He laughed and very smoothly gave me what’s known in the newsroom as a “politician’s answer” – that is, he didn’t actually answer the question at all.
Instead, he enthused about Tim Cook’s leadership. But there was no other obvious reason why I was suddenly invited to have coffee with him at that moment, some 25 years after he joined the firm.
I found Ternus polite, friendly, and everything he told me was perfectly delivered, if a bit bland.
I wish I could tell you I got some good gossip, but there wasn’t a single unguarded moment. Apple is frustratingly good at curating to the letter what it chooses to say, even in private.
He may have been able to bat off my questions, but Apple – despite its colossal success – faces some serious challenges.
How Ternus responds to them will go a long way to deciding the tech giant’s future.
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