Apple has announced that Dan Riccio, a longtime hardware executive, will transition to a new role, where he will continue to report directly to Tim Cook. There is not much clarity about this new role and its description is quite vague. They note that their new role will focus on a “new project” and, officially, their title will be “vice president of engineering”. This new project could be anything from the long-rumored Apple Car or even Apple’s VR / AR hardware efforts.
John Ternus will assume Riccio’s previous role as the new senior vice president of hardware engineering. We have seen Ternus take on a much larger public role at Apple in recent years, appearing on stage at several lectures, including the Apple Silicon event just a few months ago.
As senior vice president of hardware engineering, Ternus is now likely to report directly to Tim Cook, with Riccio in the background to focus on this new secret project. There is always a chance that Riccio is on the road to retirement, but is not yet ready to leave Apple. We’ve seen this before, like when Jony Ive and Phil Schiller took on more ceremonial roles.
Rumors about the Apple car design and the VR / AR project have started to rise recently. It is possible that these executive changes have something to do with projects that advance to later stages. Riccio is a longtime Apple veterinarian who has worked on many of Apple’s greatest successes in the 21st century. If these future products are indeed advancing, they may require a more practical approach to leadership.
Riccio says: “Working at Apple has been the opportunity of a lifetime, dedicated to making the best products in the world with the most talented people you could imagine.” It should be interesting to see what happens with the Apple hardware line with Ternus in charge. Riccio has led the product design team or the hardware engineering team for nearly 23 years.
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