Tim Cook praises John Ternus again in Apple's Q3 2026 earnings call

Apple held its Q3 2026 earnings call on Thursday, marking Tim Cook's final outing as CEO at such events before he transitions to the role of executive chairman. Unsurprisingly, Cook took the opportunity to reiterate his confidence in his successor John Ternus, Apple's current Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering.

"This will be my final earnings call, and John will lead these calls going forward," Cook said at the end of Thursday's call. "The transition is going seamlessly, and I am beyond excited for John to step into his new role and lead Apple into its next era.

"He is truly one of a kind, and there is no better person to take the helm of the company. As I said, I couldn't be more confident in his leadership, in our executive team, and in the extraordinary people at Apple, who are determined to enrich the lives of our users all over the world. We have a bright future ahead, and I truly have never been more optimistic. So, thank you all."

Cook announced that he would be stepping down as Apple's CEO earlier this year, with the transition to take place on Sept. 1. Apple is expected to release the iPhone 18 that same month, which would be a significant debut for Ternus as CEO. The company's annual iPhone announcements are its biggest event of the year, with the 2026 release shaping up to be a public test of fire for Ternus.

As such, Apple has been making efforts to reinforce the company's faith in its incoming CEO to ensure a smooth transition. Appearing together at Apple TV's Ted Lasso Season 4 premiere on Monday, Cook and Ternus emphasised that the transition was going "great."

"John is the perfect person for this role, and the whole thing has just been great," Cook told Deadline. "We really wanted this transition to be the best because Apple deserves the best, and both of us are really doing that, and it feels fantastic." 

For his part, Ternus expressed excitement at the opportunity to lead Apple, though he demurred when asked what his first first act as CEO will be. Instead, he simply stated that people would "have to wait and see."

Ternus appears unlikely to make any wild changes once he takes the reins at Apple, with the tech giant working to portray him and Cook as perfectly in sync. As such, the start of his tenure as CEO is expected to be a steady, stable continuation of Cook's work.

Such messaging even went so far as having Cook and Ternus dressed in apparently identical navy suits at the Ted Lasso premiere, complete with matching "Believe" pins on their lapels. 

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Apple's incoming CEO remained silent for the majority of Thursday's earnings call, leaving Cook to lead the proceedings. He did respond to a direct question on Apple's position amongst competition from upcoming AI-enabled devices, with companies such as OpenAI and SpaceX currently developing their own hardware. However, Ternus shied away from specifics, prefacing his comments by stating that he "would just reiterate what Tim said." 

"There is so much opportunity for us with everything that's happening in this space, and we're just really focused on our plans and very excited about it," said Ternus.

Regardless of what those plans turn out to be, Ternus appears set up for success. Apple's Q3 earnings call reported $109.4 billion in quarterly revenue —  an increase of 16 percent year over year. Of this, $54.3 billion came from iPhones alone. Overall, Apple hauled in a net quarterly profit of $29.8 billion.