Tim Cook stepping down this year, John Ternus confirmed as next Apple CEO

Congratulations to the both of them.

Sadly I was waiting for permission from the powers that be before I posted anything, but you have beaten me to the punch. Well done. 😣

Tim Cook’s primary responsibility was to ensure the company’s continued success, rather than waiting for groundbreaking innovations. While the Apple Watch and the Apple Pencil are notable achievements, I don’t perceive any other significant innovations attributed to him.

I don’t mean to criticize him, but he wasn’t Steve Jobs.

Let’s hope Jon Ternus brings about more innovation.

I have to share this, mr. Cook has OPENLY supported accessibility and diversity&inclusion values during his career in Apple.
Lately he has knelt down to Trump and I have always thought he was doing that, for strategic reasons: "I'll clean your boots and you leave me alone in return". My malicious thinking addresses to the fact Cook didn't share current President's values. So I am very, very afraid that Mr. Ternus will step down with accessibility, in favor of AI agents (expensive AI agents) or so.
I'm afraid they will begin with that "anti-woke" disgusting rethoric.
Well, even some greenwashing rethoric is disgusting, I can't deny that I have hated that year when on WWDC they made all that "mother nature" drama. I really ran away from the streaming then, but that's another story.
Hypocrites are in accessibility as well, when we have bugs not solved which stay there for years and years, then they go to event and say "we value this and that, blah blah".
I think that American folks, especially those who are close to associations and institutions, should be more active now, more than ever. I talk about american because that president is their, and we have to do our part from Europe as well.
I don't want to be catastrophic but all the mess happening lately is a demonstration that nothing can be considered as granted, so, I just share my concerns.
Innovation? True, there haven't been so much innovation lately, but on this I admit that market is full. IMHO, humanity has invented everything.

Congratulations to him. I hope it makes things even better than Apple and what they already are. Being all negative about what might happen really won’t help cause anyway so you could just be positive and hope for the best.

Apple needs to be more decisive on their product line and support moving forward. I also like the idea of an engineer taking over. Jobs was an engineer and innovator. Cook, was good at one thing, making money. That is all well and good for a corporation as a whole, but we have all experienced the decline of true innovation and accessibility support in recent years.

Sure, Cook is being accredited for the creation of the AirPods and Apple Watch, but bluetooth is old, old tech. Bluetooth was invented in the mid 90s, and the first bluetooth wireless headset went live in the late 90s, and as for the Apple Watch; its basically a scaled down iPod Touch you wear on your wrist.

I am looking forward to seeing what innovations John Ternus will bring.

First off, congratulations to both, particularly John. with that being said, I really hope Moore focuses given to accessibility, specifically. New innovation, obviously doesn’t hurt, but accessibility needs some serious work, particularly on the Mac as we all all know. It’s not bad, but God knows, it could be a heck of a lot better.

One thing that has been disappointing to see, for me at least, is the increasing complexity of Apple's product mix in recent years--especially since decreasing the complexity of product lines was a hallmark of the Steve Jobs era.

It used to be that you had just one iPhone. Then 1 new iPhone became 2, 2 became 4, and 4 became 5. If the rumored iPhone Fold launches and the iPhone Air sticks around for another year, the 2026-2027 line-up will have... 6... iPhones:

• iPhone e.
• iPhone
• iPhone Air
• iPhone Pro
• iPhone Pro Max
• iPhone Ultra

Plus whatever of the previous year's models they keep around to sell at a lower price point.

Why are we doing this?

This is such a mess. Ipad, ipad air, ipad mini, ipad pro... And some older gen ipads too probably.

Tim Cook oversaw one of the biggest innovations in recent computing history with the introduction of Apple Silicon. People seem to forget that. Apple didn’t just “improve chips”—they ripped out a core industry dependency and replaced it with their own architecture, and it worked. Cleanly. Most companies don’t even attempt that. That’s not incremental—that’s a tectonic shift.

Also, reducing Tim Cook to “just making money” is lazy. Yes, Apple makes a ridiculous amount of money under him, but he also built out the services ecosystem, scaled wearables into a dominant category, and kept the product line coherent while doing it. That’s not passive. That’s active leadership.

Ahh yes—Bluetooth being around since the 90s. Just like touchscreens were around before the iPhone, yes? Also, making AirPods required a hell of a lot more than just “the technology exists”. Just like making the iPhone required more than just a touchscreen.

Also, the Apple Watch being an iPod Touch on your wrist? Sorry, but what? The Apple Watch normalised health features—whether people like it or not, Apple made health tracking mainstream on a watch. To say it is just an iPod on your wrist misses the point entirely. Last time I checked, iPods never had fall detection, heart rate tracking, ECG, or the other myriad features Apple Watches now have.

On accessibility—no, everything isn’t perfect. VoiceOver has its issues. Bugs happen. Some design decisions are questionable. But to say it has declined just doesn’t really line up. What’s actually happened is the big, flashy leaps are behind us, so now it feels less exciting.

The difference under Cook is that accessibility is something Apple actually talks about. He’s been vocal about it, he’s championed it publicly, and that matters. It starts conversations, sets expectations, and whether people like it or not, that pressure leads to improvements. That’s very different from it being an afterthought.

I am hoping this shows the “Apple isn’t innovative anymore” idea as utter nonsense. If not though, can I remind you that iPhone-level innovations aren’t exactly easy to do? It’s shocking, I know, but it’s almost like you can’t have category-defining products every year.

Also, quick point on what innovation actually is. It isn’t just inventing brand new tech—it’s taking existing tech and making it usable, scalable, and mainstream. That’s literally what Apple has always done.

My last point. To say Steve Jobs was an engineer is just plain wrong. People like Steve Wozniak were the engineers. Jobs was much more into ideas and being the public face of Apple. I know you didn’t say this directly, but comments like these tend to romanticise Jobs. He was a deeply flawed individual. Yes, he oversaw the iPhone, but the iPhone was created by a team, not Jobs in a shed. He was also quite awful to those he worked with, and let’s not even get started on his treatment of his daughter.

Life is rarely as simple as “Apple = not innovative” and “Jobs = all good.”

We'll see if software quality improves under Ternus. I'm not holding my breath, but you never know. I really hope he's better than Tim, who as far as I know was just a numbers guy more focused on making as much money for the company as possible rather than making good products.

I just hope this transition leads to real progress, especially in accessibility. A lot of us who took part in the AppleVis report card spoke honestly because we care about Apple and know they can do better. VoiceOver on Mac and iPhone should feel polished, reliable, and respected—not like an afterthought some days.

Leadership changes can bring fresh priorities, so maybe this is a chance to finally focus on fixing long-standing bugs, consistency issues, and the everyday frustrations blind users keep reporting year after year.

Apple has some of the smartest people in the world. The accessibility community shouldn’t have to keep begging for basics. Here’s hoping the next chapter listens, acts, and earns trust back through results.

It's adorable how you twisted my comments to fit your narrative.
Would you like a cookie?

As for the switch in leadership, I truly hope Ternus will bring forth a new era of Apple innovation, and functionally accessible technology.

InfoRover,

Might I recommend a book to you? It's called, "Steve Jobs", by Walter Isaacson. Read it. Then you can really have hatred for the co-creator of one of the greatest tech companies in human history. 😉

I responded directly to your points on Bluetooth, the Apple Watch, and Apple Silicon — you haven’t actually addressed any of those. A sarcastic reply doesn’t really change that.

Also, Steve Jobs isn’t described as an engineer in Isaacson’s book — his role was product vision and direction, not technical implementation.

If your point is that innovation feels different now, that’s fair. But that’s not the same as saying it isn’t happening.

As @InfoRover said, the amount of engineering to virtually recreate / modify bluetooth so sound doesn't suck is incredible.
For the rest... As long as macos gets some serious voiceover patches, I'll be happy. For the rest, when you are rich and a public figure, and in a company, you're inherently corrupt. People who think companies are their friend or they are truly valuable to them need to touch some grass more often. Think greenwash, dei only when it fits a company's narrative or that of its home country...
Wishing you a great day.

I guess we'll see what happens. That's all we can do. I do wonder if I'll be able to get my hands on the foldable iPhone when it comes out. I got to feel the samsung one at the store and liked it, but I don't know how necessary it is for me since I'm totally blind and don't need a lot of screen technically.

Like congratulations again and I agree with the last comment that we need to just wait and see what happens. I am also totally blind and have been since birth. So I don’t need any large screen either. I think I would just stick with a regular kind of phone. I don’t think I want any kind of foldable phone. I wouldn’t mind touching one, but I don’t think I’d be interested in anyone. I really don’t want anything bigger than my current iPhone 15 but I may have to. I’m just happy for the trust about that we have and I’m sure that things will continue to improve as we keep giving Apple feedback and giving them the chances to fix things.

We'll have to see where this leads. I wouldn't expect any major overhauls just yet though. It was a few years before we saw Cook's influence on the company.

VO on Mac still needs some work to be at the same level as iOS, and some trimming down of all these iPhone variants could be helpful also. EG: just have the iPhone E, iphone Pro, and Pro Max. Or maybe the Plus and Pro Max? Either way they should all have a specific purpose. The E is the do-everything budget-friendly phone. The Plus is for a larger screen. The Pro Max is a Mini Ipad with a billion cameras and good battery life that's like carting around a brick.

I doubt they'll go that path as the Air series is probably going to garner a lot of attention and revenue. Let's cut the cruft. Has any tech giant ever downsized and tightened up their product and objectives (besides making money)? While that would be cool, we've gotta be realistic about this.

I'd personally like if they would continue making good phones, fix existing problems,and don't get too involved in the AI hype. As someone else stated, we've already invented everything and now it's time to cultivate and refine existing workflows and products. And even that is subtle. How much more can you simplify an email or messaging app and spew the same "it's that easy" tagline Apple is ubiquitous for? So I don't care who's in charge much; I care if things get fixed across the board. I'd much rather have a solid and perhaps less "innovative" (yay buzzwords) experience. Just let me use the device and not be plagued by bugs. This requires better real world testing and not this update stampede the tech giants are known for. Just slow down and fix your existing products. Yes that likely means less overall hype and sales, but ultimately it's the customer that uses this crap every day. Customers vote with their money. Tech giants care not about some screen reader bugs.

PS: More than Airpods were doing decent bluetooth audio. Apple still doesn't have LDAC (lossless bt playback). I doubt many people care as they are using Spotify or Apple Music with HE-AAC low data mode. Hard to avoid lossy playback, and bt microphone codecs are still aweful. I used Airpods 3 and 4 and eventually went back to a wired connection. Less convenient, but also less latent and with a better mic for calls.

Despite my admiration for Apple, I have observed a limited level of innovation in the iPhone ecosystem. While the processor capacity has been incrementally increased annually, the overall design and hardware have remained largely unchanged, leading to the perception of a lack of significant progress.
I have discussed this matter with my family and wife. If John Ternus fails to innovate as expected due to his engineering background, I may consider switching to Android. The TalkBack feature has shown notable improvements, such as text-to-speech capabilities and other enhancements that I cannot recall at this moment.
In summary, I have faith in the new CEO, but I am eager to witness his leadership and the initiatives he will implement.

As a devoted Apple loyalist, I intend to remain a customer as long as the company continues to innovate on a large scale, such as increasing the processor capacity or camera quality in the iPhone. I do not wish to revisit the issue of voiceover bugs and their subsequent fixes, as I am hopeful that Apple will address these issues. Instead, I advocate for the addition of more accessibility features, not annually, but rather in conjunction with security updates, ensuring that users feel a sense of progress and excitement, similar to the anticipation experienced by sighted individuals who encounter new technology.

I've never heard of this other guy before, but I'm sure he'll do a nice job just as Tim did. Best of luck to you, Mr. Cook in whatever your future holds. Keep on keeping on, Apple!

There will be no big changes with apple, John consider himself Tim's prodigy. Apple will keep doing what they know what to do. Long live cats.