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With the surprising retirement of Apple COO Jeff Williams on Tuesday, the frontrunner for the next CEO of Apple is now out of the race.
Everyone is pegging John Ternus or Craig Federighi, Apple’s charismatic heads of hardware and software, respectively, as the new top picks.
But the situation reminds me strongly of when Steve Jobs died, and a lot of pundits pegged designer Jony Ive as Jobs’ replacement. I think this had everything to do with Ive’s high profile. After Jobs, he was the most recognizable face of the company.
The same is true of Ternus and Federighi. Because of their turns heading up WWDC and product videos, they both have high public profiles.
But there’s another candidate that no one seems to be mentioning, and their career at Apple somewhat resembles Cook’s own. This candidate has risen high up the ranks and has been tapped by Cook to fill ever more executive roles, just as Cook was tasked to do under Jobs.
Based on this, here’s who I think should be given serious consideration as a CEO candidate when Cook steps down.
What do you think? Take the poll below.
Also in today’s newsletter:
Prime Day is in full swing, and if you’re in the shopping mood, we’ve updated our main guide to the best Apple deals.We’ve also got separate posts on headphones and earbuds; portable speakers; MagSafe chargers; and MacBooks. I wish I didn’t already have a MacBook Air cos this one’s a steal, and so is the base M4 MacBook Pro. And I want this Bose SoundLink boombox so bad, but I’ve already got a million portable speakers.
Talking of M4 Macs, the new machines are flying off the shelves.
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Can’t say I’m a heavy Vision Pro user, but I’m pretty excited about version 2, which sounds like a significant upgrade, although it’s biggest problem remains.
Cult of Mac writer Ed “Mr iPad” Hardy reviewed Logitech’s new Flip Folio iPad case and thinks it’s better than Apple’s Magic Keyboard in a bunch of ways.
The first thing I noticed about today’s featured setup is, why is there two (or three!) of everything?
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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Tweets of the day
This is y’all in a nutshell.
— Finder (@MacOSFinder)
7:19 PM • Jul 8, 2025
It’s both exhilarating and slightly nerve-wracking to power on the 1976 Apple-1 computer in our collection. This is a necessary task to maintain some of the components that might otherwise fail due to prolonged disuse.
However, using a computer that’s almost 50 years old and
— The AAPL Collection (@AAPLcollection)
7:59 AM • Jul 9, 2025
Wallpaper of the day
Tap, Hold and Load in 4K ⚝
— 𝖆𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖙𝖎𝖈 ੫𝚔 (@wallpapers_tore)
6:00 PM • Jul 9, 2025
One more thing ...
This chokes me up. This really chokes me up. It was so clear that Lee [Clow of Chiat/Day] loved Apple so much. Here was the best guy in advertising. And he hadn’t pitched in ten years. Yet here he was, and he was pitching his heart out, because he loved Apple as much as we did. He and his team had come up with this brilliant idea, ‘Think Different.’ And it was ten times better than anything the other agencies showed. It choked me up, and it still makes me cry to think about it, both the fact that Lee cared so much and also how brilliant his ‘Think Different’ idea was. Every once in a while, I find myself in the presence of purity — purity of spirit and love — and I always cry. It always just reaches in and grabs me. That was one of those moments. There was a purity about that I will never forget. I cried in my office as he was showing me the idea, and I still cry when I think about it.
Today’s poll
Who do you think will be Apple's next CEO? |
Results from yesterday’s poll: Any fans of “Slow Horses” here?
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