iPad aficionados should be excited that John Ternus could someday take over as Apple CEO. As the head of hardware engineering, he’s been a sort of cheerleader for Apple’s tablet, including urging the company to develop new capabilities that push the iPad beyond being just a big iPhone.
If Ternus becomes Apple CEO — he’s apparently the frontrunner for the position — he’d have the authority to ensure the iPad fulfills its enormous potential.
John Ternus wants iPad to be so much more
The iPad’s biggest limitation isn’t its hardware — that is as powerful and refined as any Mac. The constraints come from iPadOS, which is hobbled by software features that feel simplified or artificially restricted. Multitasking remains less flexible than it could be, pro apps are often scaled-down versions of their desktop counterparts and system-level behaviors don’t fully take advantage of the performance available.
No one needs to explain that to John Ternus. In a recent profile of Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, Bloomberg said, “In the early days of the iPad, Ternus argued the device’s hardware capabilities weren’t used to the fullest because its software platform — the same as the iPhone’s — wasn’t taking advantage of the tablet’s more powerful processor and bigger screen. He pushed internally for a new operating system and eventually persuaded Federighi to build it, enabling features such as desktoplike multitasking that make the iPad more appealing for productivity.”
So he played a big part in iPadOS separating from iOS in 2019, and the creation of Stage Manager and Windowed Apps multitasking systems.
He was also reportedly a driving force behind the development of the Apple Pencil and the Apple Magic Keyboard.
Moving iPad forward
Perhaps it’s not surprising that Ternus has a soft spot for the iPad — he played an important role in creating the original version, noted Bloomberg. Since then, he pushed the hardware forward, including bringing an OLED screen to the 2024 iPad Pro.
And Bloomberg reports that Ternus wants to keep pushing the envelope — “He’s been a proponent of the development of a nearly 20-inch-wide foldable iPad.”
Rumors of such a super-size tablet have circulated for years. Leaks indicate that Apple continues to work on a design, but it is still a long way from release.
But don’t think that wanting to make iPad more productive means Ternus will do what some Mac fans want: replace iPadOS with macOS.
“We’re pushing to make the best Mac we can make; we’re pushing to make the best iPad we can make,” in an interview in 2021. “We’re just going to keep making them better. And we’re not going to get all caught up in, you know, theories around merging or anything like that.”
What all this means is that John Ternus clearly has a vision for the future of iPad, and it’s as a productivity tool, not simply an oversize iPhone. And if he becomes Apple CEO after Tim Cook retires, he’ll have the authority to make that vision a reality.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
