Tim Cook to Step Down as Apple CEO
Better late than never
The phrase that comes to mind when I think of Tim Cook is “opportunity cost”.
What Apple (AAPL) could have been had it focused on technology beyond a thinner battery over the past decade-plus. The Technology industry is moving too fast to not have a Product/Engineering person at the helm. Tim Cook will step down as CEP on Sept. 1st. CEO-in-waiting John Ternus is Apple VP of Hardware Engineering.
There was a time when Tim Cook - Apple’s former COO - considered his successor - former Apple COO Jeff Williams for the CEO role. What a mistake that would have been to have two supply chain guys as consecutive AAPL CEOs. I joked the other day that Tim Cook may have been the only mistake of consequence that Steve Jobs ever made as Apple CEO.
Here’s hoping that John Ternus can help right Apple’s ship on the AI side. Apple ought to have its own fleet of top tier models optimized for the iPhone, but that is easier said than done and would require a culture change. No need to wait until September 1st for the formal transition date. Ternus ought to lead the AI charge now.
Kilby customer note: Claude Opus 4.7 is now a model option.