Under new chief executive officer (CEO) John Ternus, Apple can return to technological experimentation and developing products that can independently set trends in the market. Unlike Tim Cook, who is focused primarily on finance, costs and working with partners, his successor is an engineer and “about products,” Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group, told RTVI. However, the first results of the change in course, in his opinion, can be assessed no earlier than 2028.
John Ternus became Apple's CEO on September 1 and also joined the company's board of directors, having previously been senior vice president of hardware engineering. Tim Cook, who headed the corporation since 2011 after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, moved to the position of executive chairman of the board of directors.
As RTVI said, before Apple, Ternus worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems, which also produced computer equipment. He joined Apple in 2001 and has been involved in the development of almost every product the company produces today. In particular, he participated in the development and launch of iPad and AirPods, as well as many generations of products such as iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch.
John Ternus is now 51 years old. Tim Cook took over Apple at the same age.
According to Murtazin, the change of leadership comes at a time when Apple itself is undergoing a major transformation. He calls Cook an accountant who was interested in cost reduction, margins, deliveries, and working with partners: but he did not dive into the specific products that the company produced. Note that since Cook's appointment as CEO in 2011, the company's shares have jumped approximately 2,200%. Under his leadership, the corporation reached a capitalization of $4 trillion on the stock exchange – an increase of more than 1,000%, and annual income from 2011 to 2025 increased almost fourfold – from $108 billion to more than $416 billion.
“Tim Cook is an accountant. This is mathematics, this is cost reduction. And, strictly speaking, working with partners has always been his diocese. That is, if the era of Steve Jobs was the era of creating products and ideas, then Tim Cook de facto did not create anything,” Murtazin noted.
In the area of direct products, Apple under Cook, according to Murtazin, mostly copied the developments of competitors, primarily Samsung: ideas were “vacuumed” from the market. None of the products that Apple itself came up with during this period became successful.
“Any deviations from other people’s developments – the gold Apple Watch, for example – did not take off. Although they could. But they didn’t take off,” added the RTVI interlocutor.
Against this background, Murtazin considers the arrival of Ternus an important change for the company. Unlike Cook, the new leader has an engineering background and is primarily focused on creating products.
“This is a necessary change because products today are becoming more complex and ideas are needed. And the hope is that Apple will get back into the race, not in terms of money – they are doing well with money – but in terms of the idea of developing new products,” the analyst said.
At the same time, the development of fundamentally new devices is becoming more and more expensive, the expert admits. However, Apple's financial capabilities allow the company to make such expenses.
“The important thing here is that experimentation will begin again if it is possible in these difficult times from a cost point of view. The company has money, but any development today is expensive, extremely expensive. But who, if not them, as they say,” said Murtazin.
The analyst does not expect rapid changes after the change of leadership. New devices and technologies require a long development cycle, so it will be premature to assess Ternus’ impact on Apple immediately after his appointment, according to Murtazin.
“Mid-2028, September 2028, is exactly the cut-off point when we can say that in two years he has done this and that in his post: new lines, new products have been developed under him, the company has changed in such and such a way. In a word, we are waiting for this time,” concluded Murtazin.
