Reference News Network, December 4 report: The U.S. "Wall Street Journal" website published an article titled "Four Hot Candidates for the Next CEO of Apple" on November 25, written by Zoe Schiffer. Excerpts are as follows:

Tim Cook shows no signs of slowing down. He is known for getting up before dawn to reply to emails and exercise, having devoted most of his life to Apple, and expressing a desire to stay with the company for some time.

However, since Cook recently turned 65 - an age when other executives typically retire - analysts, investors, and observers have been discussing who will be the next person to lead this perhaps most iconic American company.

It should be clarified that Cook does not have to leave. Apple has no mandatory retirement age for executives, and he seems to have no pressure to leave. Despite recent setbacks in artificial intelligence (AI), Cook has delivered remarkable returns to shareholders, increasing Apple's market value by more than an order of magnitude since he took over in 2011.

Art Levinson, who has worked at Apple for a long time and is now 75 years old, usually steps down from the board at this age. Cook, who is already a board member, may become chairman to make way for a new CEO, or like many of his peers, hold both positions for a period of time.

The most likely successors include four current executives, each responsible for different departments of the company.

John Tornetta, 50

Although relatively young compared to other potential candidates, Tornetta has worked at Apple for 24 years. He is seen as the favorite candidate, partly because Apple is a hardware company, and he is in charge of hardware engineering. Tornetta was in charge of the iPad, then the Mac and AirPods, and later took over all Apple products, including its most important product, the iPhone.

Hardware engineering is where Apple's products come together. The design team plans the appearance of the products. The chip and software teams play an important role in determining functionality. Tornetta's job is to ensure everything works properly.

One of his achievements is working with Apple's internal chip team to replace Intel chips in Mac computers with chips designed by the company itself. These chips are more energy-efficient than Intel's, which means they can run faster and produce less heat. Many personal laptops still have fans to cool internal components, but Mac laptops do not.

Since making this change in 2020, Mac sales surged, with purchases during the pandemic also contributing, as more people bought computers to work from home. Since then, Mac sales have declined somewhat, but remain higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Craig Federighi, 56

Federighi is one of Apple's best-known executives. As the head of software engineering, he often takes center stage at Apple's annual developer conference, introducing new versions of the company's operating system and applications, along with many of their features. Federighi is responsible for all this software, which runs on over a billion devices worldwide.

People who have worked with Federighi describe his management style as decisive. He likes to call teams around a meeting table to discuss issues and determine direction. Those who have worked for him say that when people leave the meeting room, they clearly know what needs to be delivered.

After another executive struggled to improve Apple's AI products, Federighi was given more responsibility for Apple's AI efforts, partly because of his ability to deliver software products. The most prominent issue currently is Apple's personal assistant, Siri, which after 14 years of release, still only handles basic queries, while competitors such as ChatGPT can communicate more like humans.

Eddy Cue, 61

Cue is a veteran at Apple, having worked there since the late 1980s, and has long been in charge of the most successful department during Cook's era: services. Once you enter the iPhone, it's hard not to spend a lot of money.

Games, subscriptions, storage, search—whatever you want, Apple offers it, or charges a large fee from partners providing these services.

Cue is sociable, loves sports and cars, is a board member of Ferrari, and is known as Apple's dealmaker. He has negotiated deals with record companies, book publishers, and film studios. In recent years, he also acted as a "firefighter," reviving a failed data synchronization service into iCloud, and taking over Apple Maps after its disastrous launch.

Cue had a close relationship with Steve Jobs. On the day before Jobs' death, Cue was among the few executives who went to bid farewell to the co-founder of Apple. He is only a few years younger than Cook, and if selected, he is unlikely to serve as CEO for a long time.

Greg Joswiak, 61

Next year will mark Joswiak's 40th year working at Apple, and he leads another core function of the company for a long time: marketing. Apple's branding is as carefully crafted as its devices, helping it charge high prices and generate excess profits. This makes him one of the most important executives at the company.

Joswiak is also one of Apple's better-known faces to outsiders, as he plays an important role in the annual iPhone launch and subsequent media tours, promoting the company's latest devices. He plays a key role in the production of Apple's keynote speeches, which were once live-streamed but have been pre-recorded since the pandemic.

Given the expectations Apple sets for its brand, Joswiak is also responsible for handling the company's sometimes difficult media situations. Recently, he has been dealing with the company's difficulties in AI, including some features promised for 2024 but not delivered.

Joswiak and Federighi both acknowledge that Apple's AI efforts so far have not met the company's high standards.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/7580002405501174299/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.