Apple enters post-Cook era chasing its next hit

The Tim Cook era is https://www.axios.com/2026/04/20/tim-cook-apple-ceo" target="_blank">coming to a close with an existential challenge for Apple: figuring out what comes after the iPhone.

Why it matters: Cook extended the iPhone's success into products like the Apple Watch and AirPods and built a powerful services business.

But the company hasn't broken into a major new category — and has stumbled into the AI era.

Driving the news: Apple announced Monday that Cook will cede the CEO reins to hardware chief John Ternus, while remaining with the company as executive chairman.

• The company also promoted Johny Srouji, the driving force behind Apple's chip success, to the new role of chief hardware officer.
• That could entice Srouji, whose name is often mentioned in tech CEO searches, to stay in Cupertino.

The big picture: Cook has executed masterfully to maximize the company's iPhone success and transform Apple into one of the world's most valuable companies.

Yes, but: His efforts to expand far beyond that device have largely sputtered.

The company https://www.axios.com/2021/11/19/apple-autonomous-electric-car-report" target="_blank">assembled a significant team to try to enter the autonomous car market, but https://www.axios.com/2024/02/27/apple-electric-car-generative-artificial-intelligence" target="_blank">gave up before bringing anything to market.

• The company's initial foray into the mixed reality market, https://www.axios.com/2024/03/29/apple-vision-pro-real-life-review" target="_blank">Vision Pro, remains for sale but at a price that has attracted relatively few buyers.

Zoom in: Apple's position in AI remains uncertain.

• In 2024, Cook https://www.axios.com/2024/06/10/apple-ai-strategy-openai" target="_blank">painted a compelling vision for Apple Intelligence, personalized AI that would be able to answer questions from data stored in a variety of places, but do so in a way that would not be accessible to Apple or anyone else.
• But it has struggled to turn the vision into reality, repeatedly https://www.axios.com/2025/03/07/siri-apple-ai-delay" target="_blank">delaying the most ambitious features outlined in that keynote.

  A revamped Siri with some of those capabilities is expected later this year.

• Apple also decided to https://www.axios.com/2026/01/13/apple-intelligence-google-gemini-siri" target="_blank">strike a deal with Google to have access to its Gemini family of models to power future Apple Intelligence features.

The other side: Apple's restraint could pay off if it can maintain its hardware advantage while others spend heavily on AI models, as Dan Primack https://www.axios.com/2026/04/14/apple-ai-openai-anthropic" target="_blank">outlined in an article last week.

• While most of its tech giant peers have spent billions on data centers and compute capacity, Apple has avoided such large outlays.
• If the AI models turn out to be a commodity, Apple may look wise to have avoided the compute capacity craze entirely.

Zoom out: That still leaves unsettled what the next big hardware breakthrough will look like.

• OpenAI https://www.axios.com/2025/05/21/jony-ive-openai-io-acquisition" target="_blank">paid $6.5 billion to acquire legendary designer Jony Ive and his hardware team, with an initial device expected to be https://www.axios.com/2026/01/19/openai-device-2026-lehane-jony-ive" target="_blank">unveiled later this year.
• Meta continues to advance both its Quest virtual reality headsets and its Ray-Ban smart glasses.
• Google is also making a renewed push into https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/google-ai-smart-glasses" target="_blank">smart glasses and https://www.axios.com/2025/10/22/samsung-galaxy-xr-project-moohan" target="_blank">VR headsets, in a joint effort with Samsung.

The bottom line: Cook proved Apple could continue to grow without Steve Jobs.

Ternus must prove that it can still innovate.