Mark Gurman on breaking the Tim Cook succession scoop and what John Ternus will do differently at Apple

Mark Gurman on Tim Cook's succession and what John Ternus will do differently

John Ternus's appointment as Apple's next CEO has been two years in the making. Tim Cook identified Ternus as his successor in early 2024, and Gurman published as much at the time. Ternus had been prepared for the role for over five years, placed on the executive team when he became SVP of hardware engineering. Apple's 50th anniversary celebrations, Gurman says, functioned as much as a goodbye to Cook's era as a milestone for the company.

The Ternus model

The core bet Apple is making with Ternus is that product instincts, not operational discipline, are what the company needs most right now. Cook's legacy was operations, finance, and sales — he delegated product decisions to others. Ternus is expected to invert that, staying intimately involved in hardware and product development while leaving supply chain, manufacturing, procurement, and AppleCare to Sabih Khan and others on the operations side.

The choice of Ternus's own replacement in hardware engineering reinforces this. He selected Tom Mariab, whom Gurman describes as an execution specialist rather than an innovator, because Ternus intends to remain the product visionary even as CEO.

Ternus's track record is specific: his five years as SVP of hardware engineering were defined by performance, battery life, durability, and reliability rather than category creation. The aluminum return on the iPhone Pro is a direct expression of that ethos — better thermal properties than titanium, even if it scratches more easily.

“This really started about two years ago when Tim Cook identified John Turnis as the next one. Ternis has product sensibilities that Tim Cook simply doesn't have. There are six major Apple products in development right now: AI AirPods, smart glasses, pendant, smart display, the tabletop robot lamp, and a security camera.”

The product gap

Gurman is direct about Cook's product legacy. The last wholly new and successful Apple product categories were AirPods (2016) and Apple Watch (2014), both developed by teams and engineers who came up under Steve Jobs. Vision Pro has been, in Gurman's words, "a flop, at least for now." Ternus needs to move faster on new categories.

Six major new product lines are currently in development: AI AirPods, smart glasses, a pendant, a smart display, a tabletop robotic lamp, and a security camera. Displayless glasses to compete with Meta are expected sometime in 2026 into 2027. Apple is also exploring humanoid robotics and a mobile robot in the vein of Amazon Astro, though Gurman says the mobile robot probably won't ship. Ternus took control of the robotics hardware team roughly a year ago from outgoing AI chief John Giannandrea.

A large robotic manufacturing arm is also in development, intended for both Apple factories and retail back rooms — Gurman puts that at roughly five years out.

The real competitive risk

Current Android features — privacy screens, foldable form factors — haven't pulled iPhone users away, and switching is still running toward Apple rather than away from it. The risk Gurman flags isn't anything shipping today; it's whatever Meta, OpenAI, or Perplexity eventually produce that is genuinely compelling enough to break ecosystem loyalty.

The folding iPhone

Ternus's first major new product as CEO will be a folding iPhone, expected to be announced in September. Gurman is enthusiastic. The device will open to an iPad-style screen ratio rather than the square form factor of most current foldables. His benchmark for Apple getting it right is straightforward: it shouldn't creak when you open it, and it shouldn't require effort to pry apart. For a $2,000 device, he considers that table stakes.

Compensation and Cook's exit

Gurman estimates Ternus will receive roughly 1 million shares over 10 years, mirroring what Cook received when he was named CEO. He flags this as an informed guess rather than reported fact. Cook's own pay was eventually cut from around $100 million annually to roughly $40 million after public backlash, before climbing again.

On why Cook is leaving at 65, Gurman points to three factors Cook cited publicly: Ternus being ready, Apple's finances being strong, and the product roadmap being in a solid position. For anything beyond that, Gurman says to read his prior reporting.

At this morning's all-hands, Ternus told Apple employees he was "not exaggerating" when he called this the most exciting time to build products in his entire career, and said AI would create "almost unlimited potential" for Apple's products and services. He also reorganized the hardware engineering division earlier this month around a new AI platform intended to improve development processes and product quality.