Tim Cook to step down as Apple CEO, hardware chief John Ternus takes the helm

[Daniel Sims]

Tim Cook has announced that he will be stepping down as Apple CEO on September 1. Senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus, long seen as the company's leading succession candidate, will take over following a summer transition period.

Cook will become executive chairman of the board, where he will engage with policymakers around the world and support the company in other areas. Ternus will also join the board of directors, while non-executive chairman Arthur Levinson becomes lead independent director.

The transition will span the June Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple is expected to unveil iOS 27. Ternus is likely to assume full control just before Apple introduces new iPhone models in September, including the iPhone 18 and possibly a foldable iPhone Ultra.

Cook's announcement marks the end of the longest tenure in Apple's history. The 65-year-old took over in August 2011, two months before co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs passed away.

While Jobs oversaw the introduction of products such as the iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro, Cook's tenure marked a shift toward wearables and a transformation of Apple's hardware strategy. He helped bring the Apple Watch and AirPods into the mainstream, led the company into streaming, and guided Apple's transition to in-house Arm-based chips.

Apple's market valuation grew from roughly $350 billion to $4 trillion during Cook's 14 years as CEO. He is stepping down as the company moves into the budget laptop segment, a key stronghold of rival Microsoft, with the $599 MacBook Neo.

Ternus's ascension comes as little surprise. Reports about Apple's succession plans have circulated for the past year, consistently naming the hardware chief as the leading candidate.

Ternus joined Apple in 2001 and has spent more than two decades at the company. Since becoming senior VP of hardware engineering in 2021, he has played a central role in launching several major products. His background in hardware and relative youth, being the same age that Cook was upon his promotion, suggest he could lead the Cupertino giant for the next decade, much like Jobs and Cook before him.

In an open letter, Tim Cook thanked Apple users for their support and expressed confidence in Ternus's leadership.

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Tim Cook to step down as Apple CEO, hardware chief John Ternus takes the helm

 

[Squid Surprise]

Cook took an already wealthy company and made it more than 10 times wealthier… I suspect most companies would have been pretty pleased by that…

 

[NumberNine]

By Torag's hammer, look at the chin on him!

 

[ScottSoapbox]

To be fair to Steve, 350 billion is 1 trillion in today’s dollars.

But Tim did 4X the Apple money machine. He also made it a worse company alomg multiple metrics. But ya profits.

 

[Vixiy]

John Apple

 

[guillejp]

To be fair to Steve, 350 billion is 1 trillion in today’s dollars.

But Tim did 4X the Apple money machine. He also made it a worse company alomg multiple metrics. But ya profits.

Tim Cook didn't make it worse than it was by ANY metric, but in fact made it several times bigger and better, especially in the important ones like market share and profit in all divisions.

 

[JamesBlond]

To be fair to Steve, 350 billion is 1 trillion in today’s dollars.

But Tim did 4X the Apple money machine. He also made it a worse company alomg multiple metrics. But ya profits.

Profits over privacy

 

[TommyBoyFL]

Tim Cook didn't make it worse than it was by ANY metric, but in fact made it several times bigger and better, especially in the important ones like market share and profit in all divisions.

LOL

 

[Theinsanegamer]

So can we finally get MacOS on ipads and Vulkan support plz? Plz?

Tim Cook didn't make it worse than it was by ANY metric, but in fact made it several times bigger and better, especially in the important ones like market share and profit in all divisions.

removing any remaining repairability or upgradeability of their products.

Abandoning OpenGL 4.5+ and vulkan on MacOS

Pushing for soldered RAM/Storage

Locking down repairing of their hardware to their stores and employees

Fighting against sideloading

Allowing OSX to stagnate for years, losing the rendering and video production advantage to WINDOWS of all OSes.

I could go on. some of this has been reversed recently but Tims laser focus on iphones has atrophied much of the professional side of Apple.

 

[guillejp]

So can we finally get MacOS on ipads and Vulkan support plz? Plz?
removing any remaining repairability or upgradeability of their products.

Abandoning OpenGL 4.5+ and vulkan on MacOS

Pushing for soldered RAM/Storage

Locking down repairing of their hardware to their stores and employees

Fighting against sideloading

Allowing OSX to stagnate for years, losing the rendering and video production advantage to WINDOWS of all OSes.

I could go on. some of this has been reversed recently but Tims laser focus on iphones has atrophied much of the professional side of Apple.

No points there, key being "worse, than it already was".

 

[sentry66]

When Steve Jobs took over Apple, it was worth $2.5 billion, and ended at $350 billion, so 140x improvement vs Tim's 10x. Apple's greatest triumph under Tim was their transition to Arm CPUs. Otherwise, Apple pretty much coasted, not making much impact on anything

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Tim Cook didn't make it worse than it was by ANY metric, but in fact made it several times bigger and better, especially in the important ones like market share and profit in all divisions.

Did you even read my comment?

Yes Bigger revenue and profits and market cap.

NOT better. Lost multiple lawsuits about monopoly pressure and pricing in the App store. Liquid glass is terrible. Emojis over bug fixes. Siri is a joke. Nag ads to sign up for Apple services. Apple Maps just got ads. Line must go up so the enshitification must continue.

 

[Tech420]

I feel like people are really sad that he's stepping down because he brought us so many great products, but you have to remember it was a whole team of people he was leading that also was a huge part of it, so his legacy will live on with the policies he put in place, the people he inspired, and the products that they can build upon. I bet even though they lost a great leader, the others in the company can help bring the new leader up to his level and keep putting out amazing products