Tim Cook’s act is difficult to follow. That doesn’t mean Apple’s future isn’t very bright. The company announced late Monday that John Tarnas, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, will become executive chairman, replacing longtime CEO Cook. Jim Cramer said Tuesday it was “very sad” news, but his belief in the stock remained steadfast. Ternus, who will assume the role on September 1, joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and has extensive experience bringing some of the company’s most popular devices to market, including the iPhone, iPod, iPad and Apple Watch. “This new hire really understands hardware, and we need that,” Jim said during Tuesday’s morning meeting. “Many of the different products that we all really love are his.” Ternus is credited with being part of the team that developed AirPods and redesigned the Mac computer. Kramer is not alone in his optimism. Several Wall Street companies issued positive comments after the successor announcement. “John Tarnas was clearly the right choice given his 25-year career as an engineer at the company,” Melius Research said. “He clearly knows how to focus on great hardware…that drives a great customer experience.” Meanwhile, Bank of America said Apple “could be entering a new era of devices” and that 2027 “could be a big product year” as a result of Ternas’ design experience. To be sure, Ternus has big challenges. One of his biggest challenges will be to step out of Cook’s shadow and chart his own path to success, just as Cook did when he took over from founder Steve Jobs in 2011. Since then, Apple’s market cap has jumped from about $350 billion to $4 trillion, and its stock price has increased an astonishing 1,900%. Annual sales nearly quadrupled from $108 billion in fiscal year 2011 to more than $416 billion in fiscal year 2025. Mr. Cook has done that by turning Apple’s services division into a high-margin business that has become increasingly important to the company’s bottom line. “Apple’s success story stands on Mount Rushmore of technology heavyweights in American corporate history,” Wedbush said in the memo, adding that Cook was one of the factors “contributing to it.” President Donald Trump also praised Cook’s tenure. “I’ve gotten to know him very well. He’s a great guy. He’s done an unbelievable job,” he said on Tuesday’s Squawk on the Street. “He gets things done.” We have praised Cook in the past for deftly navigating President Trump’s 2025 tariff threat by investing more in Apple’s U.S. manufacturing. Despite the high bar, Ternus is stepping into the CEO role with a number of exciting initiatives underway, including AI upgrades to the Siri assistant and a foldable iPhone. “He leaves the company in great hands,” Jeff Marks, director of portfolio analysis at Investing Club, said at the morning meeting. “We look forward to watching new CEO Ternus take the company to the next level.” Ternus also appears to be embracing the company’s long-standing customer-first mindset, consistently prioritizing quality and innovation over first-to-market. Case in point: The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone, but its advantages are unparalleled. Cook focused on consumers in Monday’s letter accompanying the company’s announcement. “For the past 15 years, I’ve started almost every morning the same way, opening my email and reading the notes I’d received the day before from Apple users around the world,” Cook said. “You share with me parts of your life and tell me what you want me to know about how Apple has impacted you,” Tarnas said, quoting the same page from Cook’s book. “I think he has this idea that the customer is always right, which is great,” Kramer said. The icing on the successor’s cake? Given that Tarnas is only 50 years old, there could be a long tenure ahead of him. After all, Mr. Cook, now 65, became CEO at the same age and remained in the role for more than a decade. “He could go a long way,” Kramer said. (See here for a complete list of Jim Cramer Charitable Trust stocks.) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club, you will receive trade alerts before Jim makes a trade. After Jim sends a trade alert, he waits 45 minutes before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he will issue a trade alert and then wait 72 hours before executing the trade. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, along with our disclaimer. No fiduciary duties or obligations exist or arise from your receipt of information provided in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or benefits are guaranteed.
