It could be fire blight but it's hard to tell from one picture. If it's really old it's probably not about to die.

Is that potential strike on current season growth or from last year? Can you see any cankers?

I don't know if the strike is from this year or last year. I only noticed it now. I didn't see obvious cankers. Here is another photo.

Glumbda... Your pictures are all shaded so it's hard to get good resolution on how it really looks. I have two trees that have sooty looking branches but not the leaf end soot or any curlying at the end. Does you branch bark look like this?

This is a small Honeycrisp:

{{gwi:101699}}

This is a branch on a 5 yr old Haralson:

{{gwi:101700}}

{{gwi:101701}}

I don't know what these trees have either. My guess is the little Honeycrisp is toast and I should probably pull it now. I would like to try to save the Haralson, but I'm not sure how to do it.
It may be different than your issue because it is more on the branches than the tips of the branches. The leaves still aren't out yet in our area. Any ideas out there?

That looks like fire blight to me. I'd prune it out.