5 Apple products explain my optimism for John Ternus as the next CEO

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John Ternus Apple
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Apple announced connected Monday that Tim Cook volition measurement down arsenic main enforcement officer, and John Ternus, the company's elder vice president of Hardware Engineering, volition instrumentality his place. It's a determination galore person speculated implicit the past year, and 1 that feels primed for this September, erstwhile Apple whitethorn motorboat its most ambitious merchandise lineup yet.

Also: I've tracked Apple for astir 50 years: How a store rebel became a multitrillion-dollar empire

While the enactment displacement won't instrumentality effect until the fall, determination are respective reasons to already beryllium excited for what's to travel retired of Cupertino. A look backmost astatine Apple's merchandise developments implicit the past decade, each of which were influenced to a grade by Ternus' team, is capable to springiness maine anticipation that the aboriginal whitethorn beryllium adjacent brighter present for the $4 trillion company.

Here are 5 examples that basal retired the most.

1. Leaving Intel successful the dust

MacBook Air M5 and Neo
Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Did anyone extracurricular of Apple expect the M-series modulation to beryllium truthful monumental? Since launching Apple Silicon with the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini successful 2020 and decoupling its systems from Intel's x86 architecture, Mac gross has continued to deed caller highs, arsenic the institution has reported each quarter.

Also: After utilizing the MacBook Neo for weeks, switching to the Air has been refreshingly sweet

This displacement to in-house manufacturing, introduced to the nationalist by Ternus himself, has yielded vertical integration good optimized for adjacent the astir tedious workflows, arsenic creators and moving professionals tin attest. We've reviewed each M-series Mac instrumentality launched, and our benchmark scores proceed to amusement Apple Silicon holding up against the latest Qualcomm and Intel chipsets, portion widening the spread successful price-to-performance.

By now, it's harmless to presume that the adjacent Mac, which volition apt tally connected the latest M-series chipset, volition connection precocious show and ratio astatine a tenable price.

2. The iPad becomes thing bigger

iPad Pro M4 moving  Final Cut for iPad 2
Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Once characterized arsenic a larger iPhone oregon iPod Touch, the iPad has evolved into an ultraportable, multitasking instrumentality beloved by contented creators, designers, and students alike. More recently, Apple's tablet has go a nonrecreational tool, acknowledgment to a greater propulsion into productivity bundle development, multitasking features similar Stage Manager, Dock, and resizable windows, and a power to M-series chipsets that person supercharged its performance.

Also: 9 indispensable iPadOS 26 features that convinced maine to enactment my MacBook distant for good

Notably, Ternus has been credited for being 1 of the voices down this prosumer question wrong Cupertino. "In the aboriginal days of the iPad, Ternus argued the device's hardware capabilities weren't utilized to the fullest due to the fact that its bundle level wasn't taking vantage of the tablet's much almighty processor and bigger screen," observed Mark Gurman of Bloomberg successful March.

Today, the iPad makes up astir 34% of the planetary tablet shipments, and the mean walk connected the tablet continues to emergence (up to $527), according to Counterpoint Research

3. Life-changing AirPods

AirPods connected  display
Jason Hiner/ZDNET

AirPods took the wireless earbuds manufacture by tempest erstwhile they launched successful 2016, but I've been much impressed by however Apple has further developed them beyond conscionable leisure use. 

The astir important improvement has been repurposing AirPods arsenic medical-grade proceeding devices. The AirPods Pro, for example, tin beryllium utilized arsenic over-the-counter proceeding aids, with FDA authorization that has enabled Apple to scope an estimated marketplace of 1.5 cardinal radical with proceeding loss, according to the National Council connected Aging.

Also: How Apple conscionable changed proceeding immunodeficiency everlastingly - and the lives of those who request them

Under Ternus' direction, the AirPods person go much indispensable than ever, with a terms ($249 from Apple) that makes them overmuch much accessible than accepted proceeding aids, which tin scope from $1,500 to $7,500. The latest AirPods tin adjacent monitor your bosom rate, helping you conveniently way your health.  

As for what's next, I'd emotion to spot however Apple approaches the rumored "camera-equipped AirPods" idea, which feels similar a viable AI hardware play that, with the company's attraction to information and privacy, whitethorn conscionable beryllium different victor we didn't expect.

4. Designing the MacBook for utility

M5 MacBook Pro
Kerry Wan/ZDNET

To beryllium clear, Ternus' way grounds isn't each sunshine and rainbows; his squad was besides liable for the arguable MacBook Pro Touch Bar and the infamous Butterfly Keyboard, which outgo Apple a $50 cardinal settlement.

But it's evident that there's been a renewed absorption connected MacBook hardware implicit the past respective years, leaning toward safer designs with greater utility. The 2021 MacBook Pro started it each off, with a chassis that was intelligibly thicker than the slimmed-down MacBooks of the Jony Ive era, but reintroduced the HDMI larboard and SD paper slot.

Also: MacBook Neo review: My biggest interest with Apple's near-perfect fund laptop

The larger framework besides allowed Apple to amended optimize cooling and talker output, some of which person since acceptable a precocious modular for laptops. Today, a look done Apple's MacBook lineup, from the $599 Neo to the $2,699 Pro, shows its spot successful standardizing the Ternus-led plan language, and the income numbers warrant it.

5. A imaginativeness for the future

Apple Vision Pro Lenses
Kerry Wan/ZDNET

While the $3,499 Vision Pro hasn't needfully been the location tally Apple had expected, it has softly established the institution arsenic the person successful spatial computing for enterprise, with corporations, large and small, leveraging the precocious headset to aviator grooming programs, tally plan briefings, and adjacent behaviour surgeries.

So wherefore should you beryllium excited astir Apple's next mixed world endeavors? For one, Ternus brings a circumstantial inheritance successful VR headsets, having worked arsenic a mechanical technologist astatine Virtual Research Systems earlier joining Apple. His familiarity with the space, coupled with hopefully a fewer lessons learned from Vision Pro, whitethorn pb to a much assertive roadmap toward Apple's archetypal brace of astute glasses.

While Meta continues to predominate that extremity of the market, if the crushed consumers aren't buying Ray-Bans is however the institution has handled information and privacy, past Apple has a aureate accidental up of it that it won't privation to fumble.

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