This Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree: Tim Cook is leaving at a peak and John Ternus is exactly the right CEO for the AI era

Apple stock traded slightly down after-hours following the announcement that CEO Tim Cook will be stepping down, to be replaced by his hand-picked protégé, John Ternus. There is no question that Cook is one of the most legendary and accomplished CEOs of our time, but this short-sighted market reaction is entirely misguided. Here are three reasons why Apple’s CEO handoff from Cook to Ternus reflects a model succession process, with the company’s best days still ahead.

Cook Is Leaving on His Terms — and Apple Has Never Been Stronger

As Wedbush analyst Dan Ives commented on CNBC immediately after Apple’s announcement, Cook would not be leaving unless he felt confident about the hand he is passing to his successor—and what a hand it is.

Despite some analyst handwringing that misguidedly portrays Apple as a laggard in adopting AI based on a few well-documented false starts, Apple retains the pole position in distributing AI to its approximately 2 billion consumers worldwide, as we presciently said in Fortune last year. When it comes to the consumer adoption of artificial intelligence, all roads still run through Apple as the singular gatekeeper to an unparalleled user base.

This playbook has been a winning recipe for Apple time and time again, as Apple is never the first, but it is always the best. The fallacy of first is demonstrated by the Netscape, Napster, Sony’s Betamax, GM’s EV1 electric vehicle, Kodak’s first digital camera in 1975, and UPS’ launch of an overnight delivery service in 1929 as potent reminders that being first is not the winning formula; being the best is. Just as Apple never had the first personal computer or the first smartphone, but they ended up having the best; similarly, although Apple has long been criticized for not spending enough on AI; Apple is now perfectly positioned to pick AI winners and losers given their control of physical hardware.

This year is already poised to be transformational for Apple’s AI ecosystem. The pipeline ranges from the launch of an enhanced........

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