Tim Cook hands over Apple's $4 trillion reins to 'the perfect person for the job', hardware engineering SVP John Ternus

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., beside an Apple Vision Pro mixed reality (XR) headset during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, US, on Monday, June 5, 2023. Apple Inc. will charge $3,499 for its long-awaited mixed-reality headset, testing whether consumers are ready to spend big bucks on a technology that the company sees as the future of computing. Photographer: Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(Image credit: Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Tim Cook, 15-year CEO of Apple, has just handed the reins over to the company's hardware engineering senior vice president, John Ternus. In a 'community letter from Tim' to the 'Apple community', Cook explains:

"Over the coming months I will be transitioning into a new role, leaving the CEO job behind in September and becoming Apple’s executive chairman. A new person will be stepping into what I know in my heart is the best job in the world.

After joining Apple in 2001, Ternus started his current SVP role in 2021 and, among other things, has had a lot to do with Apple's shift over to its M-series CPUs, which are incredibly efficient and have given the x86 crowd more than a run for their money.

Apple's budget MacBook isn't very Apple - YouTube Apple's budget MacBook isn't very Apple - YouTube
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He also led the MacBook Neo charge, and that laptop looks to be very efficient for the price, too—at least when it's doing basic tasks in native apps. And I suppose the fact that it is basically an iPhone in a laptop's body could therefore be taken as a compliment to iPhones or macOS.

Ternus will be heading the company at a point when it is worth just shy of $4 trillion. Though Cook is eager to point out that "this is not goodbye" but a "moment of transition." With Cook staying as an executive chairman, he should still be able to work with the new CEO in directing the company if needed— though the reins are firmly in Ternus' hands now.

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Jacob Fox
Hardware Writer

Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob's led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world's #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It's definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.

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