• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Today

Will John Ternus, the incoming CEO of Apple, take a swing at another piece of major consumer hardware once he takes full control of the big tech giant?

With Apple’s longtime chief executive Tim Cook leaving after 15 years, Apple needs to work on its next act.

Ternus started at Apple in 2001 and was named vice president of hardware engineering in 2013.

For Apple, many believe the obvious will be in building up more artificial intelligence (AI) -- especially "generative AI."

Investors remain nervous that Apple is somewhat behind other technology and media-centric companies such as Google, Microsoft and Meta in this area. Apple has been cautious about taking a privacy-first approach to AI, which has slowed things.

Apple Intelligence is already the foundational AI system integrated into the Apple core operating systems on all devices. This comes with future versions of Siri and also partners with Google for Gemini for more advanced AI tasks.

Apple is already looking at the next step -- not just with fully enabled AI in iPhones, but other physical products where AI will show off its use.

There may be challenges ahead with Apple's attempts at new devices. Its Apple Vision Pro, priced at a hefty $3,499, is out of reach for many consumers. The company is also working on a cheaper headset that is tentatively set to launch this year, called Vision Air.

But should Apple consider something a bit more accessible -- like the next iteration of a smart TV device? Amazon and Roku are already in the game, with the TV set-named brands and/or partnerships, which helps those companies feed into their respective advertising-selling platforms.

This is not Apple’s game at the moment. For example, its Apple TV streaming platform is the lone major premium streaming service that does not have an advertising option.

But imagine if Apple were to come up with the first modestly priced AI-powered smart TV set -- eliminating the need for a set-top streaming box. Apple has been selling those for quite some time.

Some may believe a TV set is now not very important, as mobile devices, laptop screens and iPads could be all that is needed for the modern consumer.

For many years, in addition to the iPhone, Apple's main efforts have been centered around “services” -- Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV+ (now Apple TV) -- as well as payment services such as Apple Pay and Apple Card.

The future focus is on Apple Intelligence, which is intended to power a wide range of features, from writing and editing to image generation and a sharper focus with context-aware Siri.
This is especially true for new types of devices that Apple will launch in the coming years.

So does it make sense that the company did not look to promote services, software, operations, or marketing-centric Apple senior executives?

Going with Ternus as the new CEO signals to analysts that the company is going back “product-first, engineering-led leadership” style.

Think of what Apple products are needed. Apple is going hard in hardware.