Apple said this week that Tim Cook, its chief executive since 2011, would step down and become its executive chairman in September. John Ternus, the company’s head of hardware engineering, will succeed Mr. Cook in the corner office.
Mr. Ternus, who has worked at Apple for 25 years, will take over a moneymaking behemoth facing a series of pressing questions, including geopolitical threats, an unpredictable man in the White House, artificial intelligence, and the search for new ideas.
Here are some of the challenges confronting Mr. Ternus:
Navigating Apple’s ties to China.
Apple makes an estimated 80 percent of its iPhones in China. The country has, at times, accounted for a quarter of the company’s annual revenue, too. That relationship has become a vulnerability for Apple, particularly as tensions over the future of Taiwan have flared.
As an engineer, Mr. Ternus has experience in Asia. Around 2005 — four years after joining Apple — he led the company’s hardware engineering team for iMacs. In that role, he spent extended periods working with manufacturers in Asia. He also learned how difficult it could be to have a manufacturing supplier deliver on Apple’s design expectations.
But as the chief executive, Mr. Ternus will have to learn a delicate balancing act. He will have to navigate the often conflicting agendas of President Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s leader. He will also have to manage the risk of China’s invading Taiwan and cutting off its chip exports to American companies like Apple.
Apple has taken steps to diversify its supply chain, moving some production to India, Vietnam and Thailand. But many of the complex components in an iPhone, like displays, are still assembled in China.
