After 15 years leading Apple through some of the biggest shifts in modern tech, Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO on September 1. Taking over is John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering—an executive closely tied to the company’s product strategy and long-term hardware roadmap.
Cook joined Apple in 1998 and became CEO in 2011 after Steve Jobs. Over the next decade and a half, he didn’t just maintain Apple’s momentum—he pushed it into a new era of scale, services, and ecosystem expansion, helping turn the company into a $4 trillion giant.
Apple’s massive financial leap under Tim Cook
When Cook took over in August 2011, Apple’s market value sat just under $350 billion. Under his leadership, Apple’s market capitalization grew about tenfold, hitting milestone after milestone: $1 trillion in 2018, $2 trillion in 2020, $3 trillion in 2022, and $4 trillion in 2025. As of now, Apple stands at roughly $4.01 trillion.
Apple’s profitability surged as well. For the fiscal year ending September 2025, Apple reported $112 billion in net income—about eight times what it earned in September 2010. That 699% increase came despite major global disruptions, including the COVID-19 pandemic and rising geopolitical strain between the United States and China.
Cook, widely recognized for building and optimizing Apple’s supply chain during his time as chief operations officer, broadened Apple’s footprint in China and grew the company’s retail presence by about 200 additional stores worldwide during his tenure.
Major Apple products introduced and expanded during Cook’s era
Under Cook, Apple evolved from a company best known for iPhones and Macs into a broader ecosystem built around connected devices, wearables, and new computing experiences.
In 2015, Apple introduced the Apple Watch, which grew into a mainstream health and fitness device with tools such as ECG monitoring and blood oxygen tracking. In 2016, Apple launched the first AirPods, reshaping consumer expectations for wireless earbuds and accelerating industry-wide adoption. Apple later followed up with over-ear headphones in 2020, while also strengthening the audio category through its earlier Beats acquisition in 2014.
Apple also pushed into new territory with the Apple Vision Pro in 2024, positioning it as “spatial computing” rather than traditional virtual reality. While it drew attention for its ambition, high pricing kept it from connecting with broad consumer demand.
The iPad lineup continued to expand under Cook as well, with multiple sizes and price points that helped position iPads as practical tools for school, work, and everyday computing. On the iPhone side, Cook oversaw major design and feature shifts, including the more affordable iPhone SE line, plus upgrades like Face ID and edge-to-edge displays.
Even as Apple moved away from heavy “i” branding in newer product naming, Cook’s leadership is defined by how dramatically the overall product lineup widened.
How Apple services became a revenue engine
One of Cook’s most lasting strategic moves was turning Apple’s services into a major business pillar.
Apple Pay launched in 2014 and is now used by an estimated 818 million people globally, underscoring how deeply Apple has embedded payments into its ecosystem. Apple Music arrived in 2015 as a direct competitor to Spotify and has grown to more than 112 million subscribers. In 2019, Apple introduced Apple Arcade and built it into a library of premium games, and launched Apple TV (originally introduced as Apple TV+) with programming that has earned hundreds of awards, including an Academy Award for Best Picture.
iCloud, first announced in 2011, expanded significantly under Cook, including the introduction of iCloud+ in 2021. During this period, Apple also continued to evolve the App Store while repeatedly defending its longstanding 30% commission structure.
By the fiscal year ending September 2025, Apple’s services segment generated $109.16 billion in revenue—out of the company’s total $416.16 billion for the year—highlighting just how central subscriptions and digital services have become to Apple’s business model.
Apple Silicon and the shift away from Intel
Another defining era under Cook was Apple’s move to in-house processors. In 2020, Apple began transitioning Macs from Intel chips to Apple Silicon. By 2023, the company completed the transition across the Mac lineup.
The result was widely seen in everyday performance: longer battery life, better power efficiency, and stronger performance across laptops and desktops—advantages that also helped Apple differentiate its hardware more clearly from competitors.
Apple’s AI era: Apple Intelligence and what comes next
Apple officially moved deeper into artificial intelligence in 2024 with the launch of Apple Intelligence. However, the company has not yet delivered a major breakout moment in generative AI, and has faced notable delays with its revamped AI-powered Siri, which is expected to arrive sometime this year.
Apple was also relatively quiet during the first wave of the generative AI boom that took off after ChatGPT launched in 2022. More recently, Apple and Google announced that Google’s Gemini would power Apple’s next-generation AI tools, signaling a more collaborative approach as Apple ramps up its AI strategy.
A record U.S. investment commitment
Cook also helped spotlight Apple’s growing focus on domestic investment. Last year, he appeared alongside President Donald Trump to announce Apple’s largest investment plan ever: a $600 billion U.S. spending commitment over four years. The plan includes expanded hiring and manufacturing and aims to strengthen America’s semiconductor and advanced technology supply chain.
Apple Park becomes the company’s global stage
Although Apple Park was rooted in Steve Jobs’ vision, it became reality during Cook’s leadership. Opened in 2017, the 175-acre headquarters houses more than 12,000 employees, features thousands of drought-resistant native trees, and runs on 100% renewable energy.
Today, Apple Park is also the centerpiece for Apple’s biggest announcements, serving as the familiar backdrop for the company’s product launch presentations.
As Tim Cook prepares to exit the CEO role and John Ternus steps in, Apple’s next chapter will unfold with enormous expectations—especially around AI, the future of hardware, and how Apple maintains its dominance in a rapidly changing tech landscape.
