John Ternus says Apple never lost its innovative edge

Apple CEO John Ternus defended the company’s record on innovation in a video interview with TechRadar and Tom's Guide as Apple’s September launch period ended.

Asked by Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff about plans to strengthen Apple’s image as an innovator, Ternus said: “I don't think we ever lost innovation.”

The interview discussed Apple’s new devices, artificial intelligence, wearable technology and Ternus’s early time leading the company. The article notes that Apple faces more competition than it did during the “iPhone moment” in 2007, while arguing that innovation continued under Tim Cook.

Examples cited include Apple silicon chips in 2021, Touch ID in 2013, Face ID in 2017 and the Apple Watch Series 4’s over-the-counter, direct-to-consumer ECG in 2018. The article says recent years may have seemed quieter, aside from Vision Pro, whose broader impact remains uncertain.

Some commenters on TechRadar’s TikTok and YouTube accounts argued that Apple had lost product-level innovation. The article also describes the challenges Tim Cook faced after Steve Jobs’s death, including high expectations, the global pandemic and hardware supply-chain disruption. It concludes that Apple retains a strong product lineup and devoted audience, while the direction of Ternus’s era remains to be seen.