GoKawiilA supposed Tim Cook retirement leak late last year indicated that hardware head John Ternus was Apple’s planned successor and that the announcement would be made ahead of WWDC 2026 in June.
I wrote at the time that this was very clearly a trial balloon by the company in order to test reaction to the plan, and we can now see that this indeed paved the way for yesterday’s announcement …
Steve Jobs was always going to be an impossible act to follow, but it’s not coincidence that Tim Cook was his personal pick for his replacement – and nobody can deny the incredible growth enjoyed under the present CEO’s leadership. Zerohedge summarized the numbers.
Under Cook, Apple’s market cap grew from $350 billion to $4 trillion, more than 1,000% increase; meanwhile revenue quadrupled, from $108 billion in 2011 to $416 billion in 2025.
Just the Services division now generates more than a quarter of the revenue of the entire company when Cook picked up the reins. Bloomberg went into more detail.
We got a preview of Apple’s plans for both the approximate timing and Cook’s planned replacement thanks to a Financial Times report in November of last year. I wasn’t alone in suggesting that this was “clearly a deliberate test of market reaction.”
This has all the hallmarks of a deliberate leak […] Given the growth under Cook, it’s natural for the board to be concerned about market reaction to his retirement. If he is indeed planning to retire next year, the company would want to both gauge the response of investors and give people time to get used to the idea so that it doesn’t come as a shock when the announcement is finally made […] I would not be at all surprised to see an official announcement in the first half of next year. It’s possible that Cook could take an interim role as chairman or advisor to the board as a way of further reassuring investors.
Everything Apple leaked back in November has been mirrored by the official announcement:
The announcement was made ahead of WWDC 2026
John Turnus is the replacement
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