Ok here me out… Johnny Appleseed has a nice ring to it…

So it appears that Tim Apple might be getting on his high horse and riding off into the sunset… and naturally, the internet is salivating over it. After 14 years of treating Apple like a hyper-optimized Foxconn for rich people, the Financial Times just dropped the juiciest rumor in tech: 2026 might be Tim’s final lap as CEO.

(Source: Giphy) 

Let that sink in for just one moment. The man who turned Apple into a $4T services vending machine may finally be handing the keys to the spaceship over to a new pilot… John Ternus, current hardware chief, charismatic golden boy, and apparently the only guy left at Apple who remembers what “building new products” means. And honestly, it might be time. Especially considering the last 3 years at Apple have had the energy of a divorced dad trying to get into crypto.

(Source: New York Post) 

Case in point: sales targets for the Vision Pro face computer, got halved so quickly the marketing team probably had whiplash. Siri’s upgrade has been punted to 2026 because Apple’s AI roadmap currently consists of: a notes app, a wish, and Tim Cook saying “we’re very excited about the future” for the 600th time. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the sock. Security should’ve taken Tim Appl and walked him out of HQ for that one. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Google are legit  bench-pressing GPUs and waterboarding the market with what seems like new AI launches every 4 days. Translation: You can only hide behind “privacy sanctity” for so long before Wall Street starts asking where the hell the innovation went.

Which is why, it’s not hard to see why some are horned up over Johnny Appleseed’s coronation. For instance, Ternus has been at Apple since 2001, meaning he was building iPods while most of Gen Z was eating glue. He’s respected. He’s charismatic. He can string together a keynote sentence without sounding like he's reading an IRS audit. But most importantly, he  ran the shift to Apple Silicon, the one legitimately baller move Apple has made in the last decade. Mac sales exploded, battery life doubled, and Intel got kneecapped because of it. So obviously, investors love him. Apple nerds love him. Heck Tim probably loves him too, in that “please don’t touch my office chair” kind of way LOL.

(Source: Reddit) 

With that said, Wedbush’s Dan Ives basically said: “Those who think Cook is leaving before 2027 can kick rocks.” Is he right? Maybe. Who knows. To be fair, while Apple’s innovation has let itself go… under Cook, Apple’s market cap didn’t grow… it exploded tenfold. Even Steve Jobs… the man, the myth, the legend… didn’t get Apple anywhere near that. Then again, one could say Cook just milked what Jobs set up. Regardless, Tim Cook actually leaving is a toss up. But when he does… Johnny Appleseed is next in line, allegedly. 

So where does Apple go from here? Well the company is clearly at a crossroads. Sure, shares are near all-time highs, but still getting absolutely pantsed by Microsoft and Google in the middle of the most technology efficient timeline in history. So yeah… maybe a little leadership shuffle wouldn’t hurt. In the end, whether Cook leaves in 2026 or decides to cling to the Iron Throne, one thing is clear: Apple hasn’t felt this dramatic since the day the iPhone stopped shipping with chargers. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News holds positions in Apple, Google, and Microsoft as mentioned in the article.