Tim Cook’s CEO Nap Plan: Apple’s Internal Power Shuffle 2025

KEY POINTS

•Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO for 14 years, might step down as early as next year according to Financial Times.
•John Ternus, senior VP of hardware engineering, is the leading candidate for his successor amidst executive reshuffling.
•The departure of Apple COO Jeff Williams last Friday triggered expanded roles for Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi.
•Apple prefers an internal candidate with detailed succession plans to maintain continuity of its operational model.

At the ripe old age of 65—because CEOs apparently run like smartphones with planned obsolescence—Tim Cook might finally bow out after 14 years of shepherding Apple through skyscraper-sized growth and popcorn-worthy controversies. According to the Financial Times, the succession soap opera is heating up as COO Jeff Williams took his final bow on a Friday, leaving behind shuffled executive responsibility musical chairs. John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice-president of hardware engineering, is the board’s leading candidate to inherit the #AppleThrone, continuing Tim Cook’s legacy of outsourcing the world’s gadgets and quietly managing the empire from Cupertino’s cloud kingdom. Also stepping up in this real-life Game of iPhones: Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi, who just got bigger roles in the health, fitness, and services mashup—a clear sign Apple's mixing more flavors in the tech smoothie. Internal candidate preference confirmed because why train outsiders when your own hillfort has enough dragons?