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Apple CEO Tim Cook inspects the new iPhone 16 during an Apple special event at Apple headquarters on September 09, 2024 in Cupertino, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
As Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary, the company that's defined consumer electronics since introducing the iPod, and that forever changed user behavior in creating the iPhone, faces a host of critical questions about where it goes from here. Apple first became the world's most valuable company in 2011, passing Exxon Mobil , and held that title for large chunks of the decade plus that followed, occasionally getting surpassed by Alphabet or Microsoft . Apple is now second behind Nvidia , which catapulted ahead of all of its tech peers in the last couple years due its position at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom. So far in 2026, Apple's stock is down almost 7%, dropping more than the S&P 500 after underperforming the index last year. For Apple, AI is perhaps the biggest question mark. While the company continues to dominate the U.S. smartphone market and has a services business generating more than $100 billion in annual revenue, it's yet to make a significant splash in AI, as its peers are spending hundreds of billions of dollars combined this year building infrastructure to develop and support the latest models. Siri, Apple's voice assistant, has been slow to evolve, though the company has said a revamp is coming this year. The company's early history, written by the visionary Steve Jobs, has entered a new world, one where iPhones are making incremental advances while the technology surrounding it is in the midst of generational change. CEO Tim Cook, who took the helm shortly before Jobs' death in 2011, turned 65 in November. Cook has dismissed rumors that he's nearing retirement, telling ABC's "Good Morning America" in mid-March that, "I can't imagine life without Apple." Cook and his team have a lot to tackle. Here are five key questions facing Apple as the company enters its second half-century.
What's the 'next iPhone moment' in hardware?
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Apple has 2.5 billion devices being actively used across the globe, giving the company enormous opportunity to make money through apps and other services. But Wall Street has been waiting for Apple to find another breakout. The company killed the Apple Car project, and the Vision Pro goggles remain niche. AI-enabled hardware appears to be where the market is heading through some combination of wearables, robotics, spatial computing or possibly something Apple hasn't shown yet. "I think the biggest question is what comes after the iPhone," said Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies. "These are mature categories and we have no idea what comes after that but we do know it will be some form of AI hardware." In January, Bloomberg reported that Apple will be accelerating the development of three upcoming AI wearables all built around Siri: smart glasses, a pendant and AirPods with cameras. Bajarin and other experts who spoke to CNBC said they expect the next device to take the form of glasses. Nabila Popal, an analyst at IDC, said she isn't anticipating any of Apple's expected releases, like a Siri upgrade or foldable phone, to equal "the next iPhone moment." Popal said everyone is looking to Apple to take users "into the AI age." She pointed to Jobs' famous "Think Different" speech in 1997, when the company resurrected its brand. It released the first iMac the next year. "That's the kind of energy that everyone is looking for with the next generation of products," Popal said.
Who will succeed Tim Cook?
Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., center, and Jalen Brunson, basketball player for the New York Knicks, right, during the first day of in-store sales of Apple's latest products at Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York, US, on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. The new iPhone 17 is seen as the most significant upgrade Apple has brought to its iPhone lineup in years, with a refreshed design and souped-up camera system. Photographer: Kena Betancur/Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Despite what Cook recently said on "Good Morning America," the CEO is reportedly telling peers he's tired. John Ternus, Apple's hardware boss, could be next in line. Ternus, who's about 15 years younger than Cook, has been with the company for half its life, joining just four years after he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in mechanical engineering. He's recently been profiled by The New York Times and Bloomberg. His portfolio includes oversight of the hardware engineering teams behind the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro. Some of Apple's biggest challenges involve an increasingly complex supply chain due to geopolitical tensions, the Trump administration's tariffs and a memory crunch tied to soaring demand for AI chips. Popal called the memory issue "bigger than the pandemic and tariffs." Dipanjan Chatterjee, an analyst at Forrester, said if the Cook era "has been about operational excellence and expansion," the next decade "will be turbulent for Apple because there's been so much change in how consumers interact with technology, particularly with generative AI." Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring said the future of Apple leadership will have to do with "the next generation of product." And Bajarin said that whether Cook's successor is Ternus or Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, "these are definitely more engineer-operator type CEOs and I think the market is happy about what they could bring back to product leadership." Popal said the company also needs someone who can handle dealing with governments. "Tim Cook has been the forefront of it," she said. "Apple needs someone that can continue to do that." Apple didn't respond to a request for comment.
How does Apple handle the China conundrum?
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