Part of our iPhone 18 hub: every buy-or-wait guide for Apple's September 9 event.

John Ternus smiling, photographed in San Francisco in May 2026 — Photo: Amy Osborne / © European Union, 2026, via Wikimedia Commons (attribution licence). John Ternus during a European Parliament visit to San Francisco, May 28, 2026.

Apple · Leadership · Apple shoppers

Tim Cook steps down: what Apple's new CEO means for you

By Siddharth Kumar · Updated September 2026

Tim Cook stepped down as Apple CEO on September 1, 2026, and became executive chairman; hardware chief John Ternus is the new chief executive. For anyone shopping this fall, nothing immediate changes: the September 9 iPhone 18 Pro event, the new Mac mini and Mac Studio shipping September 22, and the rebuilt Siri were all planned under Cook with Ternus running hardware. Prices are not falling because of the handover; reported iPhone 18 Pro increases are driven by memory costs. Over the next several years, the choice of an engineer as CEO points to a stronger emphasis on device hardware and on-device AI.

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A CEO change at the most valuable consumer-products company on earth sounds like the kind of thing that should change what you buy. Mostly, it does not, at least not this year. Tim Cook ran Apple for fifteen years and handed the job to John Ternus on Tuesday. Ternus is the engineer who has led Apple hardware since 2021, so the products landing this fall are as much his as anyone's. Still, there are a few places where the handover does touch your wallet, a couple where people are drawing the wrong conclusions, and one bigger shift worth understanding if you are planning purchases over the next few years. Here is the honest map.

The worry	What's actually happening	What to do
Will iPhone prices drop under a new CEO?	No. Reports point to the iPhone 18 Pro rising by $200 or more, driven by memory costs, not leadership	Judge the September 9 prices on their own; wait for September 9 if you want a Pro
Will Siri finally get good?	The LLM-based Siri shown at WWDC is a software timeline. Ternus's first memo did not mention it	Do not buy hardware for a Siri that has not shipped
Is my current iPhone or Mac suddenly outdated?	No. The roadmap runs years ahead; nothing was cancelled or accelerated on September 1	Keep it; upgrade on your own schedule
Will the Mac get more attention?	Already happening: an all-new M6 and M5 Ultra generation arrived August 25, ahead of the iPhone event	If you need a desktop Mac, the new models ship September 22
iPhone 17 Pro (on sale now)	Unchanged by the handover; it is the model the 18 Pro reportedly iterates on, and it typically gets cheaper after the event	See on Amazon
MacBook 13-inch (on sale now)	The laptop Apple credits to Ternus; no update expected at the September event	See on Amazon

What changed on September 1, and what did not

Here is the whole list of things that actually changed. Cook's title went from CEO to executive chairman. Ternus's went from senior vice president of hardware engineering to CEO, and he joined the board. Arthur Levinson stepped from chairman to lead independent director. That is it. No product was cancelled, no price was cut, no roadmap was rewritten, because this transition was announced in April and the summer was spent making sure the handoff was boring. Apple's board approved it unanimously, and Cook stays inside the company with an explicit brief to handle governments and regulators, which is a large part of what a modern Apple CEO does anyway. If you are looking for a dramatic break, you will not find one in the paperwork. Look at the products instead.

Your iPhone decision this month is about September 9, not the CEO

The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, plus Apple's first foldable iPhone, are expected at the September 9 keynote, and everything about them was decided long before Tuesday. So was the unusual split that reportedly holds the standard iPhone 18 back to spring 2027. The one thing people keep asking is whether a new boss means a friendlier price, and the reporting says the opposite: Bloomberg, MacRumors, and IDC have all pointed to Pro prices rising, with estimates of $200 to $300 over the iPhone 17 Pro's $1,099 start, because memory has become expensive across the whole industry. A CEO cannot wish that away in his first month. The practical advice has not changed: if you want a Pro or a foldable, wait for the September 9 announcement; if you want a mainstream iPhone, the iPhone 17 is the one to buy and it gets cheaper once the new Pros arrive.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro (256GB, Deep Blue) — Amazon · See price on Amazon
Apple iPhone 17 (Black) — Amazon · See price on Amazon

The Mac is the first place you can see the new emphasis

If you want a preview of what a hardware-engineer CEO looks like, it arrived a week before he took the job. On August 25, Apple announced a new Mac mini with the M6 chip, Apple's first on a 2-nanometer process, and a new Mac Studio with the M5 Max and the quad-die M5 Ultra, which Apple calls its most powerful chip ever. Both ship September 22. Two things stand out. First, the timing: Apple launched a whole new chip generation in a desktop in late August rather than saving it for a fall Mac event, which reads as a company with more hardware to talk about than event slots. Second, the pricing: the Mac mini now starts at $899, up from $599 at the M4 model's launch, for a base of 16GB memory and 256GB storage. That is the memory-cost story again, and it is the clearest sign yet that Apple's answer to rising component prices is to raise prices and improve the product rather than hold prices and trim specs.

Apple MacBook 13-inch — Amazon · See price on Amazon

Siri and AI: the part the memo skipped

Apple's biggest customer-facing problem over the last two years has been Siri, and the fix, a rebuilt assistant on large language models that Apple previewed at WWDC in June, is still rolling out. Ternus's first memo mentioned products, values, and the September launch, and did not mention AI at all, which 9to5Mac flagged and which is worth noticing. It could mean he is saving it for the stage. It could mean he sees Apple's AI story as a hardware story: the analyst framing that Apple sells the 'picks and shovels' for on-device AI, with the chips in the Mac mini and the iPhone doing the work rather than a cloud service. Either way, the guidance for buyers does not change. Never buy a device for a software feature that has not shipped on it. If the new Siri matters to you, wait until it is running on the device you are considering and reviewers have lived with it.

The longer view: what an engineer CEO tends to do

Over a five-year horizon, this is where the handover matters. Cook's Apple grew by squeezing more revenue out of each device through services, and hardware changes were often careful and incremental. Ternus spent 25 years on the other side of that trade-off, and his stated pride points are reliability and new form factors. The near-term product calendar already leans his way: a foldable iPhone reportedly this month, a Home Hub with a seven-inch display and a redesigned iPad mini rumored for October, the first 2nm Macs now. Expect more hardware categories, more attention to durability and repairability, and, given the component climate, higher prices at the top of each line rather than lower ones. If you have been holding out for Apple hardware to get adventurous again, the next two years are the ones to watch. If you mainly care about your existing devices lasting, the emphasis on reliability is good news that costs you nothing.

Pros

Continuity: the handover was planned since April and Cook remains as executive chairman
A new chip generation (M6, M5 Ultra) arrived a week before he took over, so the hardware emphasis is already visible
Reliability and durability were named priorities in Apple’s own announcement

Cons

No relief on prices: reported iPhone 18 Pro increases and the $899 Mac mini reflect memory costs the new CEO inherits
Nothing in the first memo about Siri or AI, the area buyers are most impatient about

Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS + Cellular) — Amazon · See price on Amazon

The verdict

Buy or wait exactly as you would have last week. The CEO change is real and, over the long term, probably good for people who like hardware. For this fall it changes nothing about the September 9 decision, the new Macs, or Siri. The single actionable takeaway is that Apple under Ternus is raising prices at the top of each line while improving the product, so the value plays are last year's models right after each launch.

Who should skip this

Skip this whole line of thinking if you are buying a mainstream iPhone: the iPhone 17 is the pick, the standard iPhone 18 reportedly is not until spring 2027, and the CEO has no bearing on either. Skip it too if you are waiting for the new Siri to justify an upgrade; that is a software timeline, and you should buy when it ships, not when the org chart changes.

How we chose

This guide separates what is confirmed (Apple's April 20 announcement, the September 1 handover, Ternus's memo, the Mac mini and Mac Studio announced August 25) from what is reported (iPhone 18 Pro details and pricing, AirPods 5, October home products) and from what is our reading of the situation. Reported items are attributed to the outlets carrying them, chiefly Bloomberg, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, and AppleInsider. Our buying advice only covers products you can order today.

Frequently asked

When did Tim Cook step down as Apple CEO?

Effective September 1, 2026. Apple announced the succession on April 20, 2026, and Cook remained CEO through the summer to hand over to John Ternus. Cook is now executive chairman of the board.

Who replaced Tim Cook?

John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering since 2021 and a 25-year Apple veteran. He joined the board when he became CEO.

Will the new CEO lower iPhone prices?

There is no sign of that. Reports from Bloomberg, MacRumors, and IDC point to iPhone 18 Pro prices rising by $200 or more over the iPhone 17 Pro because of higher memory costs. The August Mac mini also launched at $899, up from $599 for the previous generation.

Does the CEO change affect the September 9 event?

Only symbolically: it is Ternus's first keynote as CEO, and he teased 'a huge launch next week' in his first memo. The products themselves, reportedly the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and a foldable iPhone, were planned years in advance while he ran hardware.

Should I wait to buy a Mac until the new CEO settles in?

No. The new Mac mini (M6 and M5 Pro) and Mac Studio (M5 Max and M5 Ultra) were announced August 25 and ship September 22. Those are the current desktop Macs regardless of who is CEO. Laptops were not part of that announcement; a MacBook Pro update is rumored for October.

What happens to Siri under John Ternus?

Unknown beyond what Apple showed at WWDC. Ternus's first memo did not mention AI or Siri. The rebuilt, LLM-based Siri is expected to roll out with the new iPhones and updated home devices, but the sensible rule stands: do not buy hardware for a software feature that has not shipped.