APPLE ENTERS A NEW ERA AS JOHN TERNUS SUCCEEDS TIM COOK AS CEO

Apple has formally begun a new chapter in its leadership story. On 1 September 2026, John Ternus became the company’s chief executive officer, succeeding Tim Cook after 15 years at the helm. Cook has moved into the role of executive chairman of Apple’s board, while Arthur Levinson, who served as non-executive chairman for the previous 15 years, has become lead independent director.

The transition was approved unanimously by Apple’s board following a long-term succession planning process. Cook remained CEO through the summer while working with Ternus to prepare the handover, creating an unusually measured transition for a company whose leadership changes have historically attracted considerable attention.

Ternus arrives at the role with an unusually deep understanding of Apple’s product organisation. He joined the company in 2001 as part of its product design team and became vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013. In 2021, he joined Apple’s executive team as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, overseeing engineering across a broad range of products and playing a central role in several of the company’s most consequential hardware developments.

His career at Apple has spanned the evolution of the iPad, AirPods, iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch, giving him experience across both established product families and newer categories. His work has also increasingly connected engineering decisions with questions of durability, materials, repairability and environmental impact.

The significance of Ternus’s appointment therefore extends beyond a change of name at the top. His background is rooted particularly strongly in the hardware side of Apple, at a time when the relationship between custom silicon, industrial design, materials and software is central to the company’s product strategy.

His tenure in hardware engineering has coincided with Apple’s transition towards increasingly sophisticated in-house technologies. Under his leadership, engineering teams have worked on new approaches to materials and manufacturing, including recycled aluminium compounds, 3D-printed titanium used in Apple Watch Ultra 3, and improvements designed to make certain products easier to repair and maintain over longer lifespans.

Mac has been another important part of his recent portfolio. Apple credits Ternus and his teams with helping the Mac become more capable and broadly accessible, including through the introduction of MacBook Neo. His organisation has also been involved in successive generations of iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods, while advancing the reliability and durability of products across the portfolio.

For Apple, that technical continuity may be particularly relevant as the company moves into its next phase. The appointment does not represent a departure from its product-focused culture so much as a change in the person responsible for carrying it forward. Ternus has spent almost his entire professional career within Apple and has worked under both Steve Jobs and Cook.

Cook’s departure from the CEO role, meanwhile, marks the end of one of the longest leadership eras in modern technology. He joined Apple in 1998 and became CEO in 2011, following Jobs. During his tenure, Apple expanded far beyond its traditional dependence on the Mac and iPhone, introducing and developing categories including Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Vision Pro while building an increasingly substantial services business.

Services became one of the defining pillars of the Cook era. Products and platforms such as iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple Music, Apple TV+ and the App Store broadened Apple’s relationship with its customers, creating a business that Apple says has grown to more than $100 billion in annual revenue.

Cook also oversaw the company’s transition to Apple-designed silicon, a shift that allowed Apple greater control over the underlying technologies powering its devices. The move has been particularly consequential for the Mac, where Apple silicon has enabled the company to pursue improvements in performance and power efficiency while bringing greater integration between hardware and software.

The scale of Apple’s growth during Cook’s tenure is equally notable. The company states that its market capitalisation increased from approximately $350 billion when he became CEO to around $4 trillion, while annual revenue rose from $108 billion in fiscal 2011 to more than $416 billion in fiscal 2025. Apple’s active installed base has grown to more than 2.5 billion devices, and its presence now extends across more than 200 countries and territories.

Cook’s period as CEO was also marked by a stronger emphasis on privacy, accessibility and environmental responsibility. Apple reports that it reduced its corporate carbon footprint by more than 60 per cent from its 2015 level during a period in which its revenue nearly doubled. Privacy was increasingly positioned as a fundamental part of the company’s product philosophy, while accessibility became more deeply integrated into the design of its devices and software.

His new position as executive chairman allows that experience to remain within Apple. Cook is expected to continue supporting selected aspects of the business, including engagement with policymakers around the world, while Ternus assumes responsibility for the company’s day-to-day executive leadership.

Apple’s history gives the transition an additional sense of perspective. Founded on 1 April 1976, the company began in California and grew from the Apple II into one of the defining technology businesses of the modern era. The Macintosh followed in 1984, establishing a longstanding relationship between computing technology and industrial design that would later become central to products such as the iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Vision Pro. In 2026, Apple is marking its 50th anniversary, making the leadership transition part of a broader moment of reflection and renewal for the company.

The company’s physical presence in the United Arab Emirates also reflects its global scale. Apple’s current official UAE retail directory lists stores at The Galleria Al Maryah Island and Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi, Al Jimi Mall in Al Ain, and the Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. These locations continue to provide customers with direct access to Apple’s products, technical suppor,t and in-store services.

For Levinson, the transition also brings a change in responsibilities. After 15 years as Apple’s non-executive chairman, he has become lead independent director, while Ternus has joined the board alongside his new executive position. The resulting structure preserves institutional experience at board level while placing day-to-day leadership in the hands of an executive who has spent a quarter of a century inside Apple.

The significance of Ternus’s appointment will ultimately be measured not by the symbolism of succession but by what Apple creates next. His career has been shaped by the details of hardware: how products are engineered, how they feel in the hand, how they withstand years of u,se and how their underlying technologies can evolve. Cook leaves behind a company considerably larger and more diversified than the one he inherited. Ternus now has the opportunity to determine how that scale is translated into the next generation of Apple products.

The change is therefore less a rupture than a carefully prepared passing of responsibility. With Cook remaining close to the company as executive chairman and Ternus moving from the engineering organisation to its highest executive office, Apple enters its next era with a strong thread of continuity — but with a new perspective at the centre of its future.