The world is about to meet Apple’s new CEO. Here are his biggest challenges

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When Apple holds its annual iPhone event on September 9, it’ll be the first time in more than a decade that Tim Cook won’t introduce the company’s latest products.

Instead, John Ternus will debut as Apple’s new chief executive during the company’s most important event of the year.

Expectations are high. Ternus takes over as Apple faces pressure to evolve its products for the AI era. In July, the iPhone maker became the second company in history to reach a $5 trillion market capitalization, raising the bar for what analysts and investors expect from product advancements and financial performance.

Who is John Ternus, the incoming CEO of Apple?

Ternus’ background in hardware engineering led many to believe his tenure is likely to usher in a new age of innovation for Apple. Many will be watching for signals of Ternus’ vision this week, especially as the company is expected to follow rivals into a new product category with a foldable iPhone.

Ternus will need to quickly cement his direction for Apple beyond the fanfare of this week’s event. The company faces a string of pressing challenges, including regulatory obstacles in Europe and a memory shortage.

Ternus’s engineering experience could be a big advantage for Apple, which has suffered criticism over its approach for the last two years.

Last year, the company delayed a new version of Siri that is now set to launch this fall.

“It was a huge miss,” Gene Munster, managing partner for tech investment firm Deepwater Asset Management. “Thankfully, they’re on the right path, but it could have been so much bigger of a win for them.”

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Apple often tailors its devices and chips for its own services and software, and Ternus’ deep background in hardware could be critical in designing new devices that are optimized for AI.

In the near term, Apple is banking on Siri to help gain ground in the AI race. The revamped AI assistant will leverage data – like text messages and photos – from a user’s iPhone to answer questions in a personalized way. For example, you could ask Siri to reference your text messages to find your upcoming doctor’s appointment or dinner reservation.

Apple says the new Siri will be able to complete tasks in certain apps and answer questions about what’s shown on screen, a feature that could help it catch up to Google’s Gemini.

Nabila Popal, a senior director for tech market research firm International Data Corporation, told CNN that two things could give Apple an edge: its traditional focus on user privacy as well as the way it incorporates AI directly into iOS tools like the camera and messages apps.

“(Consumers) just want a device that makes their life easier and takes it to the next level, and I think that’s what Apple will do,” Popal said.

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More than anything else, all eyes will be on Ternus to deliver a new blockbuster hit.

Cook will be remembered for scaling the iPhone to a business that rakes in hundreds of billions of dollars every year. By launching a web of services and accessories, such as Apple Music, the Apple Card, the Apple Watch and AirPods, Cook made the iPhone feel essential to everyday life.

Yet investors and analysts are hopeful that Ternus’ will bring a fresh push into new products, such as the foldable iPhone. The IDC projects that Apple will capture 40% of the market for foldable phones by 2027, despite being years behind rivals Samsung and Chinese smartphone giant Huawei.

“Apple’s entry into the foldable market has done more than reignite growth in a category that was losing momentum,” Popal wrote in a recent IDC report, ahead of the foldable iPhone’s release. “It has fundamentally altered the market’s trajectory.”

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Apple’s new CEO will inherit strong sales and even greater expectations

The tech industry has been rattled by an ongoing shortage of memory, critical hardware that devices need to quickly retrieve stored information. Data centers have led to a surge in demand for these components, making them significantly more expensive.

That’s caused tech companies like Apple, Nintendo and Microsoft to raise prices of their products. Apple in July increased prices for iPads, Macs and other devices but left iPhone price tags unchanged.

“We’re in what I would characterize as a 100-year flood on memory pricing, with exponential increases in memory prices,” Cook said during his last earnings call as CEO in July.

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Consumers should brace for higher iPhone prices, some analysts say.

Mike Howard, vice president of memory coverage at research firm TechInsights. estimates Apple would likely have to increase its smartphone prices by about $250 to $300 to maintain margins.

“We should start thinking about a $1,500 iPhone instead of a $1,000 (or) $1,200 iPhone,” he told CNN in July.

Apple likely has more obstacles ahead in the European Union’s crackdown on Big Tech.

The company recently announced changes to its App Store’s business terms to comply with EU regulations. And it won’t launch the new version of Siri on iPhones and iPads in the European Union because of the European Commission’s rules. Europe is Apple’s second-largest market after the United States.

The EC wants Apple and Google to give third-party AI assistants more access to iOS and Android systems. But Apple and Google have both argued that doing so would raise privacy concerns.

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And experts agree that consumers should be careful about giving AI agents broad access to content stored on their phones and computers.

An AI agent “could exercise the user’s delegated authority to do other things that maybe the user might not have wanted it to happen,” Michael Stokes, senior vice president of emerging technologies at Veilant, a company that sells secure infrastructure and communications products, previously told CNN.

But the EC allows companies like Apple to “implement appropriate privacy, security and integrity safeguards,” a spokesperson previously told CNN.

Ultimately, Ternus will have to navigate these challenges while living up to the larger-than-life valuation Apple reached in the Cook era.

“Apple is already so large, profitable, and deeply embedded in its customers’ lives that incremental excellence may no longer be enough to redefine the company,” Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote in an August research note. “Ternus’s challenge will be to preserve the profitable machine Cook built while restoring a stronger sense of technological surprise.”

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9 月 9 日，苹果公司将举行一年一度的 iPhone 发布会，这将是十多年来蒂姆·库克首次缺席公司最新产品的发布会。

相反，约翰·特纳斯将在苹果公司一年一度最重要的活动中首次以苹果新任首席执行官的身份亮相。

人们寄予厚望。特纳斯接任首席执行官之际，苹果公司正面临着人工智能时代产品转型升级的压力。今年7月，这家iPhone制造商成为历史上第二家市值突破5万亿美元的公司，这无疑提高了分析师和投资者对苹果产品进步和财务业绩的预期。

即将上任的苹果公司首席执行官约翰·特纳斯是谁？

特纳斯在硬件工程领域的背景让许多人相信，他的上任很可能为苹果开启一个全新的创新时代。本周，许多人将密切关注特纳斯愿景的体现，尤其是在苹果有望效仿竞争对手，推出可折叠iPhone这一全新产品类别之际。

特纳斯需要尽快确立苹果公司在本次发布会之外的未来发展方向。该公司面临一系列紧迫挑战，包括欧洲的监管障碍和内存短缺。

特纳斯的工程经验对苹果公司来说可能是一大优势，苹果公司在过去两年中因其策略而饱受批评。

去年，该公司推迟了新版 Siri 的发布，现在预计将于今年秋季发布。

“这真是一个巨大的失误，”科技投资公司深水资产管理公司的管理合伙人吉恩·蒙斯特说。“值得庆幸的是，他们走在正确的道路上，但如果他们成功了，那将会是一次更大的胜利。”

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苹果经常根据自己的服务和软件定制设备和芯片，而特纳斯在硬件方面的深厚背景对于设计针对人工智能优化的新设备可能至关重要。

短期内，苹果寄希望于 Siri 能在人工智能竞赛中占据优势。这款经过改进的人工智能助手将利用用户 iPhone 中的数据（例如短信和照片）以个性化的方式回答问题。例如，你可以让 Siri 查看你的短信，找到即将到来的医生预约或晚餐预订信息。

苹果公司表示，新款 Siri 将能够完成某些应用程序中的任务，并回答有关屏幕上显示内容的问题，这一功能可能有助于其赶上谷歌的 Gemini。

科技市场研究公司国际数据公司 (IDC) 的高级主管纳比拉·波帕尔 (Nabila Popal) 告诉 CNN，有两件事可能会让苹果公司获得优势：一是其对用户隐私的传统关注，二是其将人工智能直接融入 iOS 工具（如相机和信息应用）的方式。

“（消费者）只是想要一款能让他们的生活更轻松、提升生活品质的设备，我认为苹果公司将会做到这一点，”波帕尔说道。

贾斯汀·沙利文/盖蒂图片社

所有人的目光都将聚焦在特纳斯身上，期待他能带来一部新的票房大片。

库克将因把iPhone发展成一个每年收入数千亿美元的庞大产业而为人铭记。通过推出一系列服务和配件，例如Apple Music、Apple Card、Apple Watch和AirPods，库克让iPhone成为人们日常生活中不可或缺的一部分。

然而，投资者和分析师们仍然寄希望于特纳斯能为苹果公司注入新的活力，推动其推出可折叠iPhone等新产品。IDC预测，尽管苹果在可折叠手机领域落后于竞争对手三星和中国智能手机巨头华为多年，但到2027年，苹果仍将占据40%的市场份额。

在可折叠iPhone发布前夕，IDC近期发布的一份报告中，波帕尔写道：“苹果进军可折叠手机市场，不仅重新点燃了原本增长势头放缓的市场，更从根本上改变了市场的发展轨迹。”

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苹果新任CEO将接手强劲的销售业绩，并面临更高的期望。

科技行业一直受到内存短缺的困扰，内存是设备快速检索存储信息所必需的关键硬件。数据中心的需求激增，导致这些组件的价格大幅上涨。

这导致苹果、任天堂和微软等科技公司提高了产品价格。苹果公司在7月份提高了iPad、Mac和其他设备的价格，但iPhone的价格保持不变。

库克在7月份作为CEO的最后一次财报电话会议上表示：“我们正处于我所说的百年一遇的内存价格暴涨浪潮之中，内存价格呈指数级增长。”

香农·斯台普顿/路透社

一些分析师表示，消费者应该做好迎接iPhone价格上涨的准备。

TechInsights研究公司负责内存业务的副总裁迈克·霍华德估计，苹果公司可能需要将智能手机价格提高约250至300美元才能维持利润率。

“我们应该开始考虑推出一款售价 1500 美元的 iPhone，而不是 1000 美元（或）1200 美元的 iPhone，”他在 7 月份接受 CNN 采访时表示。

苹果公司在欧盟打击大型科技公司的行动中，可能还会面临更多阻碍。

该公司近期宣布修改其应用商店的商业条款，以符合欧盟法规。同时，由于欧盟委员会的规定，该公司将不会在欧盟地区推出适用于iPhone和iPad的新版Siri。欧洲是苹果公司仅次于美国的第二大市场。

欧盟委员会希望苹果和谷歌允许第三方人工智能助手访问iOS和安卓系统更多权限。但苹果和谷歌均辩称，这样做会引发隐私担忧。

Mateusz Wlodarczyk/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

专家们一致认为，消费者应该谨慎对待人工智能代理对存储在手机和电脑上的内容的广泛访问权限。

Veilant 是一家销售安全基础设施和通信产品的公司，其新兴技术高级副总裁 Michael Stokes 此前告诉 CNN，人工智能代理“可能会行使用户被授予的权限去做一些用户可能不希望发生的事情”。

但欧盟委员会允许像苹果这样的公司“实施适当的隐私、安全和完整性保障措施”，一位发言人此前告诉 CNN。

最终，特纳斯将不得不应对这些挑战，同时还要不辜负苹果在库克时代达到的超高估值。

美国银行分析师瓦姆西·莫汉在8月份的一份研究报告中写道：“苹果公司规模庞大、盈利丰厚，并且已经深深融入到消费者的生活中，因此，仅仅依靠渐进式的卓越表现可能不足以重塑这家公司。特纳斯面临的挑战将是，如何在保持库克打造的盈利机器的同时，重振苹果在技术创新方面的惊喜感。”