Tim Cook’s parting message: Apple is in the hands of a product builder

On his last day as Apple CEO, Tim Cook offered a rousing endorsement of his successor: John Ternus, the company’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. In a memo to employees, Cook reminded staff that he’s “not leaving Apple,” just stepping away from the role of CEO, while declaring that “few people understand what it takes to build products that change the world the way John does.” Ternus’ elevation to the top job suggests that Apple’s next era will see a renewed focus on hardware and product execution. Under Ternus, Apple shipped a number of notable products, most recently, the new ultra-thin iPhone Air, the lower-cost MacBook Neo, and AirPods with hearing health features. He also led the hardware engineering team across Apple’s full device lineup. Hardware will play an important role in the AI era, not only in terms of chips, but also the devices people use to run enterprise AI. Apple this year, for…