Tony Fadell, iPod co-creator, might want to be Apple’s next CEO: report - 9to5Mac

A new report offers an overview of the various succession possibilities for when Apple’s CEO Tim Cook eventually steps down, including a dark-horse candidate like Tony Fadell returning.

New report offers overview of Apple CEO succession possibilities

There has been a lot of Apple leadership turnover lately, with announced departures for John Giannandrea, Alan Dye, Lisa Jackson, and Katherine Adams.

All of this has fueled speculation about when Apple’s CEO Tim Cook might retire. And a new report gets into the weeds of various succession options for Apple, with one especially curious possibility being the return of a former leader.

Aaron Tilley and Wayne Ma write at The Information:

Some former Apple executives hope a dark-horse candidate emerges. For example, Tony Fadell, a former Apple hardware executive who coinvented the iPod, has told associates recently that he would be open to replacing Cook as CEO, according to people who have heard his remarks. (Other people close to Apple consider Fadell an unlikely candidate, in part because he was a polarizing figure when he worked at the company. Fadell left Apple in 2010.)

Later the piece adds:

The idea of Fadell as a Cook successor has some support among former Apple executives, who believe it could do with some shaking up from a brash product leader who has an entrepreneurial track record. Fadell co-founded the smart-home startup Nest, which he sold to Google for $3.2 billion in 2014.

The rest of the report shares much of the same sort of speculation we’ve heard before, such as John Ternus being a potential front-runner for CEO.

On that note, there is this standout tidbit: “But some people close to Apple don’t believe Ternus is ready to take on such a high-profile role, and that could make a succession announcement unlikely anytime soon, said people familiar with the company.”

9to5Mac’s Take

I completely understand why speculation about Cook’s future is so rampant right now, since there have been several big departures from Apple lately. However, this report seems to offer little of substance that we haven’t heard before.

The most interesting details involve Fadell, but even those don’t carry much weight because the sources are:

Fadell himself telling people he might want the job
Former Apple execs floating Fadell’s name

Without any mention of sources inside Apple who think Fadell could be a real candidate, it’s hard to think otherwise.

What are your thoughts on Apple’s next CEO, and the possibility of Tony Fadell returning? Let us know in the comments.

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