Apple turns page to John Ternus as next CEO, Tim Cook to step down on Sep 1

Apple Inc Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook will hand leadership to hardware chief John Ternus on September 1, ending a 15-year run that built a $4 trillion behemoth. Cook, 65, will become executive chairman. Ternus, 50, faces a slow progress in artificial intelligence, technology that promises to transform the way consumers use devices.

 

Hardware focus in AI age

 

Ternus inherits a company that has already solved for size. The challenge now is to define Apple’s next phase of growth. 

• Enter, Ternus: He joined Apple in 2001, and rose through hardware engineering, not operations or finance
• Device boss: He is leading hardware engineering since 2021, overseeing iPhone, iPad and Mac development
• Silicon shift: Has played a key role in moving Macs off Intel, bringing chip design in-house
• What he inherits: A business heavily tied to the iPhone, with growth increasingly dependent on extensions rather than new categories

 

Tasks at hand

 

• The AI shift: Rivals have moved aggressively into AI, investing in models and infrastructure; Apple’s device-led approach is riddled with delayed rollouts
• Next category bets: Work is underway on AI-led wearables, smart home devices and a foldable iPhone, but none yet match the scale of past breakthroughs
• Execution vs invention: The company’s strength has been discipline and consistency. The next phase may demand risk and speed.

 

 

On his watch

 

• 699% jump in net income to $112 billion (as of Sep 2025)
• Services share in revenue now over 26%, against below 9% in 2012 
• 2.5 billion active devices
• 200 stores added; total count now at 540
• $1,070 the current average iPhone selling price, against $712 in 2011
• 166,000 global employees; millions more employed in production and supply chains

 

What he ‘cooked’

 

• Apple Watch (2015): It pushed Apple into health and fitness, building a new wearables category
• AirPods (2016): One of Apple’s most widely adopted products
• Apple Silicon (M1 onwards, 2020): In-house designed chip helped better control over the product road map
• Services: Apple Music, TV+, and iCloud  turned hardware ownership into recurring revenue streams

 

Source: Agencies