Why these analysts think it's time for a new Apple CEO
The analysts weren't suggesting a logo or product redesign. Instead, they called for the replacement of Tim Cook, the CEO who directly succeeded Steve Jobs in 2011 and helped catapult the company to its $3 trillion valuation.
Walter Piecyk and Joe Galone of LightShed Partners, a New York-based technology, media and telecommunications research firm, are questioning whether Cook is still the right person to lead one of the world's most valuable companies amid concerns that it's fallen behind in AI — a technology that's already disrupting work, education and other facets of everyday life. Apple has already faced pressure to come up with a new hit product as sales of smartphones, Apple's biggest revenue driver, have slowed across the industry.
'Apple now needs a product-focused CEO, not one centered on logistics,' the pair wrote on July 9.
Replacing Cook would be a high-stakes move for Apple; the company is already undergoing leadership changes elsewhere in the C-suite, and changing CEOs could further pull focus away from running Apple's core business. Cook is also widely supported by Apple's board and has 'staying power akin to other captains of industry' such as Disney's Bob Iger and JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who has long tracked Apple's business strategy.
There's no evidence to indicate Cook is going anywhere soon. Shares of Apple (AAPL) have skyrocketed under Cook's tenure, during which he's also built other lucrative products after the iPhone's success — such as smartwatches, earbuds and digital services.
To be sure, the LightShed note is just one take in a crowded field of analysts and researchers who follow Apple's business. But it is perhaps an indication that Apple's AI setbacks are bigger than a standard product delay — to some, they're shaking confidence in Apple's ability to innovate. And Piecyk and Galone aren't the only ones questioning whether Apple needs fresh leadership.
'He's a supply chain guy. They need a tech visionary,' said Ted Mortonson, managing director and technology sector strategist at financial services company Baird. 'I think they're in a lot more trouble than some people think.'
Apple did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
Apple has grappled with a litany of challenges so far in 2025, among them: President Donald Trump's tariff threats; fresh restrictions from the European Union on how it runs its valuable App Store; and a federal judge allowing an antitrust lawsuit alleging it has monopolized the smartphone market to proceed.
But concerns about the iPhone maker's slow progress in AI have been front and center.
The company in March said it's delaying a long-awaited update to Siri that would have enabled it to answer more complex questions with personalized answers and handle tasks on a user's behalf. That type of change would bring Siri closer to more modern AI agents like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.
The company hasn't said much about when the revamped Siri will arrive aside from needing 'more time to reach our high-quality bar,' Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said in June at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference.
The concern is broader than Siri alone, it's that Apple doesn't seem to have much to show for its AI efforts so far, Creative Strategies CEO and principal analyst Ben Bajarin told CNN earlier this year. Apple has shaken up its AI leadership in an effort to accelerate its efforts in the space, according to Bloomberg.
Apple Intelligence, which arrived in 2024 following the iPhone 16's September launch, includes tools that can summarize notifications, transcribe phone calls, erase objects in photos, and use an iPhone's camera to search Google or prompt ChatGPT and create images.
Although Apple delayed the Siri update, it did announce a batch of new AI features coming this fall, including live-language translation, AI-generated workout insights for the Apple Watch and enhancements to existing features.
But many of these upgrades are Apple playing catch-up to tools already offered by other tech companies, and may not be enough to position Apple as a leader.
'(Cook) has done a great job of getting Apple to where it is, but the environment certainly has changed,' said Thomas Martin, partner and senior portfolio manager at investment firm Globalt. 'They are really struggling on the AI front. It's a different animal, because AI is software, and Apple is traditionally almost exclusively hardware.'
Under Cook's watch, other high-profile products or projects have fallen short of expectations in recent years.
Last year, Apple launched the $3,500 Vision Pro headset, heralding it as the future of computing. But more than a year on, it remains a niche, novelty device as some of Apple's competitors are moving ahead with more stylish and practical augmented reality glasses.
Also in 2024, Apple reportedly ended a decade-long effort to build an electric car, known internally as Project Titan, pulling the plug on what was believed to be an ambitious, expensive endeavor.
Apple has made other significant changes to its leadership. Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri was replaced at the start of 2025, although he remains vice president of corporate services according to Apple's website. And the company announced that longtime Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams will leave the post this month and retire this year.
Cook, 64, has been Apple's CEO for nearly 14 years and is widely respected for his operational acumen. He stepped out of the shadow of one of America's most iconic CEOs, Steve Jobs, and built a global supply chain and ecosystem of products and services that maintained Apple's place as one of the world's most valuable companies.
He also carved out an important role for Apple in the digital health space with the Apple Watch, which was introduced in 2014 and was the first major new product launched under Cook's tenure. Apple is now a market leader in wearable technology, which includes both the Apple Watch and other devices like its AirPods — it claimed nearly a quarter of the global market for wearables as of the fourth quarter of 2024, according to market research firm the International Data Corporation.
Under Cook's leadership, Apple's market cap went from just over $342 billion in August 2011 to roughly $3 trillion today. Even the two LightShed Partners analysts have acknowledged that Cook has done 'a great job.'
'To be clear, Tim Cook was the right CEO at the time of his appointment and unquestionably has done a great job,' the analysts wrote.
And further change to Apple's executive ranks might hinder their efforts to expand in AI.
unknown content item
-
'I think the last thing you want to do is further rock the boat by putting Tim Cook's job on the line,' said CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino. 'I don't think Apple would even consider doing that.'
He added that while it's clear Apple isn't moving fast enough in AI, 'getting rid of Tim Cook' may not be the answer.
Instead, the company could address its AI challenges with an acquisition — the company has reportedly discussed buying AI startup Perplexity — or by deepening its partnership with OpenAI, or following in Meta's footsteps by investing more heavily in top talent, Zino said.
It's rare for any company to keep a CEO for more than 10 years, says William Klepper, academic director in executive education at Columbia Business School and author of the book 'The CEO's Boss: Tough Love in the Boardroom.'
'Organizations go up and down, right? It's just this nature of what we call the cycle of business,' he said. 'And where they are now is in what I would call kind of a static state.'
Keppler notes that the 10-year time frame isn't random. It usually coincides with a major disruptor that alters a company's business model, which in this case is AI. During those periods of change, companies like Apple need to support their core business while simultaneously adapting to what is coming next.
'From my research and my model, you need a change agent … because you got to start a second wave,' he said. 'You can't stay in an executive leadership role when you're at a point of inflection and need to change.'
Companies usually install new CEOs for three reasons: in response to a scandal, to fix a crisis or over a loss of trust and competence, says Sandra Sucher, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. None of those scenarios apply to Cook or Apple.
But one thing's clear: Pressure is mounting on Apple to figure it out –— and fast.
'Do we have an Intel-ing of Apple?' said Martin, referring to the once-leading American chipmaker that fell far behind rivals like Nvidia and AMD after missing several major technology waves.
'That would be so sad.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
7 minutes ago
- Newsweek
AI Hiring Favors Women Over Equally Qualified Men, Study Finds
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. As artificial intelligence takes on a bigger role in corporate hiring — with many companies touting its impartiality — one researcher's findings suggest the technology may be more biased than humans, and is alread favoring women over equally qualified men. David Rozado, an associate professor at the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and a well-known AI researcher, tested 22 large language models (LLMs)—including popular, consumer-facing apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok—using pairs of identical résumés that differed only by gendered names. His findings revealed that every single LLM was more likely to select the female-named candidate over the equally qualified male candidate. "This pattern may reflect complex interactions between model pre-training corpora, annotation processes during preference tuning, or even system-level guardrails for production deployments," Rozado told Newsweek. "But the exact source of the behavior is currently unclear." A Problem With Men? Rozado's findings reveal not just that AI models tend to favor women for jobs over men, but also how nuanced and pervasive those biases can be. Across more than 30,000 simulated hiring decisions, female-named candidates were chosen 56.9 percent of the time — a statistically significant deviation from gender neutrality, which would have resulted in a 50–50 split. When an explicit gender field was added to a CV — a practice common in countries like Germany and Japan — the preference for women became even stronger. Rozado warned that although the disparities were relatively modest, they could accumulate over time and unfairly disadvantage male candidates. "These tendencies persisted regardless of model size or the amount of compute leveraged," Rozado noted. "This strongly suggests that model bias in the context of hiring decisions is not determined by the size of the model or the amount of 'reasoning' employed. The problem is systemic." The models also exhibited other quirks. Many showed a slight preference for candidates who included preferred pronouns. Adding terms such as "she/her" or "he/him" to a CV slightly increased a candidate's chances of being selected. "My experimental design ensured that candidate qualifications were distributed equally across genders, so ideally, there would be no systematic difference in selection rates. However, the results indicate that LLMs may sometimes make hiring decisions based on factors unrelated to candidate qualifications, such as gender or the position of the candidates in the prompt," he said. Rozado, who is also a regular collaborator with the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, emphasized that the biggest takeaway is that LLMs, like human decision-makers, can sometimes rely on irrelevant features when the task is overdetermined and/or underdetermined. "Over many decisions, even small disparities can accumulate and impact the overall fairness of a process," he said. However, Rozado also acknowledged a key limitation of his study: it used synthetic CVs and job descriptions rather than real-world applications, which may not fully capture the complexity and nuance of authentic résumés. Additionally, because all CVs were closely matched in qualifications to isolate gender effects, the findings may not reflect how AI behaves when candidates' skills vary more widely. "It is important to interpret these results carefully. The intention is not to overstate the magnitude of harm, but rather to highlight the need for careful evaluation and mitigation of any bias in automated decision tools," Rozado added. AI Is Already Reshaping the Hiring Process Even as researchers debate the biases in AI systems, many employers have already embraced the technology to streamline hiring. A New York Times report this month described how AI-powered interviewer bots now speak directly with candidates, asking questions and even simulating human pauses and filler words. Jennifer Dunn, a marketing professional in San Antonio, said her AI interview with a chatbot named Alex "felt hollow" and she ended it early. "It isn't something that feels real to me," she told the Times. Another applicant, Emily Robertson-Yeingst, wondered if her AI interview was just being used to train the underlying LLM: "It starts to make you wonder, was I just some sort of experiment?" Job seekers attends the South Florida Job Fair held at the Amerant Bank Arena on June 26, 2024 in Sunrise, Florida. More than 50 companies set up booths to recruit people from entry-level to... Job seekers attends the South Florida Job Fair held at the Amerant Bank Arena on June 26, 2024 in Sunrise, Florida. More than 50 companies set up booths to recruit people from entry-level to management. Open jobs include police officers, food service, security, sales reps, technicians, customer service, IT, teacher assistants, insurance agents, and account executives. More Photo byStill, some organizations defend the use of AI recruiters as both efficient and scalable, especially in a world where the ease of online job-searching means open positions often field hundreds if not thousands of applicants. Propel Impact told the Times their AI interviews enabled them to screen 500 applicants this year — more than triple what they managed previously. Rozado, however, warned that the very features companies find appealing — speed and efficiency — can mask underlying vulnerabilities. "Over many decisions, even small disparities can accumulate and impact the overall fairness of a process," he said. "Similarly, the finding that being listed first in the prompt increases the likelihood of selection underscores the importance of not trusting AI blindly." More Research Needed Not all research points to the same gender dynamic Rozado identified. A Brookings Institution study this year found that, in some tests, men were actually favored over women in 51.9 percent of cases, while racial bias strongly favored white-associated names over Black-associated names. Brookings' analysis stressed that intersectional identities, such as being both Black and male, often led to the greatest disadvantages. Rozado and the Brookings team agree, however, that AI hiring systems are not ready to operate autonomously in high-stakes situations. Both recommend robust audits, transparency, and clear regulatory standards to minimize unintended discrimination. "Given current evidence of bias and unpredictability, I believe LLMs should not be used in high-stakes contexts like hiring, unless their outputs have been rigorously evaluated for fairness and reliability," Rozado said. "It is essential that organizations validate and audit AI tools carefully, particularly for applications with significant real-world impact."
CNN
8 minutes ago
- CNN
Apple just spent $500 million to source a material that's critical for iPhones from the US
Apple is investing $500 million in a deal with US rare earths company MP Materials as the iPhone maker faces pressure from President Donald Trump to produce its popular smartphones domestically. As part of the partnership announced on Tuesday, Apple committed to buying rare earth magnets directly from MP Materials to help bolster its US supply chain. Apple will also collaborate with the company on a new recycling line in California, which will repurpose recycled rare earth materials to use in Apple products. The move is part of a $500 billion investment Apple announced earlier this year to expand its US operations as the Trump administration pushes to onshore technology manufacturing and reduce reliance on China. Rare earths, which are critical for everything from smartphones to TVs and military jets, have been a key bargaining chip in trade talks between Washington and Beijing. That's because China controls nearly all rare earths processing. 'American innovation drives everything we do at Apple, and we're proud to deepen our investment in the US economy,' Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a press release. 'Rare earth materials are essential for making advanced technology, and this partnership will help strengthen the supply of these vital materials here in the United States.' MP Materials' facility in Fort Worth, Texas, will create new magnet manufacturing lines specifically for Apple products. Shipments are expected to begin in 2027 and will eventually support 'hundreds of millions of Apple devices,' according to MP Materials. The materials will be delivered throughout the United States and around the world. Apple says the expansion will create dozens of new jobs. Both companies will also provide training to develop a US workforce for magnet manufacturing. China has a virtual monopoly on rare earth elements, which are critical components for everyday products from smartphones to wind turbines to LED lights and flat-screen TVs. They're also crucial for batteries in electric vehicles as well as MRI scanners and cancer treatments. The name rare earths is also a bit of a misnomer. The materials are found throughout the Earth's crust but are difficult and costly to extract and process. China has the only equipment needed to process some of the various elements and currently controls 92% of the global output in the processing stage. While the MP Materials deal could help Apple curry favor with Trump amid tariff threats, it also aligns with Apple's efforts to incorporate more recycled materials into its products – a plan already in place long before Trump took office. The iPhone 16e, which launched earlier this year, includes 30 percent recycled content, for example. Apple says it uses recycled rare earths in its major products, including in magnets found in the latest iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, MacBook and Mac models. The Trump administration has been pushing for Apple and other tech giants to produce their products in the United States rather than rely on assembly facilities and supply chain operations largely located in China, India and Vietnam. 'I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone's that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,' Trump posted on Truth Social in May. 'If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.' Apple hasn't discussed plans to move iPhone manufacturing to the US, and doing so seems unlikely. That's because it would require the tech giant to upend how it builds its most lucrative product. Critically, Apple and MP Manufacturing's collaboration involves developing the talent pool needed for magnet manufacturing. That's part of the reason why it's so challenging to move iPhone production to the United States – America lacks the highly specialized labor required to do so, experts have said. 'The expertise to make each of the components is something that has to be worked on for a long period of time,' David Marcotte, senior vice president at international market research company Kantar, previously told CNN. Cook has also spoken about the labor gap in the past, describing the workforce in China as being a combination of 'craftsman' skills, 'sophisticated robotics' and 'the computer science world' when speaking at a Fortune Magazine event in 2017. But the commitment to invest in US-sourced rare earths is likely to please Trump. The president has touted Apple's previous investment announcement as a victory in his efforts to boost American manufacturing. Apple is just one of many tech giants that have expanded their American footprint over the past several months. Texas Instruments committed $60 billion to make semiconductors in the United States in June, and Taiwanese chipmaking giant TSMC invested $100 billion in US manufacturing in March. Leading AI chipmaker Nvidia also said it would build its supercomputers in the United States in April. – CNN's Chris Isidore contributed to this report
Android Authority
13 minutes ago
- Android Authority
This new power bank is a Qi 2.2 first. Here's what it means for your next phone
TL;DR The UGREEN MagFlow is the first power bank with official Qi 2.2 certification. Qi 2.2 enables faster 25W magnetic wireless charging with improved heat control. Most Android phones can't take full advantage yet, but support is expected to grow. Magnetic wireless charging has been a talking point in 2025, with Android phones like the Galaxy S25 offering partial support through accessories, but no true adoption of the full Qi 2 standard. However, UGREEN's latest announcement of a new milestone is a sign of what's coming, even if most Android users won't benefit just yet. The company's new MagFlow Magnetic Power Bank is the first product officially certified for the Qi 2.2 standard by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC). That certification confirms that the power bank supports up to 25W wireless charging — the fastest yet for a Qi-certified device — along with improved thermal performance and safety. Qi 2.2 is the latest evolution of the Qi wireless charging standard, following Qi 2.0's introduction of magnetic alignment. The tech is heavily based on Apple's MagSafe system, using a ring of magnets to ensure optimal positioning on a charger. While convenient, that alignment also reduces heat and improves efficiency, which is better for your battery in the long term. Qi 2.2 keeps those magnets but bumps the wireless charging limit from 15W to 25W. For now, you'll only really get the full benefit of Qi 2.2 if you're using an iPhone. Apple's iPhone 16 series features the built-in magnets that meet the WPC's Magnetic Power Profile (MPP) requirements. Most Android phones still don't support MPP, though one or two exceptions like the HMD Skyline have full Qi 2 support built in. Some recent Android flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S25 series can approximate the Qi 2 experience when paired with a case that includes magnetic rings, but they don't meet the standard themselves and can't hit those 25W speeds. That said, Android support for Qi 2 is expected to grow quickly. UGREEN says the MagFlow Magnetic Power Bank is just the first in a broader MagFlow product lineup due later this year. The power bank itself is set to launch in Q3 2025 and will be sold through UGREEN's website and Amazon in markets including the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
