John Ternus becomes Apple’s chief executive on Tuesday as AAPL stock fell slightly. Marketing veteran Phil Schiller also stepped back from his last major roles this week.
Ternus, a 25-year Apple veteran, replaces Tim Cook, who becomes executive chairman after 15 years as CEO. The transition puts artificial intelligence at the center of Ternus’s agenda.
A Reshuffled Leadership Team
Schiller, 66, gave up oversight of the App Store and Apple’s product events. Those duties now sit with services chief Eddy Cue and communications head Kristin Huguet Quayle.
Schiller keeps his Apple Fellow title, but colleagues see the move as a step toward retirement. It adds to a broader wave of veteran departures Ternus must manage as he rebuilds Apple’s leadership bench.
Selling iPhones Comes First
Big Technology founder Alex Kantrowitz told CNBC’s Closing Bell that Ternus’s most immediate job has nothing to do with artificial intelligence.
Number one is sell iPhones. He’s got to sell iPhones.
Alex Kantrowitz, CNBC
Kantrowitz pointed to 21% iPhone revenue growth last quarter as the driver behind Apple’s 37% stock gain over the past year. He also flagged rising memory chip costs as a margin risk Ternus cannot ignore.
Longer term, Ternus is betting on a foldable iPhone and a revamped Siri assistant, built on Google’s Gemini model, to prove Apple can still innovate in hardware and catch up in AI.
AAPL Dips on Transition Day
AAPL fell as low as $313 during Monday’s session before paring losses in after-hours trading. Shares changed hands at $316.85, down 0.89% from Friday’s $319.70 close, according to TradingView data.
Investors on X flagged volatility tied directly to the leadership handoff.
Despite the dip, Apple shares remain up about 36% over the past year. The stock still sits below the record high it touched in July, when the company’s market capitalization briefly neared $5 trillion.
Whether Ternus can convert Apple’s hardware discipline into an AI turnaround will face its first public test at the September 9 event, where a foldable iPhone is widely expected to debut
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