Unsurprisingly, the first reactions from inside Apple to John Ternus becoming CEO are positive, but one source insists he will be better at making decisions than Cook.
From September 1, 2026, Apple will have its eighth CEO as John Ternus takes over from Tim Cook. As markets react to the news, Bloomberg claims to have the inside track on just how the news has been received by Apple staff.
It refers to multiple colleagues of Ternus's, reporting that they have described him as willing to make decisions. In comparison, Cook was reportedly more prone to take a consensus before acting.
Nonetheless, the report really just boils down to a single, unnamed staffer, said to be someone who works closely with both Cook and Ternus.
"Ternus will make decisions... if you go to Tim with 'A' or 'B,' he won't pick," said this person. "He'll ask a series of questions instead, if he has concerns."
The same unnamed source further said that Ternus's choices "could be right or wrong, but at least it's a decision."
Reportedly, Ternus has told staff that he is going to remain closely involved with Apple's hardware engineering. Given that he also cited having worked under Steve Jobs, the report is taking it that he's going to be more as product-focused as Jobs was.
While Steve Jobs at least helped pick Tim Cook as his successor, he saw this issue of design and focus as a potential problem. Jobs criticized Cook over it.
"I softened it in the book a bit, but in my book, Steve says how Tim Cook can do everything," Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson revealed in 2019. "But then he looked at me and said 'But Tim is not a product person.'"
