September 1st is Tim Cook’s official last day as CEO of Apple after 15 years at the helm of that now-dominant company. He took over from Steve Jobs, an iconic leader who for many was the very face of Apple. And, despite the challenges of not being a design and product guy like Jobs, Tim Cook achieved great things while in charge.
Macworld has a lengthy (1.5 hour long) video podcast that can be watched to get a detailed look at Tim Cook’s tenure at the firm. Here it is as an embedded video:
I watched the first 30 minutes of that video to produce the summary below which does it a disservice. But who has 1.5 hours to watch a video about Tim Cook anyway? I didn’t…
Summary of Tim Cook’s tenure
Steve Jobs resigned as the Apple CEO on August 14, 2011 and appointed Tim Cook as CEO. Tim was seen as a strange choice by some as he was quite totally unlike Steve in many ways. Most notably Tim was a supply chain efficiency guy who focussed on numbers whereas Steve was a product guy who fretted over minute design details.
The fear at the time was that something could be lost in terms of product quality with the change over, a fear that turned out to be unfounded. This concern, however unfounded it may have been, was doubled when Steve died just a few months later in October of 2011. Who would guide the design aspect of Apple’s products and who could Tim Cook consult in Steve Jobs’ absence?
These questions presupposed that Steve Jobs was wholly responsible for all Apple product design, a supposition that couldn’t be true even for a company Apple’s size in 2011. Jony Ive continued as lead designer for several years after Steve’s passing, and it is reasonable to assume that Tim Cook knew well how to stay out of the design team’s way. He also knew well, probably far better than Steve Jobs ever did, how to turn complex and potentially expensive designs into profitable products.
Tim’s accomplishments
Tim Cook never tried to replace Steve Jobs as the “face” of Apple products. He was and is more of a quiet guy behind the scenes, stepping out of the way for the larger personalities around him while retaining a steady hand on the wheel of the ship that is Apple. But I think it is wise to credit Tim for many of Apple’s successes while he was in charge of the firm.
A few examples of the more major of these successes include:
- 10 fold increase in users (owners of Apple products) from about 100 million active users to 1.7 billion
- 10 fold increase in market capitalization (stock value) from $350 billion to $4.5 trillion
- multiple successful major product releases
- Apple Watch: the most popular watch of any kind in the world
- Airpods: those iconic little white buds you see sticking out of so many people’s ears
- Services (Apple TV, Music, Pay): a steady stream if revenue that can be relied upon month after month
- iPhone X: a major platform shift in the iPhone history
- Apple chip series (M-series) transition: the move from Intel to Apple silicon was a delicate dance deftly executed
There were negative things too like Apple’s stalled AI transition, Apple Maps, and sometimes boring iPhone releases. But Apple has continued to be known for quality and a sort of ‘consumer-first’ security mindset that, while extremely self-serving, differentiates them many of their competitors.
I’ll never forget that Trump thought Tim’s name was “Mr. Apple”, which would have been aptly applied to Steve Jobs instead.
Agreed, Ernie: Steve Jobs will always be recognized as the person behind Apple’s birth and rebirth. This is despite the fact that Tim Cook arguably did more to make the company a success in terms of global reach and financial measures.
I hope “Mr. Apple” Tim Cook has a good retirement and actually gets a good chance to enjoy his time away. Although far from Elon Musk rich, I’m sure he won’t be suffering financially at least.