Goodbye Tim Cook, Hello John Ternus: Apple’s CEOs Through The Ages

John Ternus takes over as Apple’s CEO today, stepping into a role that looks very different from the one Tim Cook inherited in 2011. Apple has moved from computers to smartphones, wearables and custom chips, with each era bringing its own products, priorities and challenges.

Looking at the people who have led the company also gives us a pretty good way of seeing how technology itself has changed around Apple. From the early days of the Apple II to the iPhone and the current push toward AI, each era has brought a different idea of what technology should look like and how people should use it.

Where Apple Started

Apple’s earlier years were focused on getting computers into people’s homes and turning a small technology company into a proper viable business. Michael Scott became Apple’s first CEO in 1977, followed by Mike Markkula in 1981, while Apple described the Apple II helped become a recognisable name in the computer market.

There was obviously no iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods or App Store yet, and Apple was still trying to work out what kind of computer company it wanted to be. The technology industry was changing quickly as computers became more common in homes and businesses.

The Macintosh Era

John Sculley became CEO in 1983, just before the Macintosh arrived in 1984. The computer was designed to make computing easier to understand and use, with things like icons, windows and a mouse replacing the need to type commands for everything. It also helped strengthen Apple’s reputation for combining technology with design.

The PC market was becoming quite competitive, with IBM-compatible computers and Microsoft becoming stronger competitors. Sculley’s relationship with Steve Jobs also deteriorated, as The Washington Post reported during this period, eventually leading to Jobs leaving Apple in 1985. Apple was still a big name in computing, but it was a long way from becoming the company we know today.

The Years Apple Was Still Finding Its Way

Michael Spindler became CEO in 1993, followed by Gil Amelio in 1996, as Apple struggled with a difficult period, competition from Windows PCs and a range of products that weren’t performing as well as the company needed them to.

Amelio’s time at Apple was short, but one decision would have a much bigger impact than it first appeared. In 1996, Apple bought NeXT, the company Steve Jobs had started after leaving Apple. The deal brought Jobs back and gave Apple the software that would later form the basis of Mac OS X.

The Jobs Era Changes The Products

When Steve Jobs returned in 1997, According to TIME’s archive from 1998, Apple cut back on its range of products, with Jobs reducing the company’s 15 different computers to two main categories. The iMac gave the Mac a new look, the iPod took Apple into digital music and the iPhone changed what people expected from a phone.

The iPod arrived in 2001, as music was moving from CDs to digital files. Apple made that change easier by combining the iPod with iTunes, which gave people a way to move their music collection onto a small device that they could carry around. According to Apple, the original iPod could hold up to 1000 songs and offered up to 10 hours of battery life. Apple also said its Auto-Sync feature could transfer a user’s iTunes music and playlists to the device automatically.

At the time, having that much music in something you could carry around in your pocket was a pretty cool concept. Then came the iPhone in 2007, which combined a phone, an iPod and internet access all into one device. Apple described the original iPhone as three products in one, with a touchscreen that allowed users to control it with their fingers.

Apple went from making computers that sat on desks to making technology that people could carry around all day.

Tim Cook Builds On What Was Already There

Tim Cook became CEO in 2011 after previously running Apple’s operations, taking over a company that already had some of the biggest names in consumer technology. Rather than one product defining his time at the top, Apple expanded around devices people were already using.

The Apple Watch arrived in 2015 and AirPods followed in 2016, while services such as Apple Music, iCloud and Apple Pay became a bigger part of the company. In 2020, Apple also announced that the Mac would move away from Intel processors and use its own Apple silicon chips. The company said its first M1 chip was designed to improve performance and battery life. The move to its own chips also showed how much more Apple was doing itself, including the technology inside its own products.

A New Era Now Begins With John Ternus

John Ternus becomes CEO today after more than 20 years at Apple, including his time leading the company’s hardware engineering team. Apple announced in April that Tim Cook would become executive chairman while Ternus took over as CEO on 1 September 2026.

Ternus takes over as AI is becoming one of the biggest areas of competition in technology. Apple has been adding AI features to its products, but Reuters reported today that catching up with its rivals in AI will be one of the big challenges facing their new CEO.

He isn’t starting from scratch, however, as he takes over a company with the iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods, services and its own chips already in place, leaving him to work out where Apple goes from here.

What Will Define The Next Era

Looking back at Apple’s history shows how much the company has changed over the years. The Apple II helped establish Apple in personal computers, the Macintosh made computing easier for more people to use, the iPod put digital music in people’s pockets and the iPhone turned the smartphone into something much more than a phone.

Under Cook, Apple added more products and services while also taking more control over the technology inside its devices. Now Ternus takes over all of that, having spent so many years working on the hardware behind many of the products he will now oversee.

We obviously can’t know yet what product or technology will define his time as CEO, and honestly, trying to predict it now would probably be a bit pointless when the technology Apple is known for today wasn’t always obvious when these CEOs first took over.