Apple’s stock has been declining in 2025, and investors are eager for signs of recovery in the upcoming July earnings call. Critics have slammed the company’s AI initiatives as poorly executed, with one research firm even urging CEO Tim Cook to resign.
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez for Fortune:
As Apple’s stock trades down double digits since the start of the year, market onlookers are hoping its next earnings call will show strength and dispel doubts about Tim Cook’s leadership.
The iPhone maker has faced pressure across the board since the start of the year, especially as President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten its Asia supply chain. At the same time, some have claimed the company has fallen behind in the accelerating AI race, and may need to execute an uncharacteristically massive acquisition to catch up.
Amid all those obstacles, Apple’s stock is down about 16% year-to-date. And research firm LightShed Partners suggested in a recent note to clients that the company’s woes, in AI especially, mean Apple needs a shakeup at the top.
“Apple now needs a product-focused CEO, not one centered on logistics. Apple has ‘pulled the string’ on too many product categories, only to see them fall short of meaningful scale, or fail to materialize entirely,” wrote LightShed analysts Walter Piecyk and Joe Galone. “But AI is not something that Apple can merely ‘pull the string’ on. Missing on AI could fundamentally alter the company’s long-term trajectory and ability to grow at all.”
The analysts’ comments come in the wake of Apple’s annual WWDC, which Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called “a snoozer” which barely mentioned AI. The LightShed analysts noted that it would be kind to say Apple overpromised and underdelivered on its AI promises from last year to this year.
“Apple was nowhere with AI then, and little has changed since,” the note read.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s next CEO doesn’t need to be Steve Jobs, but does need to be much better than Tim Cook.
What should happen at Apple:
- Tim Cook retires (yesterday, preferably)
- Cook does not get Chairman of the Board position
- Apple hires a charismatic, visionary CEO in the mold of Jobs
- Company returns to path of inventive innovation
What likely will happen at Apple:
- Tim Cook hangs on for years
- When he finally retires as CEO, he becomes Chairman
- Apple hires another bland, myopic CEO in the mold of Cook
- Company continues on path of iterative stagnation
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Give it up!
Couldn’t agree more… its getting boring 😴
Apple is a very boring company now, in the mold of Cook. His departure is about the only subject that generates emotion anymore.
I’m fine with a change at the top. Could anyone at Mac Daily News offer up a replacement for Cook right now? Who is this product centric CEO you’re talking about. This group knows Apple inside and out so there must be a few potential replacements you have in mind. Remember how it went at Disney when Iger retired? Not so well and they had to force, yes they forced him back to get the company back on track. Would love to see this sites list of replacements. Who is Apple’s next Steve Jobs? Thanks!
MacDailyNews already covered this in a recent response on X:
Apple, which missed GenAI and is clearly way behind, needs fresh leadership to drive innovation. Your response is to employ a rhetorical tactic that avoids addressing the substance of the critique.
Our argument is not invalid unless a specific successor is named.
Tim Cook lacks vision and charisma. Apple’s product strategy has stagnated under Cook into an endless conveyor belt of iteration.
You dismiss the idea that Apple needs stronger leadership by demanding a perfect candidate, allowing you to sidestep the actual issue: Given its current issues, Apple would benefit from a more innovative, visionary, charismatic CEO…
Apple could benefit from a leader with a different approach, even if they don’t perfectly replicate Jobs’ style.
https://x.com/MacDailyNews/status/1944779529660035233
So no idea who this new leader would be, got it? Maybe Gil Amelio wants to come back and license Mac OS. Steve Jobs bought Siri after trying the app in I think 2009 and saw the future but, he could only do so much as his health unfortunately declined. So Siri was left to be the butt of jokes instead of taking that to mean it should be improved.
Who could lead Apple to a positive future?
The Bob Iger example is spot on, considering Apple’s history I’m nervous, only we don’t have the real Steve Jobs able to come back and save Apple again, do we?
Apple Buys OpenAI and grooms Sam Altman to be Cook’s replacement.
While I’m not a fan of Cook (and he does look like a creepy perv in that photo), I’d love to hear who do you think could replace him?
It’s easy to call for his resignation, but there’s no meaningful replac ment at Apple for him. I’d love to see Scott Forstall to return, but he clearly wants nothing to do with tech any longer…
Ive is gone and should stay gone, rest of the old guard has no spark, Federighi probably wants to just code and I question whether Ternus can explain difference between all those shades of grey, let alone run a proper product strategy.
Other analysts think Tim Cook should stay:
To those of you who think becoming the AI technology leader should be Apple’s “thing,” Mukunda pointed out that “there are a lot more ways to make Apple worse off than there are to make it better. If you are one of the largest, most profitable institutions in the history of the world, doing crazy things is a bad idea.”
They need someone that can spell the word “no”.
Reading the MDN Take on this “article” reminds me of why I left this site so many years ago. It’s sad to see that nothing’s changed but the ISP.
Too much truth, eh? It can hurt.
The pressure on Tim Cook is definitely heating up, and while he’s been an incredibly effective leader in terms of operations and scaling Apple’s global footprint, it’s fair to question whether his vision aligns with the fast-moving demands of AI innovation. The comparison to Steve Jobs always comes up, but maybe what Apple really needs is a hybrid someone with both visionary insight and solid product instincts. Still, I think writing off Apple too early is a mistake they’ve surprised us before.
the problem with Tim Cook’s departure is who he will hire on the way out the door. The chance of them putting a visionary like Jobs in charge is 0.00001 % Instead based off current corporate culture Id say is an Ideologue hire straight from HR. Unfortunately their is a good chance that Cook’s last decision will be his worse. If he can’t see the rise of AI, what’s the chance he will “see” the winning candidates with vision and talent?
Apple has turned from a company that delights customers to something that tries to make as much money off customers as possible. Breeds resentment from customers instead of loyalty.