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The rumors were true: Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO of Apple and taking over will be senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus. Cook will remain at the company as executive chairman of Apple\u2019s board of directors, according to a press release. Ternus will assume the CEO role on Sept. 1.<\/p>\n
Also as expected, in his role as executive chairman, he will engage \u201cwith policymakers around the world.\u201d Basically, he\u2019s taking it upon himself to bend the knee and maybe<\/em> hand out more glass discs mounted on 24-karat gold bases to appease Apple shared a \u201ccommunity letter\u201d from Cook, published on Apple\u2019s home page after the announcement. In it, he thanked fans around the globe and praised Ternus\u2019s commitment to Apple and its values for the past 25 years and said the company \u201cwill reach such incredible heights under his leadership\u201d that \u201cyou will feel his impact in every bit of delight and discovery that grows out of the products and services to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Cook officially took over as CEO of Apple in August 2011 after Steve Jobs named him to the position before passing away that fall. He was previously chief operating officer (COO) at Apple, tasked with overhauling the company\u2019s supply chain to transform it into the global gadget behemoth that it is today. Under Cook\u2019s stewardship, Apple went from tech underdog fighting for survival during the rough mid-90s to Goliath, now valued at $4 trillion.<\/p>\n Cook\u2019s legacy has been nothing short of a rollercoaster since taking over almost 15 years ago. Besides having to fill the ginormous shoes that Jobs left, he\u2019s had to navigate sh*t storm after sh*t storm under the previous and current Trump administrations.<\/p>\n Much has been said about Cook\u2019s leadership. He\u2019s not a product guy like Steve Jobs or former chief design officer Jony Ive. He never visited the design lab. To his credit, he\u2019s never pretended to be anyone except himself. Cook has repeatedly echoed Jobs\u2019 last advice to him, which was to never ask, \u201cWhat would Steve Jobs do?\u201d<\/p>\n Despite not being a product guy, Cook still managed to launch several major and innovative products while at the helm of one of the world\u2019s most valuable companies. Those included iPhones with larger screens starting with the iPhone 6 Plus, the Apple Watch, and AirPods.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t bat a thousand, though. The Apple Vision Pro has not been the revolutionary \u201cspatial computer\u201d he touted it to be. Not yet, at least; not at $3,500. The long-worked-on Apple Car was canceled. And we\u2019ve yet to see the fruits of augmented reality, a technology he previously called \u201cprofound,\u201d take shape in any product like smart glasses.<\/p>\n For better or worse, he may be most remembered for expanding Apple into services. In a decade and a half, Cook launched several services that have contributed to ecosystem lock-in that\u2019s hard to escape. Major services include the video streaming service, Apple TV; music streaming service, Apple Music; news service, Apple News; and fitness-focused service, Apple Fitness+.<\/p>\n Ternus isn\u2019t the only Apple executive getting a promotion. The company also announced that senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji is now chief hardware officer. Srouji is best known for helping design Apple\u2019s first custom system-on-chip, the A4, which powered the original iPad. In the 18 years that he\u2019s been at the company, he\u2019s helped push Apple\u2019s custom silicon, resulting in breakthroughs such as the M1 chip, which transitioned the company away from reliance on Intel chips. Custom silicon has allowed Apple to release best-in-class products such as the MacBook Pro and MacBook Neo.<\/p>\n Taking Ternus\u2019s current job as SVP of hardware engineering after he becomes CEO will be Tom Marieb, Apple\u2019s current vice president of product integrity in hardware engineering, according to Bloomberg\u2019s Mark Gurman. Marieb will report to Srouji.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\ndictators<\/del> presidents.<\/p>\n