When all is claimed and accomplished, I doubt anybody will cite 2025 as a key yr within the historical past of Apple. The corporate admitted that it couldn’t ship on a promise it made again in 2024, and it shipped a bunch of spectacular however incremental enhancements to its present {hardware} gadgets. The iPhone Air is a enjoyable product, however is hardly setting the world on fireplace. 2025 was, above all else… a yr.
However, 2026 looks like it will likely be momentous for Apple in quite a few areas. After a number of years of calm, it feels just like the storm is upon us.
The start of the tip
The dying of Steve Jobs was a harmful second for Apple. The corporate wanted to indicate that it may nonetheless thrive with out its co-founder and longtime CEO. In consequence, it elevated Jony Ive to a place of even better prominence, giving him management over all Apple design. It additionally entered a outstanding period of development and govt stability, which soothed any questions Wall Avenue might need had.
However Apple is now stocked with long-term senior managers who’ve made monumental quantities of cash in Apple’s rise to all-time highs, and lots of of them are nearing retirement age. Issues remained comparatively static till 2025, when a number of key executives started to cycle out. These departures weren’t the tip of the story, they have been the beginning of it. Subsequent yr will see the start of the exit of the previous guard and the debut of a bunch of recent faces (most of whom have really been working in obscurity at Apple for a decade or two).
Apple Tim Cook dinner gained’t step down in 2026, however the preparation for his successor will probably be within the works.
Apple
All of it begins with Tim Cook dinner. Cook dinner simply turned 65, and we stay in an period the place that’s hardly retirement age. Nonetheless, it’s laborious to think about that Cook dinner will wish to keep at Apple for a very long time. Many accounts counsel that the corporate has stepped up its succession planning, and I’d anticipate that there’s no person extra in favor of that than Cook dinner. Take into account: Cook dinner bought the job of Apple CEO thrust upon him resulting from Jobs’s sickness, and by no means actually bought to make use of Jobs as a sounding board after he turned CEO.
I don’t suppose Cook dinner desires to do this to his successor if he can assist it. So whereas I’m not outright predicting that Cook dinner will step away from his job as CEO, I do suppose he’ll start the general public strategy of transitioning to a brand new position. I totally anticipate that Cook dinner will comply with in Jobs’s footsteps to turn out to be the chairman of the Apple board, after which, at a future date, he’ll resign as CEO and appoint his successor. The outcome: Cook dinner will get to offer prolonged oversight and steerage that Jobs sadly wasn’t in a position to present to him. As chairman, Cook dinner also can give attention to worldwide politics and commerce, giving the brand new CEO time to settle into the enterprise of preserving Apple working easily. It’s the cautious and conservative transfer, which inserts Cook dinner completely.
We’ve already seen the beginning of it, however with Cook dinner cranking up the engines of succession, I anticipate many different Apple executives to start their very own exit planning. They might not all go away–Phil Schiller’s continued presence at Apple means that it’s very laborious to say goodbye–however I anticipate lots of them to shift into new roles and let trusted lieutenants tackle extra distinguished titles and duties.
In 5 years on the most, Apple will probably be run by individuals who weren’t key gamers within the Steve Jobs period. Time marches on.
The Mac Professional was final up to date in 2023. That was seemingly the final replace.
Foundry
The Mac: Anticipate the sudden
After a number of years of continuity, I anticipate some massive adjustments in the case of the Mac.
Rumor has it that we’d see the very first touchscreen Macs this coming fall, with the debut of the M6 MacBook Professional. I feel that’ll occur (although they might be delayed till early 2027), however I don’t anticipate main interface adjustments in macOS. I can’t think about Apple will anticipate a Mac touchscreen to be something however an extra, secondary enter system–for fast faucets and scrolls, not for element work. You are able to do that with no revamp of the Mac interface.
I’m additionally prepared to guess that one thing sudden will occur in the case of pro-level Macs. The Mac Professional has by no means actually made sense within the Apple Silicon period, when the Mac Studio has taken the crown because the high-end Mac of the second. My intestine feeling is that the Mac Professional goes to be discontinued. It may possibly’t soldier on as it’s, so it’s both going to get an replace (which might even be shocking!) or it’s going to succeed in the tip.
For a number of years, there’s been a rumor that Apple is planning on releasing its lowest-priced Mac laptop computer ever, one primarily based on an iPhone-level chip. I feel that may lastly occur this yr, and whereas it gained’t actually compete with Chromebooks, it’s going to give Apple entry to prospects that it’s by no means been in a position to attain earlier than. I’d wish to consider that new MacBook will price $599, however even when it’s $699, it’ll be so much cheaper than the MacBook Air, which retails for $999. And reductions will push it cheaper. That value, for M1-level efficiency? Looks as if a steal.
Siri gained’t be utterly up to date in 2026, but it surely’ll present singns of true progress.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
The iPhone: Now it will get fascinating
After whiffing on the concept Apple would get its AI story straight in 2025, I’m reluctant to foretell that it’ll type out Apple Intelligence and Siri in 2026. However I do suppose it’s going to have a greater yr than it did in 2025, and that Siri and Apple Intelligence will finish the yr extra useful and helpful than they entered it. I doubt any new-and-improved Siri will probably be pretty much as good as we dream it is likely to be, however I feel it’ll be appreciably higher than it’s at this time. (And the arrival of a greater Siri will unlock Apple’s skill to ship new good residence merchandise, which the corporate has been itching to do for a minimum of a yr.)
I don’t anticipate Liquid Glass to be rolled again beneath Apple’s new head of software program design. That ship has sailed. However I do suppose we are going to see Apple proceed to shine Liquid Glass, addressing design deficiencies and providing extra flexibility for customers who really feel that it harms usability and legibility.
However the massive information of the yr would be the launch of Apple’s first folding cellphone, which is able to set a document for the worth of a brand new iPhone–I’m predicting a minimum of $1,999–and can quickly turn out to be the best-selling folding cellphone of all time. However regardless of that, it will likely be solely a tiny a part of Apple’s general iPhone gross sales, and the extra commonplace iPhone Professional fashions will promote a lot better.
As for the usual iPhone fashions, I do consider the reviews that Apple goes to separate its iPhone releases in two, and that the usual iPhone 18 gained’t debut till 2027. In 2025, Apple launched 5 completely different brand-new iPhone fashions, and there are seemingly six fashions within the works for the following product cycle. They don’t all have to ship throughout the center of September–and they also gained’t. Apple will announce the iPhone 18 Professional, iPhone 18 Professional Max, and iPhone 18 Fold in September, and promote them all over the place, and the lower-priced fashions will anticipate the spring.
Between a folding iPhone, a touchscreen Mac, and a few massive adjustments within the highest ranks of Apple administration, 2026 is shaping as much as be a memorable yr. And hey, in the event that they lastly make Siri a bit higher, gained’t that be a pleasant cherry on high?
