MacRumors Readers React to Tim Cook Stepping Down as CEO

Apple yesterday announced that longtime Apple CEO Tim Cook is planning to step down from his role later this year, with current hardware engineering chief John Ternus set to take over as CEO. We’ve seen media reports suggesting Ternus will bring Jobs-like decisiveness back to Apple, as well as reactions from top world leaders, but we thought we’d also highlight what MacRumors readers think of the transition.

Reactions on the MacRumors forums run the gamut from positive to negative, with some people praising Cook for everything he’s done for Apple, and others celebrating his departure from the role.

From Cook fans:

• nfl46 – Thank you, Tim! He left John in a reallyyyyyyy good financial position!
• RMMediccc – Thanks for being the right guy at the right time Tim. You will be missed, but it was time and you are making the correct call just as Steve did.
• DocMultimedia – Congrats to Mr. Cook for amazing growth for Apple over so many years. Hopefully Apple will continue to grow under Mr. Ternus. So much respect for both (unlike many on this forum).
• Adelphos33 – A lot of… let’s say disappointing responses. Cook became COO on October 14, 2005. One of the best and most important executives of all time. He made a lot of people very wealthy, and not just Apple employees. A personally pioneering one as well.
• KPOM – Tim Cook will go down as one of the best CEOs to lead a Fortune 500. I expect he’ll stay on as executive chairman at least until January 2029 as he is Apple’s ambassador to the world of politics.
• transpo1 – Cook was the right guy for the job at the right time. He could never do what Jobs did, and Jobs could never do what Cook did. Jobs told him “Don’t do what I would do, do what you would do,” and like it or not, he made wildly profitable decisions that enabled the company to keep moving forward from a position of enormous success.

From Cook critics:

• Kylo83 – good, hopefully we actually see real change now
• firstcitazen – Ding Dong the ….
• iPedro – But Tim Cook was anything but a visionary and he completely missed what Steve Jobs intended for Siri, which debuted in the iPhone the day before his death. New blood is needed and an engineer who’s a stickler for detail is a great place to start.
• turbineseaplane – Party time!!! 🥳 Fantastic news. It’s time for some fresh ideology, I hope.
• Anonymous123 – Good riddance. Glad to see the penny pincher finally gone. Hope this marks a new, better direction for Apple. Less focus on services and ads, more focus on higher quality software and hardware, please.
• gleepskip – Tim Cook is so dull, his memoirs would be an autobiography titled “Supply Chain Optimization: A Love Story.”
• delsoul – Does this mean we’ll finally get some ballsy, new daring products instead of trying to appease the shareholders nonstop with boring stale products
• superarijit – He got fired, pure and simple, PR free. Why? Imagine the utter billions he lost on failed Apple Intelligence, Apple Car, Apple Vision Pro and more. Crap software, same hardware every year. He’s lucky that iphone saved him each and every time.
• tgurske – Thank god. I don’t know why Jobs picked a Toyota Camry to be CEO but I can’t wait for someone interesting to get in there.
• iMac The Knife – Hip hip hooray! Cook ended up being the worst possible choice to succeed Steve Jobs as Apple’s CEO – at least in terms of product design, user experience, and genuine innovation.
• HiVolt – It’s finally happening. I really hope Ternus can make things better, and at least he will have a more interesting personality than a potted plant.

From Ternus fans:

• Nismo73 – John’s the guy for the job. Congrats!
• venom600 – Awesome… glad to have a hardware guy in charge.
• aj8690 – MAKE CEOs HOT AGAIN
• spritle – THE TERNUSATOR!
• jonnyb098 – Best Apple News in a while. Apple needs a product visionary after 5 years of stagnation (Vision Pro is not a consumer hit at all nor do most know it exists). Tim made the company a behemoth but that comes with risks. John is a product guy and that’s what Apple needs now.
• fant0mas – I like that John doesn’t wear white shoes though… his taste in this regard seems better than Tim’s. Hope this means that the OS designs will improve again as well.

General comments:

• terminator-jq – Tim Cook had very big shoes to fill, but ultimately he did great work in making Apple one of the most valuable companies worldwide. That being said the change and CEO could not have come at a better time. Smart phones have stagnated and we are quickly approaching the new augmented reality era. If Apple is going to maintain this leadership position through this transition, having a hardware guy at the helm might be their best bet.
• Brother Cavil – People expecting meaningful change from Ternus are in for a world of disappointment. If you pop your head outside the delusional MacRumors bubble, people LOVE their Apple products. He has no incentive to fix what isn’t broken. Quite the opposite.
• erikkfi – You can’t look at Apple’s revenue and sales graph since 2011 and argue that Tim was an unsuccessful CEO on a metric that, like it or not, is really important. Since 2011 Apple has lost its flair, imagination, and verve, though, while still making very good, buttoned-down products that sell like crazy. I don’t think they make many viscerally desirable products anymore. I hope a change at the top can help with that, but I don’t know much about Ternus’ taste and where he falls on a hypothetical Steve-Tim spectrum.
• jon9091 – Can he take Liquid Glass with him?
• turbineseaplane – Feel free to take the Vision Pro with you on the way out the door. That was quite the dud Tim.
• GermanSuplex – Negativity aside, Cook had a good run but it’s time for a change. I expect the foldable iPhone will deliver a hardware “wow” factor that’s been missing, and it’s got a big hole to dig itself out of, but if they can overdeliver on their revamped Siri, that would be a good way to kickstart this guy’s stint.
• macduke – Finally, and someone “younger.” Between this and the liquid ass guy leaving and Apple hiring the excellent designer Sebastiaan de With, I’m hopeful for the future of Apple. They just need to get their AI ducks in a row. But nothing wrong with paying for a model they can keep in-house and customize.
• AnInanimateCarbonRod – I’m grateful for his time as CEO. Apple’s ecosystem is still by far and away the only one I want to be in. iPhones, iPads and the Mac are still the best products in their class. MacBook Neo has totally upended the low-end market and put everyone else to shame. Apple Silicon is incredible engineering and an industry wide game changer. They haven’t wavered from their commitment to privacy – and remain the only tech company I actually trust with my data. I could go on and on – AirPods, Apple TV, etc. – all fantastic successes in their own right.
• mk313 – Man, what are the macrumors commenters going to complain about now!
• mjschabow – Future Hot Take: “Tim Cook never would have allowed this.”

Tim Cook is set to step down as CEO on September 1, 2026, which is when Ternus will take over. Cook will remain at Apple as executive chairman, a role he intends to hold “for a long time.”