Key takeaways
- In a WIRED interview, Apple CEO John Ternus summed up his focus in one word: “product.” He also said Apple won’t “ship AI for AI’s sake” and answered the question of whether Apple fell behind because of Siri with “Everyone has an opinion. I really like where we’re at.”
- His track record: AirPods, the MacBook Neo, iPad work, recycled aluminum, and the Vision Pro hardware that almost nobody wanted.
- My view: two months as CEO and he already takes credit for the past, laughs off the Siri question, rushes products out and stays silent about the iPhone Duo memo. My word for him is arrogance.
Apple CEO John Ternus gave his biggest interview since taking over from Tim Cook on September 1. He spoke with Steven Levy of WIRED after Apple’s Los Angeles launch of the touchscreen MacBook Pro. Asked what drives him, he answered with one word: “I do love product. I’m super passionate about it.” Chip chief Johny Srouji called him “a product guy at heart,” and marketing chief Greg Joswiak added: “You can’t teach that.”
On AI, Ternus said Apple will “absolutely” use it, but “we don’t want to ship AI for AI’s sake,” and “when we’re doing it right, people won’t have to think about whether it was AI that made this happen.” When Levy asked whether Apple fell behind because of Siri’s problems, Ternus didn’t pick a side: “Everyone has an opinion. I really like where we’re at.” He would not say whether he supports AI regulation, and he described himself as “sort of a student of Steve’s teachings.” Tim Cook, now executive chairman, is “available to help wherever I ask him.”
In this article: Product man? Then let’s look at the products · “Everyone has an opinion” · Faster, faster, until it breaks · “You don’t need a new phone.” Then why is it all Siri AI? · Invisible AI, visible Siri · Half the truth about the memory crisis · A hundred against, one for · The sky is green · FAQ
Product man? Then let’s look at the products
What caught my attention most is not the one word. It’s the products behind it. Ternus is the man whose engineering group ran the hardware of the Vision Pro, and honestly, that shocked me a little. I know he worked on the MacBook Neo and the iPad, and I know about the recycled aluminum. Let’s go in order and find the golden middle.
He takes the MacBook Neo as his work. But when you look at it, it is almost the same MacBook as all the others, just a cheaper one for spreadsheets, Word and watching movies. Calling it some kind of “wow” is simply not true. And the iPad? Which iPad? We know the first iPad was shown to the world by Steve Jobs. Or does he want to say it was his invention?
The only thing that is fully his merit, and that he did brilliantly, is AirPods. They are excellent. But if we look back at everything we just named, neither the Neo nor AirPods carried the real weight of Apple. And his last big work was a complete flop: the Vision Pro, which nobody wanted. It looked like you were wearing some object from space on your head. Heavy and very expensive.
So I have a question. A man who never brought Apple anything as big as the MacBook Pro, the iPhone Pro or the Apple Watch, the products everyone knows and that build Apple’s name, is now the boss. Was there really nobody at Apple with a bigger contribution, someone who would keep this corporation in check and keep the “wow” effect alive?
“Everyone has an opinion”
I don’t want to be mean, but from the very start, since he became CEO, he has looked to me like an arrogant man who praises himself. Nothing more. I don’t see the Duo as a big deal either. Sure, a few million will sell, but it’s not an iPhone 17. It doesn’t have that scale.
The interview was about nothing, in one word. When he was asked, in effect, whether Apple fell behind because of Siri while others build their own AI, he answered: “Everyone has an opinion. I really like where we’re at.” My God. That made me laugh out loud. Who even made you the boss? Not “yes, we are working on it.” No. “Everyone has an opinion.” Is that a joke?
Of course you like where you are, Mr. Ternus, because until now someone else was leading Apple. You have been CEO for about two months, and in two months you managed to break a lot of things. Liking where Apple is and taking it as your own merit is far too arrogant.
| What Ternus says | What I see |
|---|---|
| “I do love product” | A $1,999 iPhone Duo that can crack in days, and a memo nobody mentions |
| “I really like where we’re at” | Two months as CEO, and Siri still behind |
| “We don’t want to ship AI for AI’s sake” | Siri AI in every ad, only on the newest devices |
| You don’t need to upgrade | New features that need a new device |
| The memory shortage is a crisis | About 85% margins on storage upgrades |
| “A student of Steve’s teachings” | A touchscreen on an old M5 chip for $400 more |
Faster, faster, until it breaks
Bloomberg reported that he is cutting management positions so Apple can ship products faster. Think about that for a moment. You worked on the Duo for seven years, and you released a phone that can break within a few days. You obviously had enough time. So what happens now, when you rush products out even faster?
I keep thinking about it, and it makes me nervous. With this tempo, you will kill the Apple we know.
“You don’t need a new phone.” Then why is it all Siri AI?
In September, on French TV, Ternus said two things in the same interview: Siri AI is “not designed to be your friend,” and people don’t need to upgrade, because “if somebody wants to use your phone for many, many years, it is going to be fine.”
That is the biggest hypocrisy. Remember what Apple put the accent on when it sold the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, the HomePod, HomeView, the Apple Watch, the Apple TV: from everywhere, only ads for Siri AI. And Siri AI works only on the newest models. So for God’s sake, why do you say such nonsense out loud? Why this hypocritical attitude? Saying it in an interview is like laughing in our faces.
Invisible AI, visible Siri
Then there is his favorite line: people won’t have to think about whether it was AI. Oh, how he plays with Siri. People won’t know what is happening in the background. They only see that Siri is behind and dumb.
Mr. Ternus, I will tell you more. The AI era is already big, and it is developing ten times faster than anything else. You come out and say something like that? It’s absurd.
Half the truth about the memory crisis
When he was on the cover of TIME, he called the memory shortage a crisis. Why didn’t you tell the whole truth: that Apple turned it into 85% margins on storage? Imagine that. Apple was never cheap, and it isn’t now either. And when the situation is hard, Apple didn’t raise prices just a little. No. Because memory is expensive, it set itself the goal of winning the maximum from it.
And then he calls himself a student of Steve Jobs’s teachings. People say Cook was the manager and Ternus is the product man, the new Jobs. Good grief, you are far from Jobs. How can you even say it when you stuffed a touchscreen into a MacBook Pro with the old M5 chip and the same old battery, while the cheaper MacBook Pro got the M6? Sorry, I don’t want to insult anyone, but that is strange to me. I can’t take it anymore when I hear this.
A hundred against, one for
Yes, the tempo under him is high. That is a fact. But everything he ships has, in my opinion, a hundred points against and one for. I don’t mean the fans who, I feel, would buy even toilet paper from Apple. I mean real buyers:
The touchscreen MacBook Pro at a scary high price, with the old chip and the old battery. The iPhone Duo, where Apple itself told stores that a defective unit shows it in the first days, as if that were normal. HomeView, which I put straight into the drawer, next to the Vision Pro. And the iPad mini with a 60Hz display in 2026, when even the cheapest tablets have at least 90Hz. Something is wrong here.
And most of all: the iPhone Duo memo went to every Apple Store in the same week as this interview. Why didn’t he say anything about it? He had the chance, and he stays silent.
The sky is green
And 9to5Mac writes positively again, that the recent launches prove Ternus is all about product. It’s getting tiring. After all this, I’m curious: when Apple tells them the sky is green, will they write that it’s green?
Maybe, because he lives for gadgets, he has something prepared that will surprise us. I’d be glad. But right now, I don’t like him, and this interview didn’t change that. Ternus’s word is “product.” Mine for him is arrogance.
Also on Evolt News: Ternus called rival foldables “cheap and crappy” · The iPhone Duo memo · Memory suppliers get their revenge
Photo: John Ternus at the Apple 50th Anniversary Kickoff. Tessa Bury, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
This article is opinion.
John Ternus WIRED interview: FAQ
What one word did John Ternus use to describe his focus?
“Product.” In a WIRED interview with Steven Levy, Ternus said: “I do love product. I’m super passionate about it.”
What did Ternus say about Apple and AI?
He said Apple will “absolutely” use AI to build products, but “we don’t want to ship AI for AI’s sake,” and that people shouldn’t have to think about whether AI made something happen.
Did Ternus say Apple fell behind because of Siri?
No. Asked about it, he said: “Everyone has an opinion. I really like where we’re at.” He did not pick a side.
When did John Ternus become Apple CEO?
Ternus took over from Tim Cook on September 1, 2026. Cook is now Apple’s executive chairman.
What products did John Ternus work on?
Before becoming CEO, Ternus led Apple’s hardware engineering. He worked on the iPad, AirPods, iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch generations and the MacBook Neo, pushed recycled aluminum, and his group ran the Vision Pro hardware.
Sources: WIRED (Steven Levy), 9to5Mac, The Next Web, iPhone in Canada (Canal+), TIME, Bloomberg, Fast Company, Wall Street Journal.
Our Take
“Product” is a nice word for an interview. But the products under Ternus crack, lag behind on AI and cost more, and he likes where Apple is.
Two months in, I don’t see a second Jobs. I see arrogance. I’d be happy if his next product proves me wrong.
