When all is alleged and executed, I doubt anybody will cite 2025 as a key 12 months 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 hearth. 2025 was, above all else… a 12 months.
However, 2026 seems like it is going to be momentous for Apple in quite a few areas. After a couple of years of calm, it feels just like the storm is upon us.
The start of the top
The loss of life of Steve Jobs was a harmful second for Apple. The corporate wanted to point out 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 exceptional period of development and government stability, which soothed any questions Wall Road 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 plenty of of them are nearing retirement age. Issues remained comparatively static till 2025, when a couple of key executives started to cycle out. These departures weren’t the top of the story, they have been the beginning of it. Subsequent 12 months will see the start of the exit of the outdated guard and the debut of a bunch of latest faces (most of whom have truly been working in obscurity at Apple for a decade or two).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 dwell in an period the place that’s hardly retirement age. Nonetheless, it’s onerous to think about that Cook dinner will need 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 person extra in favor of that than Cook dinner. Think about: Cook dinner acquired the job of Apple CEO thrust upon him as a consequence of Jobs’s sickness, and by no means actually acquired to make use of Jobs as a sounding board after he turned CEO.
I don’t assume Cook dinner needs to try this to his successor if he may also help it. So whereas I’m not outright predicting that Cook dinner will step away from his job as CEO, I do assume he’ll start the general public means of transitioning to a brand new position. I totally count on that Cook dinner will observe in Jobs’s footsteps to develop into the chairman of the Apple board, after which, at a future date, he’ll resign as CEO and appoint his successor. The end result: Cook dinner will get to offer prolonged oversight and steerage that Jobs sadly wasn’t capable of present to him. As chairman, Cook dinner may also deal with worldwide politics and commerce, giving the brand new CEO time to settle into the enterprise of retaining 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 could not all go away–Phil Schiller’s continued presence at Apple means that it’s very onerous 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 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 possible the final replace.
Foundry
The Mac: Count on the sudden
After a couple of years of continuity, I count on some huge adjustments in relation to the Mac.
Rumor has it that we would see the very first touchscreen Macs this coming fall, with the debut of the M6 MacBook Professional. I believe that’ll occur (although they could be delayed till early 2027), however I don’t count on main interface adjustments 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 with out a revamp of the Mac interface.
I’m additionally prepared to wager that one thing sudden will occur in relation 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 will possibly’t soldier on as it’s, so it’s both going to get an replace (which might even be stunning!) or it’s going to succeed in 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 can lastly occur this 12 months, and whereas it gained’t actually compete with Chromebooks, it can give Apple entry to prospects that it’s by no means been capable of attain earlier than. I’d wish to imagine that new MacBook will price $599, however even when it’s $699, it’ll be loads cheaper than the MacBook Air, which retails for $999. And reductions will push it cheaper. That value, for M1-level efficiency? Looks like a steal.
Siri gained’t be fully 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 that 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 assume it can have a greater 12 months than it did in 2025, and that Siri and Apple Intelligence will finish the 12 months extra purposeful 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 perhaps, however I believe it’ll be appreciably higher than it’s right now. (And the arrival of a greater Siri will unlock Apple’s capacity to ship new good residence merchandise, which the corporate has been itching to do for at the very least a 12 months.)
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 assume 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 huge information of the 12 months would be the launch of Apple’s first folding cellphone, which is able to set a document for the value of a brand new iPhone–I’m predicting at the very least $1,999–and can quickly develop into the best-selling folding cellphone of all time. However regardless of that, it is going to be solely a tiny a part of Apple’s general iPhone gross sales, and the extra normal iPhone Professional fashions will promote a lot better.
As for the usual iPhone fashions, I do imagine the stories 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 following product cycle. They don’t all have to ship through 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 in all places, and the lower-priced fashions will look forward to the spring.
Between a folding iPhone, a touchscreen Mac, and a few huge adjustments within the highest ranks of Apple administration, 2026 is shaping as much as be a memorable 12 months. And hey, in the event that they lastly make Siri a bit higher, gained’t that be a pleasant cherry on prime?
