A look at Tim Cook’s 15-year legacy as CEO of Apple

After 15 years astatine the helm, Tim Cook is stepping down arsenic CEO of Apple and handing implicit the reins to the company’s elder vice president of hardware engineering, John Ternus. Cook, who joined Apple successful 1998, succeeded Steve Jobs successful 2011 and went connected to alteration Apple into a powerhouse worthy $4 trillion. 

With his clip arsenic CEO coming to an extremity connected September 1, let’s instrumentality a look astatine immoderate of the highlights of Cook’s 15 years arsenic the person of 1 of the astir influential companies successful the world. 

Financial growth

Apple was already an influential institution erstwhile Cook took the reins, but nether his leadership, the company’s marketplace capitalization accrued tenfold. When Cook took implicit successful August 2011, Apple was valued astatine conscionable nether $350 billion. The institution passed $1 trillion successful 2018, $2 trillion successful 2020, $3 trillion successful 2022, and $4 trillion successful 2025. Now, the tech elephantine presently sits astatine $4.01 trillion. 

The tech elephantine reported $112 cardinal successful nett income for the fiscal twelvemonth ending successful September 2025, which was 8 times what Apple saw successful September 2010. The institution was capable to execute that 699% summation contempt galore issues, including the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions betwixt the U.S. and China. Cook, who was formerly main operations serviceman and credited arsenic the brains down Apple’s planetary proviso concatenation nether Steve Jobs, expanded Apple’s scope successful China and added roughly 200 stores to the company’s planetary web during his tenure arsenic CEO.

New merchandise categories

Image Credits:Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Cook expanded Apple’s iPhone and computers ecosystem into a broader web of complementary devices that includes wearables and gadgets. 

Apple launched the Apple Watch successful 2015 and has since turned it into a full-fledged wellness and fittingness companion implicit with humor oxygen tracking and ECG monitoring. Apple past disrupted the earphones marketplace successful 2016 with the motorboat of the archetypal AirPods, changing the wireless headphones category. It past launched its archetypal over-the-ear headphones successful 2020. It’s besides worthy noting that Apple purchased Beats successful 2014. 

The tech elephantine besides released the Apple Vision Pro successful 2024, positioning it not conscionable arsenic a VR headset, but arsenic a spatial computing platform. The launch, however, failed to resonate with consumers who didn’t privation to walk respective 1000 dollars to acquisition the gadget.

Under Cook, the institution besides released iPads astatine assorted sizes and aggregate terms points, and fundamentally turned the devices into full-on computers that tin grip a assortment of antithetic tasks for personal, work, and schoolhouse use.

Of course, Cook besides oversaw cardinal changes to the iPhone, including the instauration of the much affordable iPhone SE, arsenic good arsenic advancements similar Face ID and edge-to-edge displays.

Although Apple moved distant from the “i” branding successful caller merchandise releases nether Cook, helium oversaw the large enlargement of the company’s merchandise lineup.

Services expansion 

Image Credits:Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto / Getty Images

Under Cook, Apple built a almighty services business. The tech elephantine launched Apple Pay successful 2014, which is present utilized by an estimated 818 million radical globally. In 2019, the tech elephantine launched its Apple TV+ (now Apple TV) streaming service, whose contented has since earned hundreds of awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Apple launched its Apple Music streaming work successful 2015 to instrumentality connected Spotify, and the work present has implicit 112 cardinal subscribers. In 2019, Apple launched Apple Arcade and has since built it retired with a portfolio of premium games. 

Although Jobs archetypal announced iCloud successful 2011, the retention work has since grown vastly nether Cook, including the motorboat of iCloud+ successful 2021. Additionally, Cook oversaw the improvement of the App Store and repeatedly defended its 30% committee structure. 

Apple’s services concern generated $109.16 cardinal successful gross during the fiscal twelvemonth ending successful September 2025. The conception accounted for a important information of the company’s full $416.16 cardinal gross for the year.

Shift to in-house processors

Image Credits:Harun Ozalp/Anadolu / Getty Images

Under Cook’s leadership, Apple began transitioning from Intel processors to its ain Apple Silicon chips successful 2020 and completed the displacement crossed its Mac lineup by 2023. The effect was longer artillery life, higher performance, greater powerfulness efficiency, and more. 

AI era

Image Credits:Hakan Nural/Anadolu / Getty Images

Apple entered its AI epoch successful 2024 with the motorboat of Apple Intelligence. Since then, however, the institution hasn’t had immoderate large breakthroughs, and has faced important delays successful launching its anticipated revamped AI-powered Siri (it’s expected to rotation retired sometime this year).

The tech elephantine remained mostly absent from the broader tech industry’s generative AI contention that kicked disconnected erstwhile OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched successful 2022. Earlier this year, Apple and Google announced that Google’s Gemini would power its next-generation AI tools.

$600 cardinal U.S. spending commitment 

Image Credits:Win McName / Getty Images

Cook joined President Donald Trump past twelvemonth to denote a $600 cardinal U.S. spending commitment, marking the tech giant’s biggest concern program ever. The four-year program includes expanding hiring and manufacturing enactment successful the country, with a absorption connected gathering a stronger home semiconductor and precocious exertion proviso chain.

Apple Park

Image Credits:Kirby Lee / Getty Images

Jobs’ imaginativeness for Apple Park came to beingness nether Cook’s enactment successful 2017. The 175-acre headquarters, which replaced Apple Campus, houses much than 12,000 employees. It features thousands of autochthonal and drought-resistant trees and is powered by 100% renewable energy. 

Today, Apple Park is the backdrop of the company’s caller merchandise launches.