Today marks the end of Tim Cook’s 15-year tenure as Apple’s chief executive officer. From September 1, John Ternus, who has worked at the company for nearly 25 years and in recent years has been responsible for developing its hardware, will become the new CEO of one of the world’s largest technology giants, UNN reports.
Cook himself is not leaving Apple: he will become executive chairman of the board of directors and retain involvement in the company’s strategic management.
Details
Apple officially announced the upcoming leadership change on April 20. The board of directors unanimously approved Ternus’s appointment, and the company described the transition as the result of long-term succession planning. Until the end of the summer, Cook continued to serve as CEO and worked with his successor on the transfer of responsibilities.
15 years at the helm of Apple
Tim Cook joined Apple in 1998, when the company was just emerging from one of the most difficult periods in its history. Before that, he worked at Compaq and IBM, specializing primarily in operations management, manufacturing, and logistics. At Apple, Cook became one of the key figures who restructured the company’s global supply chain. Before being appointed CEO, he served as chief operating officer and was responsible for international sales, operations, supply, and service.
Cook became Apple’s CEO in August 2011 after the company’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, stepped down due to health problems. At the time, Cook had a reputation as a strong operations manager, but he was not a product visionary in the style of Jobs. As a result, following the leadership change, there was no shortage of doubt about whether Apple could maintain its pace of development after the person directly associated with the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.
The following 15 years showed that Apple’s model had changed. The company did not abandon the iPhone as its main product, but significantly expanded the business around it and other devices.
From the Apple Watch to in-house processors
During Cook’s tenure, Apple entered several new product categories. The company launched the Apple Watch, AirPods, and the Apple Vision Pro headset, while also significantly expanding its existing iPhone, iPad, and Mac product lines.
At the same time, an increasingly large services business developed around the devices. The ecosystem came to include Apple Pay, Apple Music, Apple TV, expanded iCloud capabilities, and other paid digital services. According to Apple itself, during Cook’s tenure, the Services segment evolved into a business with annual revenue of more than $100 billion. The company compares its scale to that of a separate corporation among the top 40 in the Fortune 500 ranking.
One of the most important technological decisions of the Cook era was the transition of the Mac from Intel processors to Apple’s own Apple Silicon chips. As a result, the company gained significantly greater control over the key technologies in its computers, was able to integrate hardware and software more closely, and improved the devices’ performance and energy efficiency. Apple itself describes the transition to its own processors as one of the key achievements of Cook’s tenure.
From $350 billion to $4 trillion
The scale of the changes over 15 years is most evident in the financial figures. According to Apple, when Cook became CEO in 2011, the company’s market capitalization was approximately $350 billion. By the time the leadership change was announced, Apple valued it at approximately $4 trillion. Thus, the company’s market value increased by more than 1,000% during this period.
Annual revenue also nearly quadrupled. In fiscal 2011, Apple generated approximately $108 billion in revenue, while the figure exceeded $416 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.
The global scale of the business has also changed. According to the company, Apple now operates in more than 200 countries and territories, has over 500 retail stores, and the number of employees increased by more than 100,000 during Cook’s tenure.
Cook leaves the company with record results
It should be noted that the “transfer of power” at the corporation did not take place against the backdrop of a financial crisis. According to the results of the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, Apple reported record results for the June quarter. The company’s revenue amounted to $109.4 billion, up 16% from a year earlier.
Revenue from the iPhone, Mac, and Services reached records for the June quarter. Earnings per share rose 29% to $2.02, while gross margin reached 50.1%.
Tim Cook’s successor is taking over a company with enormous financial resources, a global supply network, proprietary technologies, and one of the world’s strongest consumer ecosystems. At the same time, this very scale makes any change of direction considerably more difficult: even one unsuccessful product cycle or strategic lag in a new technology could cost Apple tens of billions of dollars.
Who Is John Ternus, Who Will Replace Tim Cook
John Ternus is 50 years old. He joined Apple in 2001, beginning his career on the Product Design team.
In 2013, Ternus became vice president of Hardware Engineering, and in 2021 he joined Apple’s senior leadership as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.
In recent years, he has been responsible for the engineering teams working on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, and other devices. Ternus was also one of the key executives during the transition of Mac computers to Apple Silicon.
Before joining Apple, Ternus worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in mechanical engineering.
An interesting detail
Ternus is approximately the same age as Cook was when he took over as Apple’s CEO in 2011.
Reuters described the new leader as a manager with a deep engineering background and a strong focus on product quality. According to the agency, in recent years Apple has also gradually increased Ternus’s public profile, allowing him to present new products more frequently and speak with the press.
Why Apple Chose Ternus
The appointment of a longtime head of the hardware division could be indicative of Apple’s future direction.
The company could have handed management over to an executive from the finance, services, or operations divisions, but instead chose an engineer who had been directly involved in creating devices for decades.
Reuters notes that the market views Ternus’s appointment as a possible signal of Apple’s intention to place greater emphasis once again on hardware innovation and its traditional advantage—the combination of the device, proprietary processors, and software in a single system.
At the same time, Apple reorganized the management of its hardware division. Johny Srouji, who was responsible for the company’s proprietary chips and other key technologies, was appointed Chief Hardware Officer. This will allow Ternus, after taking over as CEO, not to manage hardware development hands-on but to focus on the company as a whole.
Cook Is Not Leaving Apple
The change of CEO does not mean Tim Cook is leaving entirely. Starting September 1, he will become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors. The company explicitly stated that in his new role, Cook will continue to oversee certain areas, including engagement with politicians and government representatives in various countries around the world. This means Ternus will gain operational control of Apple, but the transition will not constitute a complete break with the previous management system.
The current chairman of the board, Arthur Levinson, who has led it for around 15 years, will become the lead independent director. Ternus himself will also join Apple’s board of directors on September 1.
The First Major Test for Apple’s New Leader Is Already in September
Ternus will not have much time to settle into his new role. Apple is scheduled to hold its next major product presentation on September 9. Reuters expects the company to unveil a new iPhone lineup, and one of the possible major announcements could be Apple’s first foldable smartphone.
This event will be the company’s first major product presentation after Ternus officially takes office as CEO. Hardware products have been his area of responsibility for many years, so the new leader’s first presentations will inevitably also be viewed as a signal of how significantly Apple will change its product direction after Cook.
We remind you
In July 2026, Apple once again became the world’s most valuable company after Nvidia’s shares fell by nearly 5%. Apple’s market capitalization exceeded $5 trillion, while Nvidia’s fell to $4.77 trillion.