Apple CEO Tim Cook Should Be Replaced, Research Firm Says

[257Loner]

What a load of hogwash! Tim Cook led Apple to becoming a $3 trillion company, and many new products were released during his leadership, like the Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro. Services like Apple Music and Apple TV+ were also grown during his leadership. Moreover, the Mac has been the best it has ever been.

I don't know who should lead next, but Tim Cook is the best leader Apple could have ever hoped for after Steve Jobs.

 

[TechTexan]

Honest question…how many of these did Cook actually envision? And how many ideas by others and were simply green lit under Tim’s watch.

I’ve always understood that Jobs for the most part, had a singular vision of the products he produced. Yes, we know he stole ideas from Xerox and of course he worked with Ive and others to get it to where he was happy with it. But whether it was the Mac, iPod, iMac, or iPhone, these were his pet projects where he was intimately involved from materials, to fonts, and every step of the way.

I don’t question Tim’s ability to ship products and make shareholders money. I just don’t see him as a ‘products’ guy in the way perhaps Steve was.

No corporation the size of Apple is a one man show. Apple has a massive research and development team. The listed accomplishments were all executed under Tim, not Steve which has been discussed many times before. He deserves the credit. In my opinion, the “M” series chip that crippled Intel is a massive win. It was fairly flawless transition also. No small feat.

 

[citysnaps]

What a load of hogwash! Tim Cook led Apple to becoming a $3 trillion company, and many new products were released during his leadership, like the Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro. Services like Apple Music and Apple TV+ were also grown during his leadership. Moreover, the Mac has been the best it has ever been.

I don't know who should lead next, but Tim Cook is the best leader Apple could have ever hoped for after Steve Jobs.

Spot-on. Apple's 1+ Billion active and repeat happy customers speaks volumes about Apple and its success under Cook. And making it one of the most successful consumer tech companies in the world.

I know that upsets many people here who *will never like Cook*, starting from when he became CEO back in 2011.

 

[Johnny907]

Sorry but the Human Dial Tone should never have been removed from logistics/COO where he belonged. He doesn’t have a single creative bone in his body and clearly stinks at human resource management given the talented individuals he has allowed to be poached in the last five years alone.
He’s a bean counter, pure and simple, which is FINE for his previous role at Apple, but he never should have been bumped to CEO and the current state of the company reflects that, stock price be darned.
A house of cards is lovely until it topples.

 

[jomartz]

Apple has grown to unbelievable heights in the past few years, creating a rather large lineup of products to gather most people's wallets and needs, but it is the 'lack' of innovation that bothers me the most. Gone are the days when every keynote introduced a revolutionary product. Nowadays, it's more about perfecting what we already have. Upgrading from a 2 or 3-generation-old iPhone or Mac no longer feels like a leap forward, just a more polished, smoother version of the same. While many people are focused on how Apple is lagging behind in AI, to me, that's not the real issue. It's the lack of new, groundbreaking ways of doing things.

 

[progx]

It's weird that Tim Cook fired the one guy that had a proper AI background right before the AI revolution. Get him back.

Yeah, then you can kiss anything that isn’t the iPhone goodbye. He famously wanted to discontinue the Mac.

 

[MonkeyT]

I'd like to see more product focus, but face it: production limits, imports, tariffs, and oh, so many petty grievances are all being scrambled by the orange lunatic currently in charge of everything international and financial. Fast, skilled logistical execution is the only true defense firmly within Apple's reach right now. Overturning that boat would be suicide.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Don’t forget the price rises for no reason.

If the new iPhone goes back to aluminium we need to see a price drop of at least £500 in the UK for Pro models.

why on earth would that happen?
even the titanium iPhones are mostly aluminum on the inside, that is far, far from the most costly component.
and this is why these comment sections are not where Apple should be picking their new CEO from lol.
imagine being the CEO and suggesting something like “ you know, just dropped the phone by $500. Just… Drop it. Make what was $1200 today $700 tomorrow… and watch the company crash.”

 

[I7guy]

Apple should definitely consider an overhaul. Tim may be a good operation guy but he is far behind the guys like Nadella.

Tim’s milk-customers-like-cow strategy has finally worn me out and I am switxhing to Galaxy Fold 7 after using iPhone from 3G until 15.

Can you elaborate more about “Tim’s milk-customer-like-cow-strategy”?

 

[PTVMan]

Consultants are not paid to conclude that things should stay the same.

 

[bluecoast]

I think that Tim Cook was amazing in succeeding Steve Jobs.

Let's give him huge huge credit for managing to scale Apple up, the Watch and the Mx class Macs.

He was superb in executing on Jobs vision, inspecting and adapting it as the years went on.

Now with GenAI, we really are entering a different age of computing. And Apple seems to be desperately behind its peers.

Yes it's making lots of money, but does Apple feel like it will be thriving in 5 years time as GenAI keeps on getting more capable and being imbued throughout all of tech? I'm not so sure.

Google is remaking itself into an AI first company and is taking a huge risk on upsetting its search dominance. But evidently it feels that it will be disrupted and it intends to disrupt itself.

Apple seems largely the same, milking and slowly evolving the iPhone and its platforms and protecting the App Store and its services (to the detriment of developer relations and relationships with legislators across the world). The glasses I'm sure will be great hardware. But GenAI will be the 'secret sauce' in all tech, and Apple doesn't seem to be even close to having this.

The very real risk is that Apple will be less like Blackberry, but more like Sony. It will make some really really nice hardware with a great UX (OK, Sony doesn't do good UX but you get my analogy!). But hardware that is not essential. And where the value and the 'secret sauce' is both controlled by another company.

So I think that Tim Cook should be thanked, but it's time now for him to reshuffle the executive ranks (and the ageing board) and start to bring up people who were not part of the Steve Jobs era and to bring in a product focussed CEO and who can bring Apple forward into a new era.

 

[KBallweg]

Analysts are the financial world's equivalent of psychics like Miss Cleo. "Pay me to blow smoke up your skirt please."

 

[YuniHKim]

I really agree with the article in other reason. He turned all the Apple products to Android devices and all of Apple products’ characteristics have been erased. Too much complexity on settings and intuitive UI’s nowhere to find now.

 

[SlaveToSwift]

Sorry but the Human Dial Tone should never have been removed from logistics/COO where he belonged. He doesn’t have a single creative bone in his body and clearly stinks at human resource management given the talented individuals he has allowed to be poached in the last five years alone.
He’s a bean counter, pure and simple, which is FINE for his previous role at Apple, but he never should have been bumped to CEO and the current state of the company reflects that, stock price be darned.
A house of cards is lovely until it topples.

A house of cards that’s tripled sales, returned a trillion to shareholders in last decade alone, and has best products in its history?

Ok boomer.

 

[SlaveToSwift]

I think that Tim Cook was amazing in succeeding Steve Jobs.

Let's give him huge huge credit for managing to scale Apple up, the Watch and the Mx class Macs.

He was superb in executing on Jobs vision, inspecting and adapting it as the years went on.

Now with GenAI, we really are entering a different age of computing. And Apple seems to be desperately behind its peers.

Yes it's making lots of money, but does Apple feel like it will be thriving in 5 years time as GenAI keeps on getting more capable and being imbued throughout all of tech? I'm not so sure.

Google is remaking itself into an AI first company and is taking a huge risk on upsetting its search dominance. But evidently it feels that it will be disrupted and it intends to disrupt itself.

Apple seems largely the same, milking and slowly evolving the iPhone and its platforms and protecting the App Store and its services (to the detriment of developer relations and relationships with legislators across the world). The glasses I'm sure will be great hardware. But GenAI will be the 'secret sauce' in all tech, and Apple doesn't seem to be even close to having this.

The very real risk is that Apple will be less like Blackberry, but more like Sony. It will make some really really nice hardware with a great UX (OK, Sony doesn't do good UX but you get my analogy!). But hardware that is not essential. And where the value and the 'secret sauce' is both controlled by another company.

So I think that Tim Cook should be thanked, but it's time now for him to reshuffle the executive ranks (and the ageing board) and start to bring up people who were not part of the Steve Jobs era and to bring in a product focussed CEO and who can bring Apple forward into a new era.

AI is just getting started. Apple has plenty of time. As usual it will arrive later with better.

 

[delsoul]

Analysts are the financial world's equivalent of psychics like Miss Cleo. "Pay me to blow smoke up your skirt please."

So, basically Kuo and Gurman 😂

 

[SlaveToSwift]

Can you elaborate more about “Tim’s milk-customer-like-cow-strategy”?

Something about Apple products being too expensive except that MacBook Pros are now the same price as Windows laptops while offering higher performance and longer battery life.

 

[SlaveToSwift]

Apple has grown to unbelievable heights in the past few years, creating a rather large lineup of products to gather most people's wallets and needs, but it is the 'lack' of innovation that bothers me the most. Gone are the days when every keynote introduced a revolutionary product. Nowadays, it's more about perfecting what we already have. Upgrading from a 2 or 3-generation-old iPhone or Mac no longer feels like a leap forward, just a more polished, smoother version of the same. While many people are focused on how Apple is lagging behind in AI, to me, that's not the real issue. It's the lack of new, groundbreaking ways of doing things.

You suffer from the Mandela effect. Steve Jobs only introduced two “revolutionary” products in 30 years, the Mac and the iPhone.

Revolutionary products creating massive new categories come sling once in a blue moon. And Apple has one on the way, in Vision Pro. It’s the Lisa to a future Mac version that’s sells for under $1500 and replaces all big screen monitors for creative professionals.

In the meantime, Cook introduced Apple Watch, AirPods, TouchID, FaceId, AirTags, HomePods, and turn Apple Silicon into the monster it is today, not only powering the highest performance and longest battery life PCs in the business, but fastest phones and all the way down to best watches, Bluetooth headphones and even AirTags.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Honest question…how many of these did Cook actually envision? And how many ideas by others and were simply green lit under Tim’s watch.

I’ve always understood that Jobs for the most part, had a singular vision of the products he produced. Yes, we know he stole ideas from Xerox and of course he worked with Ive and others to get it to where he was happy with it. But whether it was the Mac, iPod, iMac, or iPhone, these were his pet projects where he was intimately involved from materials, to fonts, and every step of the way.

I don’t question Tim’s ability to ship products and make shareholders money. I just don’t see him as a ‘products’ guy in the way perhaps Steve was.

your view of Steve Jobs is completely wrong.
his involvement depended on the products, just like Tim.
The first iPod, for example, Tony was the one that found out about the mini hard drives, all of the software on the first iPod was actually provided by a third-party company, iTunes was purchased an originally called SoundJam, Phil Schiller came up with the idea of the click wheel, Johnny and Steve worked on the design together and Tim obviously turned the prototypes into a real mass produced product.
but there is a reason that people call Tony Fadell the Godfather of the iPod, not Steve Jobs. Because it was Tony’s baby.
Steve saw, guided and obviously had plenty of input on the product, but it certainly was not all his.
likewise, Tim Cook apparently has different involvement with different products. The Apple Watch, for example, he was apparently extremely passionate about and was one of the biggest proponents of them, adding more and more and more health features because he himself is a bit of a health nut.

 

[wigby]

Can you wait another five years for an Apple folding phone though?

I can but Apple hasn't tried to sell me one yet either. There is nothing to get excited about until Apple makes me excited about folding phones. Maybe in a few years.

 

[wigby]

Unless that person adds massive iCloud storage for same price and does other things to appease customers over the boards etc. guaranteed.

People that want Cook out are not looking for good deals. Good deals erode Apple's brand value. People want innovation and excitement that Jobs brought them. But that excitement wears off quickly when the share value becomes a rollercoaster ride. APPL stock has been rocksteady over the past 15 years because of Cook. Investors are just greedy because they see Nvidia hitting $4 trillion and think that AAPL should be doing that instead.

 

[CapitalIdea]

Apple was so far ahead of everyone else for so many years, and now that they are matured suddenly they are “lagging behind” because some other companies invested in a separate AI company? Okay.

 

[I7guy]

Something about Apple products being too expensive except that MacBook Pros are now the same price as Windows laptops while offering higher performance and longer battery life.

Expensive or overpriced is a judgment call. I personally do think Apple products are expensive for the quality and support. Therefore I do nt agree with the ops opinion.

 

[ShinyApps]

Research firm LightShed partners says Apple should consider replacing Tim Cook as CEO, but the change is unlikely to occur any time soon.

In a note to clients seen by Bloomberg, analysts Walter Piecyk and Joe Galone say that "Apple now needs a product-focused CEO, not one centered on logistics."

Bloomberg notes that Apple shares have "badly lagged" behind rivals like Microsoft and Meta this year after losing ground in the race to deliver compelling artificial intelligence features. Apple shares have fallen 16% in 2025, compared with gains of 25% for Meta and 19% for Microsoft. The note added:



It is worth noting that this year's slump in Apple shares is a comparative blip in the company's long-term performance with Cook at the helm. Apple shares have gained over 1,400% since Cook started as CEO, compared to 430% for the S&P 500.

The comments come after Apple announced that Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams will step down from his position this month. He will be replaced by Sabih Khan.

Williams was once thought to be Cook's most likely successor. Now, senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus is believed to be the frontrunner. LightShed says "Tim Cook was the right CEO at the time of his appointment and unquestionably has done a great job," but in the wake of Williams' departure, "it's time for more disruptive change, not less."

However, Cook is unlikely to step down anytime soon. In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that "there's no immediate successor ready to take the helm. There also haven't been signs internally that Cook is getting ready to leave or begin the process of grooming a replacement."

More significantly, "the board doesn't feel the need to make a change. Apple's directors are Cook loyalists like Arthur Levinson, Susan Wagner and Ronald Sugar." Gurman says:



In fact, Cook's influence at Apple may grow. Gurman believes he could become Apple's chairman, in addition to his role as CEO:



Nevertheless, Apple apparently recognizes the need for change at the company. Senior executives such as services chief Eddy Cue have warned that Apple risks becoming the next BlackBerry or Nokia if it doesn't adapt quickly.

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Article Link: Apple CEO Tim Cook Should Be Replaced, Research Firm Says

People need to relax

 

[Mega ST]

Cook is good at improving profits and milking existing products. However his new stuff products do not always shine. SIRI, maps, the car, AI, the glasses. Maybe Apple finally needs more of a technology minded person again? I'd say some pioneer super user (Jobs style) plus hardware and AI background knowledge. The emotional side of predicting what product or software people will WANT to use and buy is underdeveloped today it seems. This "avantgarde factor" Apple once had (breakthrough smaller sized, first time application of some technological innovation, devices much more capable, pioneering a new branch or genre, making things much easier to use, super elegant styling and such- however at a higher price).
Having said that I very much like the current MBP's M4 MAX perfection, typing on it.