iPhone maker Apple has announced the appointment of a new chief executive officer. In a statement on Monday, Apple said it will make current CEO Tim Cook the company's executive chairman and senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus the CEO. The change will take effect on September 1, 2026. Cook said it was a great opportunity to lead Apple. Praising Ternus, Cook described him as "an engineer's mind, an innovator's spirit, and a sense of integrity," and said he was the right person to lead the company. Ternus said he was grateful for the new role and committed to advancing Apple's goals. He said he has spent most of his career at Apple and recalled the opportunity to work with Steve Jobs and Tim Cook as a valuable experience. Cook has been with Apple since 1998. He became CEO in 2011 and introduced products such as Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Vision Pro, and services such as iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple TV, and Apple Music to the market. Under his leadership as CEO, the company has achieved significant financial and organizational expansion, according to an Apple statement. ‘Since Cook took over, the company’s market value has increased from about $350 billion to $4 trillion, an increase of more than 1,000 percent,’ the statement said. ‘The company’s annual revenue has also nearly quadrupled. Revenue, which was $108 billion in 2011, is expected to reach more than $416 billion by 2025.’  Since he became CEO, Apple’s stock price has increased by 1,700 percent, according to NBC News journalist Christy Roman.  Apple has significantly expanded its presence in emerging markets like India during Cook’s tenure, Apple said. Apple now operates in more than 200 countries and territories and has more than 500 retail stores. During Cook's tenure, the company added more than 100,000 new employees and the number of Apple devices in active use exceeded 2.5 billion, the statement said.

"Cook steered the company through global events that affected the company, including the COVID-19 pandemic and President Donald Trump's tariff policies and trade war with China,"

CNN journalist Lisa Iadicco wrote. "However, Apple's recent expansion into newer areas, such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, has not been successful. The company's expensive Apple Vision Pro headset is still limited to a few users."

According to CNN, Apple was expected to bring a special update to its voice assistant 'Siri' this year to compete with AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. However, it has been delayed. There has been talk that Apple is lagging behind in AI and this is a challenge for it. Analysts have been constantly raising questions with Tim Cook about its AI strategy.

In such an environment, Ternus is going to take over the role of CEO after Cook. He started working at the company in 2001 from the product design team. The company has stated that he played a key role in the development of products like the iPad and iPod. Just last month, he unveiled Apple's first affordable MacBook, the 'MacBook Neo'.

Now he is expected to bring major improvements to Apple's popular products like Siri and the iPhone. The Siri update is expected to be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. According to Bloomberg, Apple plans to unveil its first folding iPhone in September. Just a few days ago,