00:00Who's next in Apple's CEO hot seat after Tim Cook?
00:04According to Financial Times sources, succession planning, already in motion for years, has now entered the let's be extra ready phase.
00:13In case Tim Cook decides 2026 is the year he trades Apple Park for a well-earned sabbatical.
00:20This isn't about performance or crisis management.
00:23Cook is still Cook, understated, unflappable, and quietly printing billions.
00:29But Apple's leadership roster is getting seasoned.
00:33Many top executives are now north of 60, and for a company of Apple's scale, grooming the next captain of the spaceship is as mandatory as the annual iPhone color refresh.
00:44The company likely won't say anything publicly until after its blockbuster January earnings call.
00:49But insiders think an announcement early in the year would give a new leadership team time to settle in before WWDC and the fall iPhone launch, Apple's equivalent of Super Bowl season.
01:03The timing of the report is interesting.
01:06It lands just after longtime COO.
01:10Jeff Williams officially retired in November, following a July step-down that passed the operational baton to Sabi Khan.
01:18Williams had long been floated as a natural successor to Cook, but his retirement all but closes that chapter.
01:25The current shortlist has three names, all very familiar to Apple Watchers.
01:31The frontrunner is John Ternus, the 50-year-old SVP of hardware engineering, who has been quietly reshaping Apple's device lineup.
01:40Then there's Craig Federighi, the charismatic, hair-model-esque SVP of software engineering.
01:48With his years of WWDC, stage presence, and meme-ready charm, he'd be Apple's most outward-facing CEO since honestly, ever.
01:58Rounding out the list.
02:00Greg Jaws-Jawswiak, the marketing SVP, who has spent 30 years steering Apple's messaging.
02:06And the face of pro-level iPhones.
02:08Whoever gets the job will inherit one of the most powerful seats in tech.
02:14And Apple, always allergic to surprises, is making sure the handoff is as polished as the chamfered edges on a MacBook.
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