Never Ship Junk, Now Ship Faster

Option A or Option B

Mara: Hand Tim Cook option A or option B, and he won't choose; instead, he'll ask you a series of questions if he has any doubts.

Eli: That's how someone who has worked closely with both Tim Cook and John Ternus described Cook to Bloomberg Línea, a Spanish-language business outlet. We're translating from Spanish, and the person wasn't named. It matters now because on April 20th, Apple announced that Ternus would succeed Cook, and on September 1st he became chief executive.

Mara: Then the same person turned to Ternus. On product development, they said, Ternus will make the decisions. It could be right or wrong, but at least it's a decision.

Eli: That's quite a compliment. And a slightly backhanded one for the man he replaced.

Mara: So, who is he? A mechanical engineer who joined Apple in 2001 and ended up running all of its hardware engineering.

Eli: And why him? Mark Gurman, Bloomberg's longtime Apple reporter, reported that Apple chose Ternus partly because of his age, and partly on a belief that he could reinvent the product lineup to compete with rivals built around artificial intelligence.

Mara: It's Thursday, September 24th, and today's angle is how Apple's quality-first engineer got the top job just as its AI devices were reported slipping. So will the engineer who says Apple should never ship junk take Apple's big risks?

Eli: We'll follow him from his first project at Apple to a stage in September, and a first-day memo that splits Apple's future three ways.

Mara: Before we crown him the decider, there's a second portrait. A longtime Apple executive told Bloomberg that Ternus is a "Tim Jr." in style, and likely to "continue to run the show the way Tim did."

Eli: And then the line that stings. Like Cook, Ternus is "probably not the guy who's going to risk it all." The same executive said he's no Steve Jobs-style showman. "He's not a marketing ace. But he's a product guy who is also politically savvy."

Mara: Neither of these people was named, and they offer contrasting portraits. One says he'll make the call. The other says he won't bet the house.

Eli: Which is pretty much the whole question. So let's start with who he was before anyone was asking it.

The Back of the Cabinet

Mara: Apple says he studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He joined Apple in 2001, and he has said his first project there was the Cinema Display, a desktop monitor.

Eli: A monitor. Not exactly the glamour assignment.

Mara: And in that first year, as he tells it, he visited a supplier facility and had a moment of real doubt. "I distinctly remember stepping back for a minute and thinking, 'What the hell am I doing? Is this normal?'"

Eli: The future CEO, asking himself whether this was normal.

Mara: There's another story he carries. As Ternus tells it, Steve Jobs was moving a chest of drawers, pulled it away from the wall, looked at the back, and reflected that the carpenter who made it had made it beautiful.

Eli: And Ternus's gloss on it: "It finished the back as beautifully as the rest of it, even though nobody was going to see it, right? And I think about that all the time because I think that perfectly exemplifies what we do here."

Mara: The back of the cabinet. That's his creed, in one piece of furniture.

Eli: He's said it more bluntly, too. "We never want to ship junk. We want to ship great products that have that Apple experience, that Apple quality."

Mara: And then something that muddies the decider picture. In that 2024 speech at Penn's engineering school, he told students, "Always assume you're as smart as anyone else in the room, but never assume that you know as much as they do." With that mindset, he said, "you'll find the confidence you need to push forward, but more importantly, the humility to ask questions."

Eli: Wait. The humility to ask questions. That's exactly what the colleague said Cook did instead of choosing.

Mara: It is. And when he got the job, he said he was "humbled," and promised "to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century."

Eli: Not exactly a manifesto for tearing the place up.

Which Risks

Mara: In 2021 he became Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering and joined the executive team. TechCrunch, the tech news site, says he led hardware development for the Vision Pro headset.

Eli: Gurman reports that Ternus opposed the Vision Pro, and Apple's self-driving car project, to varying degrees.

Mara: He led the hardware on a product he reportedly opposed, at least to some degree?

Eli: That's Gurman's account. And look at how those two bets went. Bloomberg Línea reported Apple spent roughly ten billion dollars on the autonomous car before abandoning it. And the Vision Pro, after a decade of development, the same report called a failure.

Mara: So the doubter may have had a point.

Eli: At the very least, the careful instinct doesn't look foolish in hindsight.

Mara: But "cautious" doesn't quite fit either, because there's a bet he did push. Gurman reported that Ternus urged Apple to sell a cheaper laptop, one that could draw in a younger generation.

Eli: Apple and cheaper. Those words don't usually share a sentence.

Mara: A colorful MacBook Neo, at five hundred ninety-nine dollars. Gurman wrote that his instinct paid off: it got excellent reviews and sold out quickly.

Eli: So he opposed the ten-billion-dollar moonshot, to varying degrees, and pushed the six-hundred-dollar laptop. Maybe the pattern isn't no risks. It's which risks.

Mara: And that's exactly what the new job is about to test.

The Clock Was Already Running

Eli: So picture April 20th. The hardware chief who, by Gurman's account, pushed back on the headset and the car is named the person expected to reinvent Apple's lineup against its AI rivals.

Mara: Bloomberg reported he'd been leading the charge on a set of AI-focused wearables and new home devices. These are reported projects. Apple hasn't announced them.

Eli: Two of them matter for what comes next. Smart glasses. And a tabletop robot.

Mara: So the careful engineer was already holding Apple's AI hardware before he got the top job.

Eli: And outsiders want him to go faster. Laura Martin, an analyst at the investment firm Needham, said Apple's "lagging AI integrations appear tone-deaf and could have existential risks."

Mara: Existential. For a company with Apple's balance sheet.

Eli: Her expectation for him is blunt. "We expect him to execute new ideas faster, take on more risk, and drive higher internal accountability."

Mara: Which puts a man who says never ship junk in a chair where people are asking him to ship faster.

Eli: And the clock was already running. In April, Gurman reported the smart glasses, once expected this year, were still months from ready and could slip to 2027. The tabletop robot, planned for 2027, risked sliding to 2028. Neither date was confirmed.

Mara: He wrote that the delays were starting to affect Apple's ability to release the hardware that drives upgrades and revenue. And the people who'd build the next devices? Gurman listed engineers leaving for OpenAI and other rivals. On top of that, he said regulatory issues were starting to hurt the App Store and overall services revenue.

Eli: And for the people who just use the stuff, one reaction to the news on LinkedIn, from a commenter named Valentina Durand, put it plainly: "I can't wait for the time when I love using Siri. It is such a pain right now, and the potential is ridiculous..."

Mara: Does Siri get better, and do the next devices?

Eli: Still, some perspective. At an April town hall, Gurman reported, Cook told employees Apple's finances were strong and its roadmap "incredible."

Mara: So Apple isn't fighting for survival. It's fighting over direction and speed.

From the Back Pocket

Eli: September 1st, his first day as chief executive. He sends a company-wide memo predicting a "huge launch next week" that would be "phenomenal."

Mara: That's a lot of confidence for day one.

Eli: September 9th, Apple Park, his first keynote as CEO. The Guardian's account: nearly an hour in, he began to tease it. "Actually, there is one more thing …" He took a phone from the back pocket of his jeans, held it up to the camera, and, with what the Guardian called a coy smile, said, "this is iPhone Duo."

Mara: A phone out of the back pocket. From the guy the executive said wasn't a Steve Jobs-style showman. That's a showman's moment.

Eli: The Guardian called it Apple's first foldable phone.

Mara: And it won over at least one skeptic. AppleInsider writer Wesley Hilliard said that when Ternus stepped out to reveal his "one more thing," "I forgot all of my reservations and was ready to be excited." His verdict: "The iPhone Duo is stunning."

Eli: But whose phone is it, really? Most of what Apple showed on September 9th was in development long before September 1st. Tech analyst Bob O'Donnell said the foldable had been "in the works for some time."

Mara: But he also said Ternus getting to introduce it as the new CEO was "hugely symbolic," the start of a new era of more interesting products under his leadership.

Eli: So the two unnamed voices are still standing. A beautiful phone doesn't settle which one is right, because the calls that are wholly his haven't arrived yet.

The Third Pile

Mara: Look again at that first-day memo, because we can sort it into three piles. Pile one, the huge launch: delivered, from his back pocket. Pile two, "the incredible products already in the works." That's a pipeline already under way before he became CEO. It includes AI wearables and home devices that Bloomberg reported he'd been leading as hardware chief. Those are reported projects, not announced products, and they're the kind now reported slipping. And pile three: "the ones we haven't even imagined yet."

Eli: The first two are inherited or co-built. The third is his to lead, with the team. And that's where the line we started with comes due. Sooner or later, someone brings him option A and option B.

Mara: And we find out who read him right. The colleague who said a decision, right or wrong, is at least a decision. Or the executive who said he's "probably not the guy who's going to risk it all."

Eli: He's the engineer who says Apple never wants to ship junk, facing an analyst who expects him to move faster and take on more risk. Anyone who's been promoted for being the careful one, and then told to be bold, knows that bind. The instinct that earned you the chair isn't obviously the one the chair now asks for.

Mara: He still thinks about a carpenter who finished the back of a chest "even though nobody was going to see it." Now everybody is watching. And the whole world is asking him to hurry.

Eli: Apple's bet on AI devices is a story worth getting to know better.

Mara: And stay with John Ternus and Apple, so when the next product or leadership move comes, you'll already know what's riding on it.

Eli: I'm Eli.

Mara: And I'm Mara. Thanks for listening, and until next time.