Tim Cook has one keynote left. Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference runs from 8 to 12 June, with the opening address on 8 June at 10 am PDT, and it will be the last time Cook takes that stage as chief executive. In April Apple said he would step down on 1 September 2026 and hand the job to John Ternus.
Ternus is currently senior vice president of hardware engineering. Apple’s board approved the succession unanimously after what the company called a thoughtful, long-term planning process, and Cook stays on as executive chairman.
Cook put his reasons down to three things: how Apple is performing now, how strong its product roadmap looks, and whether his successor is ready. He also wrote about his 15 years in the job, which began when he inherited it from Steve Jobs. Every morning, he said, started with emails from Apple users about how its products had touched their lives.
What is expected on stage
Apple is expected to unveil iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, tvOS 27 and visionOS 27. Developer betas are likely to arrive the same day, with public betas to follow in July.
Siri gets most of the attention. Apple is reportedly preparing a long-delayed Siri 2.0, built around a dedicated app with an Extensions feature, text and voice modes, and access to past conversations. That would make Siri behave more like ChatGPT or Google Gemini, a comparison Apple has spent years avoiding. A Siri prompt in the Dynamic Island, a Search or Ask box with a glowing cursor, is also rumoured.
Under the hood, the reports go further. They say macOS 27 will carry a redesigned Siri that uses Google Gemini as its foundation model, alongside new Apple Intelligence tools for editing photos and text.
iOS 27 itself is being described as a Snow Leopard release: a cycle for stability and performance rather than a new look. Engineers are reportedly rewriting parts of the operating system and stripping out legacy code, which could improve battery life even on older iPhones. macOS 27 gets a small redesign to make the Liquid Glass interface easier to read, where transparency and shadows have made text-heavy areas harder to parse. Safari is expected to gain an AI feature called Organise Tabs that groups tabs by behaviour, with users choosing whether it happens automatically.
For Ternus, the timing is deliberate. A run of products is due in late 2026 and early 2027, from the major Siri update to the first touchscreen MacBook, so he begins his tenure with Apple already into a new chapter. macOS 27 will also drop Intel Mac support entirely and require an M1 chip or newer.
