When all is claimed and completed, 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 appears like will probably 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 top
The demise 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. Consequently, 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 progress and government stability, which soothed any questions Wall Avenue may 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 plenty 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 top 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 likely be within the works.
Apple
All of it begins with Tim Cook dinner. Cook dinner simply turned 65, and we dwell in an period the place that’s hardly retirement age. Nonetheless, it’s exhausting 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 count on that there’s no one extra in favor of that than Cook dinner. Think about: Cook dinner bought the job of Apple CEO thrust upon him attributable to Jobs’s sickness, and by no means actually bought to make use of Jobs as a sounding board after he grew to become CEO.
I don’t suppose Cook dinner needs to try this to his successor if he might help 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 function. I absolutely count on that Cook dinner will comply with in Jobs’s footsteps to grow to be the chairman of the Apple board, after which, at a future date, he’ll resign as CEO and appoint his successor. The consequence: 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 may also concentrate on 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 count on many different Apple executives to start their very own exit planning. They might not all depart–Phil Schiller’s continued presence at Apple means that it’s very exhausting to say goodbye–however I count on a lot of them to shift into new roles and let trusted lieutenants tackle extra distinguished titles and obligations.
In 5 years on the most, Apple will likely 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 possible the final replace.
Foundry
The Mac: Count on the sudden
After a number of years of continuity, I count on some massive modifications relating to 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 believe that’ll occur (although they might be delayed till early 2027), however I don’t count on main interface modifications in macOS. I can’t think about Apple will count on a Mac touchscreen to be something however a further, secondary enter system–for fast faucets and scrolls, not for element work. You are able to do that and not using a revamp of the Mac interface.
I’m additionally keen to guess that one thing sudden will occur relating to 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 well’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 achieve the top.
For a number of years, there’s been a rumor that Apple is planning on releasing its lowest-priced Mac laptop computer ever, one based mostly on an iPhone-level chip. I believe that may lastly occur this yr, and whereas it gained’t actually compete with Chromebooks, it should give Apple entry to clients 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 lots cheaper than the MacBook Air, which retails for $999. And reductions will push it cheaper. That worth, for M1-level efficiency? Looks as if a steal.
Siri gained’t be utterly up to date in 2026, however it’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 kind out Apple Intelligence and Siri in 2026. However I do suppose it should have a greater yr than it did in 2025, and that Siri and Apple Intelligence will finish the yr extra purposeful and helpful than they entered it. I doubt any new-and-improved Siri will likely be nearly as good as we dream it may be, however I believe it’ll be appreciably higher than it’s at the moment. (And the arrival of a greater Siri will unlock Apple’s capability to ship new sensible house merchandise, which the corporate has been itching to do for at the very least a yr.)
I don’t count on Liquid Glass to be rolled again below Apple’s new head of software program design. That ship has sailed. However I do suppose we’ll 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 can set a document for the value of a brand new iPhone–I’m predicting at the very least $1,999–and can quickly grow to be the best-selling folding cellphone of all time. However regardless of that, will probably be solely a tiny a part of Apple’s total iPhone gross sales, and the extra normal 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 totally different brand-new iPhone fashions, and there are possible six fashions within the works for the subsequent product cycle. They don’t all must 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 await the spring.
Between a folding iPhone, a touchscreen Mac, and a few massive modifications 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 prime?
