Apple CEO Tim Cook Stepping Down, John Ternus Taking Over

[I7guy]

That’s honestly a terrible argument lol

‘Name a better Intel Mac lineup’… bro you’re comparing 2026 Apple to its own decade-old stuff and acting like that’s a win. Of course it’s better… time moved forward. That’s not impressive, that’s the bare minimum.

The whole point is Apple has more control than ever under Tim Cook - their own chips, full ecosystem control… and somehow everything still feels safe and predictable. Faster? Sure. More exciting? Not really no

Absolutely exciting for me. Maybe product releases after 16 years have been old hat, but I am still excited about new products. Maybe you aren’t. That doesn’t mean apple isn’t producing and releasing exciting products. It means you may be jaded.

And asking what the political focus is just tells me you haven’t been paying attention. Apple has been loud on public/social/regulatory stuff for years while the products just get yearly spec bumps.

Yes apple has had to be political to navigate the world interests and somehow Tim has done a fantastic job at it. And those yearly spec bumps are potholes, not a little depression on the pavement.

No one’s saying the products are bad… they’re just not pushing anything anymore.

In your opinion.

Apple used to drop stuff that changed the game. Now it’s just ‘same thing, slightly better’ every year.

They still do.

If your best argument is ‘it’s better than 2016,’ you kinda proved my point😬

Not sure what your point is, but I dont agree much.

 

[CKoala]

Why’s everyone so hyped? Tim’s not going anywhere! 😂 Executive chairman is basically a promotion. Nothing major is changing without his say-so, expect the same as always. 😴🥱

 

[Winterpark]

Tim's departure is the best news I've heard in a long time. Long overdue.

 

[Winterpark]

End of an Era

And a really bad era at that

 

[Luftkopf]

I don't know why I'm surprised at the volume of ill will, bile, and general meanness in this thread.

 

[kazmac]

I haven’t been the biggest fan of Tim Cook (even more so over the last year), so I hope John will guide Apple into better waters with their OS and hardware.

If I can continue to use Apple products without AI (Opting out), then great.

Congratulations to John.

 

[Black Tiger]

Tim was and is awesome. Never understood the polarization. You’re all here aren’t you? Buying up their stuff? And yet the guy leading them failed? Come on. Get over the Steve Jobs keynotes. It was a different era.

 

[Fisheggs44]

Long overdue! Finally there's hope that just maybe the Apple devices will sync with each other and the M5 Mac Mini gets released.

 

[Steve Adams]

I don't know why I'm surprised at the volume of ill will, bile, and general meanness in this thread.

I wish nothing but health for Tim. But a change will do you good.

 

[falkon-engine]

As opposed to the colors on the iMac - which weren't a sign of things to come? ...or had already existed?

I don't think the iMac is relevant to this discussion about laptops. We'll just have to wait and see!

 

[Apple2007]

What's insane is he was literally like just last week giving interviews saying word for word "When it's time, I'll know" about his future at Apple.

I guess he knew.

 

[anotherappleuser65]

End of an Era

Yes, end of an era indeed. Should have ended years ago or better still never have begun. But hey, Cook isn’t going anywhere so it’s going to be no change whatsoever as Cook will still ultimately be in charge.

good, hopefully we actually see real change now

I hope you’re right but unfortunately Cook isn’t letting go and he’ll still be calling the shots. Cook should just bow out gracefully and allow Apple to move on and be a leader and game changer and not the ‘and also ran’ that they are now.

Apple names John Ternus CEO, replacing Tim Cook, who becomes chairman
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/20/apple-names-john-ternus-ceo-replacing-tim-cook-who-becomes-chairman.html?__source=iosappshare|com.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard

Just saw this on cnbc, nice 😎

All change but no change, Cook is still the puppet master.

 

[Fraserpatty]

Tim was and is awesome. Never understood the polarization. You’re all here aren’t you? Buying up their stuff? And yet the guy leading them failed? Come on. Get over the Steve Jobs keynotes. It was a different era.

While I agree with you in the main, although awesome is a superlative I would not use, I think he really really messed up about seeing how important artificial intelligence was going to be and being so far behind on it. That was a big miss.

 

[Steve Adams]

While I agree with you in the main, although awesome is a superlative I would not use, I think he really really messed up about seeing how important artificial intelligence was going to be and being so far behind on it. That was a big miss.

I think that's the one thing they did right. Ai is another fad, and a money pit. Smart to stay away and use someone else's.

 

[visualseed]

I disagree. Most of these companies tech savvy people will find the news interesting. But other than maybe meta and tesla the rest no one cares. Especially oracle, amazon, google, and IBM. The moment a company stops selling products and just starts selling “business solutions and cloud data infrastructure software” their CEO can literally be anybody and no one will care. Tesla matters only because elon musk is an Internet personality and Meta because the famous founder still runs it. But the moment these companies change hands, no one will care who their CEO is. I still believe that Apple and Disney are the only companies culturally relevant enough for people to care about CEO transitions. Right now it feels like a new pope has been selected at apple. If IBM got a new CEO there would be no message boards talking about it. Maybe google might fit here somewhere but I am stretching since google itself has also made CEO’s irrelevant.

Most people couldn’t tell you the CEOs of Oracle, Amazon, or IBM without looking them up.

 

[Abazigal]

While I agree with you in the main, although awesome is a superlative I would not use, I think he really really messed up about seeing how important artificial intelligence was going to be and being so far behind on it. That was a big miss.

Perhaps. My money is on this “miss” not really mattering all that much in the greater scheme of things.

 

[hugeloser]

On the contrary, your cop out reply is what’s cheap. I’m not asking you to come up with a product idea. I’m asking you to point to products from competitors, which have the right to be mentioned in the same sentence as iPod and iPhone. If not a single person in ALL tech companies in the world could come up with something, that’s a pretty high bar to set as a requirement.

AI is the obvious answer, but I feel we are both really talking about hardware products. What are the examples of competitor hardware that have put Apple to shame? That have ACTUALLY become successful while Apple sat on their hands, not just products that have shown potential but never really amounted to anything?

(I will make a prediction here: While people keep saying Android foldables show Apple is behind, what will actually happen is that because the foldable iPhone will not be the most sold iPhone, it will be labelled a failure).

Why r u looking at other companies middling on and lack of innovation as justification for Apple becoming just another company that releases a better camera on the iphone every year. You point to other companies as if to say look at them, they r also lazy billion dollar companies just existing. Yes I agree, I would just like if apple not turn into that type of company.

 

[Velli]

Why r u looking at other companies middling on and lack of innovation as justification for Apple becoming just another company that releases a better camera on the iphone every year. You point to other companies as if to say look at them, they r also lazy billion dollar companies just existing. Yes I agree, I would just like if apple not turn into that type of company.

I don’t think Apple is like those other companies, and I don’t think their lack of “a new iPhone” makes them like those other companies. People saying “Apple doesn’t innovate anymore” are the ones saying Apple is like other companies, not me.

What I am saying is, whoever is CEO won’t be Steve Jobs, because Steve Jobs is dead. It doesn’t make sense to measure his success compared to Steve Jobs, it only makes sense to compare him to what someone else who could potentially be in his place would have done. And I just don’t see anyone in any other company, or inside Apple, who would have brought more innovation than Cook did, and as long as no one can either point out things they didn’t do that others did, or come up with ideas themselves, I am dismissing their argument. Whether you agree with me on that, isn’t really my problem.

And yes, AI. I’m talking about hardware, as I already have pointed out earlier.

 

[Velli]

I don't know why I'm surprised at the volume of ill will, bile, and general meanness in this thread.

I guarantee you all the people raging over Cook being a bean-counter will be here mocking Ternus when the profit and share price goes down in a few years. All of a sudden it will be less about innovation and all about the money.

Haters gonna hate. People are just searching for the excuse, because it just feels so much more fulfilling to degrade someone.

 

[anotherappleuser65]

I don’t think Apple is like those other companies, and I don’t think their lack of “a new iPhone” makes them like those other companies. People saying “Apple doesn’t innovate anymore” are the ones saying Apple is like other companies, not me.

What I am saying is, whoever is CEO won’t be Steve Jobs, because Steve Jobs is dead. It doesn’t make sense to measure his success compared to Steve Jobs, it only makes sense to compare him to what someone else who could potentially be in his place would have done. And I just don’t see anyone in any other company, or inside Apple, who would have brought more innovation than Cook did, and as long as no one can either point out things they didn’t do that others did, or come up with ideas themselves, I am dismissing their argument. Whether you agree with me on that, isn’t really my problem.

And yes, AI. I’m talking about hardware, as I already have pointed out earlier.

I’d like to know what innovations brought to Apple, I’m asking this as a serious question. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

[hugeloser]

The CEO doesn’t get paid millions to come up with the innovative ideas. That’s the responsibility of those below him/her.

Who hires the ppl below the CEO?

I don’t think Apple is like those other companies, and I don’t think their lack of “a new iPhone” makes them like those other companies. People saying “Apple doesn’t innovate anymore” are the ones saying Apple is like other companies, not me.

What I am saying is, whoever is CEO won’t be Steve Jobs, because Steve Jobs is dead. It doesn’t make sense to measure his success compared to Steve Jobs, it only makes sense to compare him to what someone else who could potentially be in his place would have done. And I just don’t see anyone in any other company, or inside Apple, who would have brought more innovation than Cook did, and as long as no one can either point out things they didn’t do that others did, or come up with ideas themselves, I am dismissing their argument. Whether you agree with me on that, isn’t really my problem.

And yes, AI. I’m talking about hardware, as I already have pointed out earlier.

You're asking people to name something other people did better than apple and than shouting that they can't name the one thing that all the tech industry is focusing on currently and will be one of the most important parts of the industry in the coming years. You are saying: "No you can't say AI, plz guys don't say AI, Apple is hardware company and will always be so even if we have to shut our doors. Stop plz no one say AI. LALALA I can't hear you all. AI doesn't exist, those other tech companies are dumb and we can just ignore it here at Apple."

Sorry I disagree with your take. Whether you agree with me on that, isn’t really my problem.

 

[surferfb]

Who hires the ppl below the CEO?

Yes, the buck stops at the CEO, but I still contend that Cook has significantly less input into Apple’s supposed “lack of innovation” (which I personally think is baloney, but is popular to say on MacRumors) than those critical of Cook/recent Apple assume.

 

[I7guy]

Cook’ s product lines and services, and my opinion of each (YMMV):

Apple Pay (2014) - hit, real ‘out of the box’ thinking. Few instances of this since.
Apple Watch (2015) - hit, eventually. The rewriting of history to claim it was always a fitness product while conveniently forgetting the initial courting of the luxury fashion market (the Edition, the Galleries Lafayette pop-up, Angela Ahrendts, etc.) is typical Cook BS.
Apple Music (2015) - miss. iTunes + Beats Music still can’t overtake Spotify, arguably hugely overpaid for the latter too. And the App is still a buggy piece of crap.
iPad Pro (2015) - hit, initially to head off the Surface, latterly a magnificent piece of hardware. Still, really just a development of Jobs’ product that Jobs himself would never have approved. Which may be a good thing, or a bad thing.
Apple Pencil (2015) - hit. Steve didn’t stylus, Tim dared.
AirPods (2016) - slam-dunk, out-of-the-park hit.
HomePod (2017) - miss. A fatiguing listen, with a near-useless implementation of Siri; and being closed to all music services other than Apple Music is sheer stupidity. The later HomePod mini is however a spectacularly good audio product (albeit it still only works with Apple Music).
Apple TV+ (2019) - expensive miss (though with the occasional hit, and indeed Oscar!).
Apple Arcade (2019) - lazy miss. Courted the gaming sector, then decided they weren’t interested in putting in the hard yards. Just buy Nintendo, already!
Apple News+ (2019) - miss. Outside of Apple One, does anyone actually pay for this?
Apple Card (2019) - miss. Apple Pay it is not.
Apple Silicon/M1 (2020) - more epoch than hit, although it does have direct lineage back to PA Semi and the A4, therefore as much Jobs as Cook.
Apple Fitness+ (2020) - miss.
Apple One (2020) - miss.
AirPods Max (2020) - unsure; great product but massively overpriced, and with lazy as hell updates.
App Tracking Transparency (2021) - hit.
iCloud+ (2021) - unsure. Some great features, still way too buggy and overpriced compared to the competition.
AirTag/Find My network (2021) - big hit. Nefarious use cases cannot be blamed on Apple.
Apple Vision Pro (2024) - very large miss. Magnificent engineering but a $4000 tech demo/beta in search of a market.
Apple Intelligence (2025) - humongous, utterly embarrassing miss.
MacBook Neo (2026) - hit, but it’s just the new iBook, let’s be honest.

His various macOS, iOS and iPadOS updates are not listed. On those I will offer: the iOSsificaition of macOS has been a f ucking disaster; iOS and iPadOS continue to be brilliant under the hood but have barely innovated UI-wise since iOS 7 and have been going backwards UX-wise for some time now. System software should be a - if not the - priority for Jonny Appleseed.

Good list. HomePod - success as well as Apple Vision Pro for different reasons.

 

[Veinticinco]

The “not a product guy” doesn’t even have the good grace to shuffle off and give his successor a clean slate, without his grey visage lurking in the background, still sticking his nose into strategic and operational matters, and steering the board.

What practical purpose does retaining Cook actually serve Apple? We’ve seen what his “engage with stakeholders” skillset looks like and it was stomach-churning and hypocritical.

I bet Ternus privately wishes he’d just fu…erm, retire.

 

[citysnaps]

It is in their nature to hate. Nothing Apple does will ever appease them, because great products was never their objective to begin with.

Spot-on. Also... some people feel super empowered and feel good by publicly hating Apple and its CEO. Apparently because there's not much going on in their life that brings happiness.