Apple Inc. announced a seismic leadership change on Tuesday, with CEO Tim Cook stepping down after 15 years at the helm. Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus was unanimously appointed as his successor by the board, marking the most significant executive reset at the tech giant in over a decade. In a statement, Cook called the role "the greatest privilege of my life," while Ternus pledged to uphold the company's core values and vision that have defined Apple for half a century.

Cook will stay on for the handover as Apple rewires the board and counts his years in charge

John will also join Apple’s board. “Tim Cook joined Apple in 1998. He became CEO in 2011 and has overseen the introduction of numerous products and services, including new categories like Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro, and services ranging from iCloud and Apple Pay to Apple TV and Apple Music. He was also instrumental in expanding existing product lines,” said Apple.

Tim joined Apple in 1998 and became CEO in 2011. Under him, Apple launched Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro, while growing iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple TV, and Apple Music. Market value rose from about $350 billion to $4 trillion, up more than 1,000%. Annual revenue climbed from $108 billion in fiscal 2011 to more than $416 billion in fiscal 2025.

Apple now operates in more than 200 countries and territories, runs over 500 retail stores, more than doubled the number of countries with an Apple Store, added more than 100,000 team members, and pushed its active installed base above 2.5 billion devices.

Apple Services grew into a business worth more than $100 billion. The company also built out wearables and moved to Apple-designed silicon to improve power efficiency and performance.

During Tim’s time, Apple allegedly cut its carbon footprint by more than 60% below 2015 levels while revenue nearly doubled. He also pushed privacy, security, accessibility, dignity, and belonging deeper into company decisions and product design.

John joined Apple’s product design team in 2001, became vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013, and joined the executive team in 2021.

He has overseen hardware work across every category and helped launch iPad and AirPods, plus many generations of iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch. Apple said his Mac work helped make the category stronger than at any point in its 40-year history. That includes MacBook Neo.

Last fall, his team introduced the iPhone 17 lineup, including iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, and iPhone 17. Under his leadership, AirPods gained stronger active noise cancellation and hearing health features that can work as over-the-counter hearing aids.

John also pushed durability, recycled aluminum across product lines, 3-D printed titanium in Apple Watch Ultra 3, and repair changes meant to extend product life.

Before Apple, John worked at Virtual Research Systems and earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Apple also released the third developer betas of iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5. Developers can install them through Settings, General, and Software Update on iPhone and iPad. The builds do not include new Siri features. Apple Maps now has Suggested Places based on trends and recent searches, and Apple is bringing ads to Maps.

Apple is still testing end-to-end encryption for RCS messages between iPhone and Android users after adding it in the iOS 26.4 beta and removing it before public release.

In the European Union, Apple is testing proximity pairing, notification forwarding, and Live Activities for third-party wearables, giving outside earbuds and smartwatches more features now tied to Apple Watch and AirPods.

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