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Apple CEO Tim Cook participated in his final Apple earnings call yesterday, with incoming CEO John Ternus set to take over on September 1. With Cook's tenure coming to an end, we thought we'd take a look at how Apple has changed over the last 15 years.

Tim-Cook-Apple-Park.jpeg

Cook took over as CEO on August 24, 2011, after Steve Jobs resigned.

Apple's Revenue

During yesterday's earnings call, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan shared an interesting observation about Apple's quarterly earnings. When Cook took over as CEO, Apple's revenue for all of 2011 was $108 billion.

Apple reported $109.4 billion for Q3 2026, earning its 2011 revenue in a single quarter. We don't have the numbers for fiscal 2026 yet, but in fiscal 2025, revenue was $416 billion.

iPhone revenue in 2011 was $47 billion, and just this quarter, it was $54.3 billion.

Valuation

Apple stock is down today after Cook said he expects supply constraints and memory shortages to affect revenue in the current quarter, but last week, Apple briefly hit a market cap above $5 trillion. Apple's market cap is now around the $4.5 trillion mark, and it once again trails Nvidia for world's most valuable publicly traded company.

Apple was the first company to reach a $1 trillion valuation in August 2018, the first to reach $2 trillion in August 2020, and the first to reach $3 trillion in January 2022. It was the third company to hit a $4 trillion valuation in October 2025, and then the second to reach $5 trillion.

A day after Cook took over in August 2011, Apple's stock price was $13.35 (split-adjusted). Today, it opened at $304.81, a roughly 23x increase. There was a 7-for–1 split in 2014 and 4-for–1 split in 2020 during Cook's tenure.

Installed Base

Apple said it has over 2.5 billion active devices. Apple didn't share installed base numbers until 2016, when it hit a billion active devices.

Services

Apple's services category revenue has seen the most growth. It was $9.4 billion in all of 2011, but in Q3 2026, it was $30.7 billion. In fiscal 2025, services brought in $109 billion.

Apple said during the earnings call that it now has 1.5 billion subscriptions. A huge number of services launched under Cook, including:
  • Apple Pay
  • Apple Pay Cash
  • Apple Card
  • Apple Music
  • Apple News
  • Apple TV+
  • Apple Arcade
  • Apple Fitness+
  • iCloud+
  • App Store Search Ads
  • Ads in Maps
Back in 2011, Apple's services were limited to AppleCare, iTunes, and the App Store.

Product Launches

Under Cook, Apple launched everything from the AirPods to the Apple Watch.
  • Apple Watch
  • AirPods
  • Apple silicon chips
  • Vision Pro
  • iPhone Air
  • iPhone X
  • HomePod and HomePod mini
  • MacBook Neo
Capital Returns

Cook initiated quarterly dividends in 2012, and also executed an ongoing share repurchase program. Since then, Apple has returned more than $1 trillion to shareholders.

Transition to John Ternus

Cook said yesterday that the transition to Ternus is "going seamlessly." Ternus will become CEO on September 1, ahead of when Apple announces new iPhone models. Cook will remain at Apple as executive chairman, where he will engage with policymakers and help Apple navigate regulatory pressure.

In April, Cook said he planned to remain at Apple for years to come. "I am healthy. My energy is high, and I plan to be in this role for a long time," said Cook. He said he will support current hardware engineering chief John Ternus in any way necessary when Ternus takes over as CEO, and he plans to continue to offer knowledge and experience whenever it's needed. "Apple will be my top priority," he said. "It's who I am at my core, and I can't imagine it any other way."

Cook on Ternus

Cook yesterday said Ternus is the best choice to take over Apple.
The transition is going seamlessly, and I am beyond excited for John to step into his new role and lead Apple into its next era. He is truly one of a kind and there is no better person to take the helm of the company.

As I've said, I couldn't be more confident in his leadership, in our executive team, and in the extraordinary people at Apple who are determined to enrich the lives of our users all over the world. We have a bright future ahead, and I truly have never been more optimistic.
Ternus has been at Apple since 2001, when he joined the product design team. He became vice president of hardware engineering in 2013 and focused on the AirPods, Mac, and iPad. In 2020, he also took on the iPhone, and he became senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2021.

Article Link: How Apple Changed Under Tim Cook: 15 Years in Numbers
 
Lot of success for Apple under Tim. Definitely a great stock to invest in. Apple will definitely rise higher and release great products in the future.
 
I'm not sure about that one. I haven't been hit with any ads, but maybe because it is an option you can opt out on.
No, it isn’t. You can’t opt out of seeing ads in the App Store, or in Maps as of iOS 26.5. Even paid subscribers get ads in Apple News (which also show up in the Stocks app).
 
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No, it isn’t. You can’t opt out of seeing ads in the App Store, or in Maps as of iOS 26.5. Even paid subscribers get ads in Apple News (which also show up in the Stocks app).
Maybe I haven't been visiting the App Store that often.
Edit: Just opened the App Store. No ads that I can see as ads.
 
Under Tim Cook, I went from:

- Being in awe of Apple stores to hating them. (I think the Burberry lady broke the store experience.)
- Looking forward to Apple product releases to fearing them. (What will they break next?)
- Being able to enjoy Apple products to being unable to use them due to PWM and dithering.

Apple's best product during Tim Cook's tenure has been its stock -- $AAPL.

I don't know if Apple will change for the better after him. Usually after a financial engineering CEO steps away, the company falls apart pretty quickly. But let's see.
 
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If only I had been smart enough to invest in Apple is 2011.... Tim managed to navigate some pretty rough waters and kept the ship moving forward. All the challenges with the EU, with COVID, with different political administrations and their priorities; he's handled them all with a calmness and clarity that I envy.
 
If only I had been smart enough to invest in Apple is 2011.... Tim managed to navigate some pretty rough waters and kept the ship moving forward. All the challenges with the EU, with COVID, with different political administrations and their priorities; he's handled them all with a calmness and clarity that I envy.
And then I presume that he changed the whole ship and the direction of the ship.
 


Apple CEO Tim Cook participated in his final Apple earnings call yesterday, with incoming CEO John Ternus set to take over on September 1. With Cook's tenure coming to an end, we thought we'd take a look at how Apple has changed over the last 15 years.

Tim-Cook-Apple-Park.jpeg

Cook took over as CEO on August 24, 2011, after Steve Jobs resigned.

Apple's Revenue

During yesterday's earnings call, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan shared an interesting observation about Apple's quarterly earnings. When Cook took over as CEO, Apple's revenue for all of 2011 was $108 billion.

Apple reported $109.4 billion for Q3 2026, earning its 2011 revenue in a single quarter. We don't have the numbers for fiscal 2026 yet, but in fiscal 2025, revenue was $416 billion.

iPhone revenue in 2011 was $47 billion, and just this quarter, it was $54.3 billion.

Valuation

Apple stock is down today after Cook said he expects supply constraints and memory shortages to affect revenue in the current quarter, but last week, Apple briefly hit a market cap above $5 trillion. Apple's market cap is now around the $4.5 trillion mark, and it once again trails Nvidia for world's most valuable publicly traded company.

Apple was the first company to reach a $1 trillion valuation in August 2018, the first to reach $2 trillion in August 2020, and the first to reach $3 trillion in January 2022. It was the third company to hit a $4 trillion valuation in October 2025, and then the second to reach $5 trillion.

A day after Cook took over in August 2011, Apple's stock price was $13.35 (split-adjusted). Today, it opened at $304.81, a roughly 23x increase. There was a 7-for–1 split in 2014 and 4-for–1 split in 2020 during Cook's tenure.

Installed Base

Apple said it has over 2.5 billion active devices. Apple didn't share installed base numbers until 2016, when it hit a billion active devices.

Services

Apple's services category revenue has seen the most growth. It was $9.4 billion in all of 2011, but in Q3 2026, it was $30.7 billion. In fiscal 2025, services brought in $109 billion.

Apple said during the earnings call that it now has 1.5 billion subscriptions. A huge number of services launched under Cook, including:
  • Apple Pay
  • Apple Pay Cash
  • Apple Card
  • Apple Music
  • Apple News
  • Apple TV+
  • Apple Arcade
  • Apple Fitness+
  • iCloud+
  • App Store Search Ads
  • Ads in Maps
Back in 2011, Apple's services were limited to AppleCare, iTunes, and the App Store.

Product Launches

Under Cook, Apple launched everything from the AirPods to the Apple Watch.
  • Apple Watch
  • AirPods
  • Apple silicon chips
  • Vision Pro
  • iPhone Air
  • iPhone X
  • HomePod and HomePod mini
  • MacBook Neo
Capital Returns

Cook initiated quarterly dividends in 2012, and also executed an ongoing share repurchase program. Since then, Apple has returned more than $1 trillion to shareholders.

Transition to John Ternus

Cook said yesterday that the transition to Ternus is "going seamlessly." Ternus will become CEO on September 1, ahead of when Apple announces new iPhone models. Cook will remain at Apple as executive chairman, where he will engage with policymakers and help Apple navigate regulatory pressure.

In April, Cook said he planned to remain at Apple for years to come. "I am healthy. My energy is high, and I plan to be in this role for a long time," said Cook. He said he will support current hardware engineering chief John Ternus in any way necessary when Ternus takes over as CEO, and he plans to continue to offer knowledge and experience whenever it's needed. "Apple will be my top priority," he said. "It's who I am at my core, and I can't imagine it any other way."

Cook on Ternus

Cook yesterday said Ternus is the best choice to take over Apple.

Ternus has been at Apple since 2001, when he joined the product design team. He became vice president of hardware engineering in 2013 and focused on the AirPods, Mac, and iPad. In 2020, he also took on the iPhone, and he became senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2021.

Article Link: How Apple Changed Under Tim Cook: 15 Years in Numbers
Job well done! Apple has grown to be one of the best and most successful respected companies because of Tim.
 
Tldr: Tim Cook took Apple to a whole-new level with game-changing features and the introduction of ALL NEW, best-in-class devices that Apple can't wait to see what customers are going to do with them because Apple thinks you're gonna love it!
 
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Although Cook is by far the best Apple CEO for serving the interests of shareholders, he is by far the worst Apple CEO for serving the interests of customers.

Cook is by far the worst CEO Apple ever had in terms of innovation and user friendliness. All of Apple’s previous CEOs focused on products and on giving customers the latest technology. For example, before Cook, every previous Apple CEO made devices using the latest connectors at the time for wired data transfer speeds. Cook, on the other hand, is still in 2026 making most of the models in the latest iPhone 17 line with the exact same extremely slow USB 2.0 wired data transfer speeds that were shipped 19 years ago in 2007 on the iPhone 1:
 
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The man who glued every component so as you could neither remove or upgrade it has surely missed a trick, had he have glued himself to his very expensive executive office chair he would have not found himself to be removable or upgradable
 
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