Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Stepping Down, John Ternus Taking Over

Been a long run with Cook. Lots of ups and downs, but I do think that he leaves Apple in a good position for the future, certainly they have the financial means to carry on. Now it's up to John to hopefully clean up some of the mistakes that have been made, largely in the software department, and capitalize on the hardware successes. If this can be done, the future definitely looks bright for Apple.

Screen Shot 2026-04-20 at 9.13.11 PM.png

Just to serve as a reminder for how long Cook has been CEO, the Apple website from the day Cook was appointed CEO, August 24, 2011. Different times.
 
Now let’s see what happens… Will we see a trimming of devices or will we see a 3D Printer and other offshoot nonsense brought to market
 
sjsharksfan12 said:
But it has seen great improvements under the Cook era.
Click to expand...
It doesn't have AI or any significant health features. I mean yeah, there's single-lead EKG and heart rate monitoring. I thought we were supposed to get A1C and temperature monitoring? I want the Apple Watch to be able to tell someone when they're having a heart attack or a if my blood sugar is low.
 
eoblaed said:
Wow. Cook oversaw a massive growth in Apple during his tenure. So far, the numbers look like:

From fiscal 2011 (the year Cook took over as CEO) to fiscal 2025 (the latest full fiscal year), Apple's growth looks like this:
  • Revenue: $108.2B → $416.2B (3.85x)
  • Net income: $25.9B → $112.0B (4.32x)
  • R&D spend: $2.4B → $34.6B (14.4x)
  • Services / digital-content-type revenue: from about $5.4B in 2011 to $109.2B in 2025 (20.2x)
That'll be a tough act to follow. Rooting for Ternus!
Click to expand...
Don’t forget he was there during Covid
 
  • Like
Reactions: eoblaed and transpo1
This is actually a well calculated move, somebody needs to deal with all the politics of the world and it's probably taking too much time off the the CEO's. Now lets talk about Ternus, is he a product guy? is he gonna be able to bring his own team and come up with exciting products themselves want to use?
 
  • Like
Reactions: transpo1
Cook was a safe, boring choice and Apple under him was safe and boring.

Hopefully this new dude brings some of the magic back to the company.
 
7thheaven said:
While I have nothing against Tim as a person, and I think he seems like an amazing person; it’s his business decisions that have bothered me. When Steve Jobs was alive, I LOVED his business decisions. He made a lot of aggressive decisions with excellent vision of needs for consumers. And ironically, he was not the nicest person to some people (reminds me of someone currently in high leadership.. HA); but his decisions were VERY effective for Apple, and consumers. When Tim took over, he generally did a great job executing Steve’s vision for Apple. But as time went on, and the Steve Jobs checklist was achieved, Tim lacked an aggressive vision for the future in some areas of the ecosystem; and that lack of vision started showing itself more and more each year. When Tim purchased “Beats” for $3 BILLION!!!!, it was a sign of weakness. While Beats had a nice product, with some star power behind it, Steve Jobs (or Me) would have directed our R&D to create a better version of Beats, then hire star power to promote it, and out marketed them, out distributed them; and achieved that for 10% of the cost; saving 90% of the $3 billion. When Tim could not effectively manage the 20 different sku’s; where the company was efficiently stocked for the holiday quarter, and did not have sold out products during the holiday quarter; when we have enough metrics to know, to not fail at that. We know when the holiday season is, for about 100 years. We have seen enough sales trends on market, to know the manufacturing pace to hit the metric. Apple could take 1% of the profitability, and hire 50,000 workers in 5 markets - America, Mexico, India, China and Vietnam. Doing this would help the effective footprint to all global markets efficiently to cover regions, with little shipping costs. It also would help balance manufacturing if/when there are labor disputes and global issues (wars, earthquakes, labor issues, taxing issues, etc..). Then we turn to product timelines. When Steve Jobs was alive, I witnessed how he mastered the product release timeline. 1- The build up, people lined up everywhere around the world. 2 - Steve personally showed the world the new product to a live audience. 3 - It was available, starting today (or within a week). 4 - The inventory was there to satisfy the high demand. 5 - The media was all over the event and product, essentially giving Apple FREE media, globally, for each new product Apple released. 6 - Marketing, TV ads, billboards hit aggressively. 7 - The financials showed on the balance sheet in one quarter, effectively proving the impact of the new product. A full cycle of product to market. When Tim took over, that entire algorithm was diluted in various financial quarters, and the impact was also diluted. I am surprised no-one around him pointed that out to him.


I tried to inform Apple, but my message was denied when I sent it in. Now let’s go to developers, when Steve was alive, Steve understood the marriage of developers with manufactures with the Apple OS. The excellent communication helped the entire ecosystem thrive with amazing growth across the board. When we look at that today, Tim’s lack of executing that has directly affected the pace of growth. It also has impacted the effectiveness of the ecosystem, where it seems like it’s going backwards in SOME software aspects. When Tim makes decisions to lock out developers with some technologies, then the end user suffers. Not everything Tim has done was bad, but his batting average needed improvement. It has A LOT of impact on WHY the Apple stock has been stalled. Apple SHOULD be over $400 by now, and should have had another split. But consistent volume influx has stalled that growth as well. Let’s look at products. Apple should not have ended the MacPro. The MacPro ecosystem is full of content creators. Music, Video and High End Graphic users, that wan PCI slots for daughterboard cards to run their systems. (I am one of those users, that has two MacPros for those things, with PCI slot needs). The iPhone should be offered in a smaller size, for those who do not want a large phone. The Apple Vision Pro came in at a too-high price point, and that product was a flop. The AppleTV has not been updated in too long, and is WAY late for a refresh. Let’s go to software. The OS has taxed the chip sets, on older macs with memory leaks, and slowed any mac older than a year, down. The AppleTV software is getting worse and worse with every update. To have to dig for your assets, is stupid. Consumers should not have to dig thru numerous pages, to get to content; it should be on page one. iTunes has become bloated, with a confusing navigation/search aspect for what you want to hear. Is it streaming on. Apple music? Is it in your library? Are you buying a song? Are you just streaming it? Search re-directs you to who knows where. A mess. And speaking of Apple TV and iTunes, a HUGE issue Tim has allowed, is the mismanagement of copyright content people have purchased from Apple. A purchase of content is a closed transaction. The distributors have been paid in in the transaction (Apple and the entity owning the copyright Sr, and then the artist, or whoever owns the copyright PA). The PURCHASE is a closed, final transaction. BUT, Apple has been quietly taking some of those purchase assets back from people, without their knowledge, and then does not refund the purchase. This defies copyright law. And Tim has allowed that to happen. It is just a matter of time until a class action lawsuit comes to light on that action. So those are just SOME of my issues with Apple. I have studied numerous metrics on Apple for over 25 years. I understand their ecosystem better than most. I think like Steve Jobs. I own, and operate 15 vertically integrated companies; and I understand effective utilization of how that operates. I always understood Steve’s vision, even before he said his vision, based on his prior actions to announcements. Apple is a monster corporation because of Steve’s aggressive approach. His ability to see vertical utilization on ecosystems, that can connect to a nucleus within Apple. I really hope the new CEO understands how Apple has to utilized. Build talent around the company, and effectively progress with vision. Apple has a lot of life left in it, it just needs someone to bring it to life. I could easily fix that companies directives. Hopefully the next CEO achieves that, and stays focused. One thing Tim did great is, The MacBook Neo is Tim’s best achievement he has brought to market. So, I am glad to see Tim head into retirement. Thanks for taking care of Apple, but the time has come to kick Apple into high gear.

Richard Hofherr
Click to expand...

Disagree about Beats. When they bought them I thought, 'what are they doing'? But I've come to realise I was wrong, and it was a successful acquisition. They got the software which morphed into Apple Music, they eliminated a competitor, they picked up a company which was generating about $1.5 bilion in annual revenue, connections with labels, and inherited bluetooth wireless tech. People often forget Apple wasn't producing wireless headphones when they bought Beats, whereas Beats already did.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: jonahj, bluecoast, HuskerNKS and 4 others
Churchman said:
Apple has had a few CEOs not named Jobs.

Sculley
Spindler
Amelio

When Steve Jobs first held the CEO spot, Apple was an infant company.

When those others were CEO, and when Steve came back the 2nd time, there was very deep fear, uncertainty, doubt, and existential dread expecting Apple’s impending failure. I recall Michael Dell’s statement about Apple’s condition back then. Pretty bad.

Only 2X in Apple’s history has there been a CEO transition in which the exiting CEO left the company financially stronger, and with an exceptional and recognized product line, and globally admired, such that the new CEO could come in free of worry to dramatically grow that foundation.

- Steve Jobs as CEO the 2nd time … passing a very revitalized Apple CEO role to Tim Cook.
- Tim Cook who has made orders of magnitude larger, more dominant, more integrated, and wealthier than when Steve passed the role to him. Tim Cook is passing an exceptionally stable and healthy CEO role to John Ternus.

It is quite an accomplishment. Only 2 Apple CEOs have succeeded to this degree and Tim is the second.

Ternus is now in a honey position… a great if not comfortable position to come in and direct or guide Apple in its next era. Cook has done a 4 trillion times better for his successor than Sculley, Spindler, or Amelio did.

I applaud Tim Cook. Few could do what he has done.
Click to expand...

iMac The Knife said:
Steve Jobs wasn't ever the CEO of Apple until he rejoined in 1997, FYI.
Click to expand...
My bad.

Thanks!
 
Let’s stop comparing Tim Cook to Steve Jobs. Compare him to all the other Apple CEOs. Anyone else buy a “Power Computing” machine after Apple licensed their operating system out?
 
AndiG said:
Hopefully this ends the era of bean counting.
Click to expand...

Don't dismiss Cook's supply chain prowess. Jobs put him in charge of that because he knew Apple didn't want excess stock sitting around. That bean counting has its place in a company like Apple.

That said, a bean counter in the CEO role isn't what Apple needs. I've said before (and I still believe this to be true) that I think Jobs pushed Cook into the role because he knew Cook would be a good steward. But he probably expected the other members of the leadership team to step up in the areas Cook lacked in. I don't think it played out the way Jobs expected, and I suspect Cook stayed on longer than Jobs would have liked. All speculation, of course.
 
  • Like
Reactions: johnsawyercjs
7thheaven said:
While I have nothing against Tim as a person, and I think he seems like an amazing person; it’s his business decisions that have bothered me. When Steve Jobs was alive, I LOVED his business decisions. He made a lot of aggressive decisions with excellent vision of needs for consumers. And ironically, he was not the nicest person to some people (reminds me of someone currently in high leadership.. HA); but his decisions were VERY effective for Apple, and consumers. When Tim took over, he generally did a great job executing Steve’s vision for Apple. But as time went on, and the Steve Jobs checklist was achieved, Tim lacked an aggressive vision for the future in some areas of the ecosystem; and that lack of vision started showing itself more and more each year. When Tim purchased “Beats” for $3 BILLION!!!!, it was a sign of weakness. While Beats had a nice product, with some star power behind it, Steve Jobs (or Me) would have directed our R&D to create a better version of Beats, then hire star power to promote it, and out marketed them, out distributed them; and achieved that for 10% of the cost; saving 90% of the $3 billion. When Tim could not effectively manage the 20 different sku’s; where the company was efficiently stocked for the holiday quarter, and did not have sold out products during the holiday quarter; when we have enough metrics to know, to not fail at that. We know when the holiday season is, for about 100 years. We have seen enough sales trends on market, to know the manufacturing pace to hit the metric. Apple could take 1% of the profitability, and hire 50,000 workers in 5 markets - America, Mexico, India, China and Vietnam. Doing this would help the effective footprint to all global markets efficiently to cover regions, with little shipping costs. It also would help balance manufacturing if/when there are labor disputes and global issues (wars, earthquakes, labor issues, taxing issues, etc..). Then we turn to product timelines. When Steve Jobs was alive, I witnessed how he mastered the product release timeline. 1- The build up, people lined up everywhere around the world. 2 - Steve personally showed the world the new product to a live audience. 3 - It was available, starting today (or within a week). 4 - The inventory was there to satisfy the high demand. 5 - The media was all over the event and product, essentially giving Apple FREE media, globally, for each new product Apple released. 6 - Marketing, TV ads, billboards hit aggressively. 7 - The financials showed on the balance sheet in one quarter, effectively proving the impact of the new product. A full cycle of product to market. When Tim took over, that entire algorithm was diluted in various financial quarters, and the impact was also diluted. I am surprised no-one around him pointed that out to him.


I tried to inform Apple, but my message was denied when I sent it in. Now let’s go to developers, when Steve was alive, Steve understood the marriage of developers with manufactures with the Apple OS. The excellent communication helped the entire ecosystem thrive with amazing growth across the board. When we look at that today, Tim’s lack of executing that has directly affected the pace of growth. It also has impacted the effectiveness of the ecosystem, where it seems like it’s going backwards in SOME software aspects. When Tim makes decisions to lock out developers with some technologies, then the end user suffers. Not everything Tim has done was bad, but his batting average needed improvement. It has A LOT of impact on WHY the Apple stock has been stalled. Apple SHOULD be over $400 by now, and should have had another split. But consistent volume influx has stalled that growth as well. Let’s look at products. Apple should not have ended the MacPro. The MacPro ecosystem is full of content creators. Music, Video and High End Graphic users, that wan PCI slots for daughterboard cards to run their systems. (I am one of those users, that has two MacPros for those things, with PCI slot needs). The iPhone should be offered in a smaller size, for those who do not want a large phone. The Apple Vision Pro came in at a too-high price point, and that product was a flop. The AppleTV has not been updated in too long, and is WAY late for a refresh. Let’s go to software. The OS has taxed the chip sets, on older macs with memory leaks, and slowed any mac older than a year, down. The AppleTV software is getting worse and worse with every update. To have to dig for your assets, is stupid. Consumers should not have to dig thru numerous pages, to get to content; it should be on page one. iTunes has become bloated, with a confusing navigation/search aspect for what you want to hear. Is it streaming on. Apple music? Is it in your library? Are you buying a song? Are you just streaming it? Search re-directs you to who knows where. A mess. And speaking of Apple TV and iTunes, a HUGE issue Tim has allowed, is the mismanagement of copyright content people have purchased from Apple. A purchase of content is a closed transaction. The distributors have been paid in in the transaction (Apple and the entity owning the copyright Sr, and then the artist, or whoever owns the copyright PA). The PURCHASE is a closed, final transaction. BUT, Apple has been quietly taking some of those purchase assets back from people, without their knowledge, and then does not refund the purchase. This defies copyright law. And Tim has allowed that to happen. It is just a matter of time until a class action lawsuit comes to light on that action. So those are just SOME of my issues with Apple. I have studied numerous metrics on Apple for over 25 years. I understand their ecosystem better than most. I think like Steve Jobs. I own, and operate 15 vertically integrated companies; and I understand effective utilization of how that operates. I always understood Steve’s vision, even before he said his vision, based on his prior actions to announcements. Apple is a monster corporation because of Steve’s aggressive approach. His ability to see vertical utilization on ecosystems, that can connect to a nucleus within Apple. I really hope the new CEO understands how Apple has to utilized. Build talent around the company, and effectively progress with vision. Apple has a lot of life left in it, it just needs someone to bring it to life. I could easily fix that companies directives. Hopefully the next CEO achieves that, and stays focused. One thing Tim did great is, The MacBook Neo is Tim’s best achievement he has brought to market. So, I am glad to see Tim head into retirement. Thanks for taking care of Apple, but the time has come to kick Apple into high gear.

Richard Hofherr
Click to expand...

Why your message was denied has me stumped.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: ThrawnTHX and brucemr
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back