI race?

John TernusTim Cook on September 1 stepped down as Apple’s CEO after 15 years at the helm, handing leadership of the iPhone maker to hardware chief John Ternus.Cook took over from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011 and chose not to replicate his predecessor’s approach.

Instead, he followed Jobs’ advice to focus on doing what was right for the company.During Cook’s tenure, Apple grew from a company valued at about $350 billion to one worth more than $4.5 trillion.

Annual revenue increased from $108 billion at the beginning of his tenure to $416 billion in the last fiscal year, while profit rose more than fourfold to $112 billion.Cook also transformed Apple’s operations and supply chain, while expanding the company’s services business.

The installed base of about 2.5 billion iPhone users became a major source of recurring revenue, with services growth outpacing hardware growth in recent years.Apple’s wearables business, including the Apple Watch and AirPods, generated $35 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025.AI becomes Ternus’ biggest challengeTernus, 51, joined Apple’s design team in 2001 and eventually became senior Vice-President of hardware engineering, reporting to Cook.

He oversees the engineering teams responsible for Apple’s product portfolio, including the iPhone.Cook’s departure also comes as Apple faces criticism over its pace of innovation.

Critics have argued that the company has struggled to identify the next major product category after the iPhone.Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro augmented-reality headset, launched in 2023, has failed to generate strong sales, while the company has also lagged in AI capabilities and faced delays in its plans to revamp Siri.“AI is the single biggest challenge for Ternus.

Apple needs to demonstrate that AI will be more than an app on the iPhone, more than Siri,” said Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management, told AFP.To catch up with the AI wave, some analysts are of the view that soft chief Craig Federighi would have been a better fit for the company.

Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies, said that misreads how consumers actually adopt technology.

"Consumers are still buying hardware first, and it's going to be like that for a long time," she told AFP.

"You're not going to discover the value of AI if you're not interested in the hardware."