Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner is poised to retire as early as subsequent 12 months after 14 years on the helm, in accordance with a Monetary Occasions report final week citing a number of nameless firm insiders. Rumblings about Prepare dinner’s exit come amid accelerated succession planning by the board and senior executives, the report says.
Some observers counsel Prepare dinner, 65, might not step away fully, however might transition into a job as chairman of the board. Others, together with Bloomberg editor Mark Gurman, consider the leak from unnamed insiders could also be an intentional effort to organize the marketplace for a serious management shift. Most specialists don’t anticipate any modifications earlier than Apple’s subsequent earnings launch in January, however say a handoff might happen forward of its mid-2026 developer convention and product launches.
What’s clear is that Prepare dinner, who succeeded Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011, is nearing the tip of his run as Apple’s longest-serving CEO, placing renewed consideration on each his legacy and the query of who comes subsequent.
Tim Prepare dinner’s unparalleled legacy
Apple’s development beneath Prepare dinner has been staggering. The corporate’s market capitalization stood at $350 billion when he took over 14 years in the past. Immediately, it’s approaching $4 trillion—greater than an elevenfold improve. For comparability, the S&P 500 rose simply over 460 % in the identical interval.
Only a 12 months into the job, Prepare dinner restructured Apple’s management staff, dismissing senior vp of retail John Browett and accepting the resignation of Scott Forstall, then senior vp of iOS. He redistributed lots of their tasks to present leaders in an effort to ease inner tensions.
Prepare dinner has overseen the discharge of 48 iPhone variants—from the long-lasting iPhone 4 in 2011 to the daring iPhone 17 Professional this September—whereas steering the launch of main new product strains together with the MacBook Professional, Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. Beneath his management, Apple additionally launched the M-series silicon chips, a multiyear transition that reshaped the efficiency and vitality effectivity of the Mac lineup and reasserted Apple’s dominance in {hardware} design.
Past gadgets, Prepare dinner supercharged Apple’s companies enterprise, increasing the App Retailer ecosystem and launching new choices reminiscent of Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple Health+ and Apple Pay. These companies have grown right into a multibillion-dollar pillar of Apple’s enterprise, serving to the corporate diversify its income streams and construct one of the vital highly effective subscription ecosystems on this planet.
Prepare dinner has turned Apple into “essentially the most beneficial enterprise on this planet whereas maintaining its merchandise central to on a regular basis life,” Natalie Andreas, communication administration professor on the College of Texas, instructed Observer.
Nonetheless, Apple faces criticism for lagging behind rivals within the synthetic intelligence arms race, at the same time as its Apple Intelligence options roll out slowly. Most of the capabilities stay in beta. In the meantime, Bloomberg stories that Apple has shelved plans for a extra reasonably priced, lighter Imaginative and prescient Professional headset (codenamed N100) and is as an alternative diverting assets towards constructing A.I.-powered sensible glasses that immediately goal Meta’s Ray-Ban-style gadgets.
“Whoever takes the reins will face large challenges in synthetic intelligence, immersive applied sciences just like the Imaginative and prescient Professional, and growing world regulation,” Andreas stated.
Tim Prepare dinner’s successor
John Ternus, Apple’s senior vp of {hardware} engineering and a direct report back to Prepare dinner, is broadly considered because the main candidate for the highest job.
Ternus has been at Apple for greater than twenty years. He joined the product design staff in 2001 after working as a mechanical engineer at Digital Analysis Techniques. In 2013, Ternus was promoted to vp of {hardware} engineering beneath Dan Riccio, overseeing growth throughout the iPad, Mac, and AirPods product strains. By 2020, he had taken on duty for the iPhone {hardware}, and in January 2021, he succeeded Riccio as senior vp of {hardware} engineering. In late 2022, his purview expanded additional when he was put answerable for Apple Watch {hardware}.
Beneath his management, Ternus has performed a pivotal function in a few of Apple’s most formidable {hardware} efforts, together with the transition of Mac computer systems to Apple Silicon. He has additionally usually appeared at main Apple occasions, presenting new iMacs, MacBook Execs, redesigned iPads and different flagship gadgets.
Ternus is “one of many few leaders inside the corporate who blends engineering depth with the identical person-first philosophy Apple was constructed on,” Steven Athwal, founder and CEO of The Massive Telephone Retailer, a refurbished tech gadget firm, instructed Observer.
“He’s charismatic and well-regarded by Apple loyalists and trusted by Prepare dinner,” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has written.“Apple most likely wants extra of a technologist than a gross sales or operations individual.”
Ternus has additionally begun taking a extra public, outward-facing function. He has appeared at high-profile product launches and greeted clients, together with throughout the iPhone 17 launch in London. At 50 years previous, he’s about the identical age Tim Prepare dinner was when he turned CEO — a symbolic level typically raised in succession discussions.
