Alright, Seems It's Finally Time for Tim Cook to Take Action.

There are a lot of normal ways that I assume Tim Cook was informed of Apple COO Jeff Williams’ departure, but I like to think it was a surprise. Not just any surprise either. I’m talking more like being woken out of a nap-type surprise, with your helmet and pads already on and your teammates all gazing anxiously, like… “Jeff broke his skeletal system, coach; we know you haven’t played since beers came in soup cans, but you’re the only QB we have left on the roster.” And in that moment, Cook knew exactly what he had to do—he had to get in the game.

In case you missed it yesterday, Apple announced that Cook will soon be taking over Williams’ role as he phases out of the world’s most iconic tech company and into building model ships or whatever people with a bajillion dollars do when they retire. That means Apple’s design team will be reporting to Cook directly. You read that right: Tim Cook will be in charge of Apple’s design. If you’re not attuned to the insider reputation and legacy of Cook, that may mean very little to you, but for those of us who’ve been paying attention, that news hit with a collective “oh, shit.”

As effective as Cook has been in leading a post-Jobs Apple toward a mountain-sized pile of gold that would make an NPC goblin blush, his legacy as a creative visionary has been less storied. But that may all soon change! Well, either that or we’ll finally confirm that Cook has no business leading the decor of a kids’ birthday party, let alone industrial design for arguably the biggest tech company in the world.

Last I checked, Apple’s valuation was only $3.1 trillion, so Cook has some wiggle room, but pressure-wise, it probably doesn’t help that Apple seems to be entering a more challenging and, dare I say, pioneering era of design in recent times. On the hardware side of things, Apple—and Cook in particular—pushed into somewhat unestablished territory with the eye-wateringly expensive Vision Pro, which has so far been a total non-factor in the world of XR, mostly because of its $3,500 price tag. And on the software side, Apple also just unveiled its Liquid Glass redesign, which will eventually apply across all of Apple’s platforms, including iOS, macOS, and watchOS. The results there have also been less than ideal.

Liquid Glass, while it’s still currently in developer beta, has had some fairly vocal detractors who take umbrage with Apple’s “glassmorphic” take on UI for its lack of legibility and general—how should I say this—quirkiness. Sure, it’s still a developer beta, but that hasn’t stopped people from calling Liquid Glass a flop already. And the worst part is, Apple already seems to be rolling some of its ideas back as a result of that response. Whether Tim Cook was the champion of that push toward Liquid Glass or not is irrelevant at this point, because the train toward a different-looking Apple has left the station, and it feels like the destination hasn’t been charted yet.

So, Williams isn’t leaving at a time of status quo, where Cook can simply take the reins and steer Apple and its overflowing coffers toward a safe grassy hamlet full of wallet-shaped finger sandwiches. Cook is going to have to come in with a vision that isn’t obscured by frosted glass and bring Apple toward a future where it’s not just known for locking customers in cells shaped like the iMessage icon and then asking them for $1,000 once a year. Cook is in a roll-up-the-sleeves era of figuring shit out, and he’s going to have to do some heavy lifting to steer Apple design toward a direction that makes us feel something. Cook, for better or worse, is going to have to do something, and I’m mighty excited to find out what it is.