Apple is accelerating succession planning for CEO Tim Cook, who may step down as early as next year after leading the tech giant for 14 years, according to multiple reports. John Ternus , the company’s 50-year-old senior vice president of hardware engineering, has emerged as the frontrunner to take the helm of the nearly $4 trillion company.
Despite these concerns, Apple is expecting strong end-of-year sales, with year-on-year revenue growth of 10% to 12% for its holiday quarter ending in December, fueled by the iPhone 17 model release. The company’s shares are trading close to an all-time high following strong October earnings, though its roughly 12% stock price increase this year lags behind Big Tech rivals Alphabet, Nvidia and Microsoft. The Financial Times reported that Apple’s board and senior executives have recently intensified preparations for the leadership transition, with people familiar with the discussions saying the long-planned change is not related to the company’s current performance.
The timing of any announcement could come early in the year, giving a new leadership team time to settle in ahead of Apple’s major annual events, including its developer conference in June and iPhone launch in September.
Ternus, who joined Apple’s product design team in 2001, has overseen hardware engineering for most major products the company has launched over the past two decades, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Several more executives are expected to follow, Bloomberg reported. The executive has emerged as a key decision-maker on product roadmaps, features and strategies, extending his influence beyond the traditional scope of a hardware engineering chief, Gurman reported in his Power On newsletter.
the company has struggled in areas such as mixed reality, generative AI, the smart home and autonomous vehicles, according to Bloomberg While Apple has seen tremendous success with iPhones and products like AirPods. The status of artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea has been uncertain for years, with senior Apple executives looking at new AI leaders from outside the company to eventually replace him. The company has also been evaluating potential successors for hardware technologies chief Johny Srouji, who leads the team behind Apple’s chip development. Appointing Ternus would place a hardware engineering leader at the head of Apple at a critical time in the company’s evolution.