Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Today Marks 10 Years Since Tim Cook Became Apple's CEO

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
61,511
27,056


On this day ten years ago, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of the company he built and officially named Tim Cook as Apple's new head. Two months later, Steve Jobs passed away and the future of Apple lay solely on the shoulders of Tim Cook.

tim-cook-fastco.jpg

Tim Cook took over Apple at a turbulent time when Jobs was battling pancreatic cancer and the company's future seemed uncertain. Questions were widespread after Tim Cook took over, including whether Cook would continue in the footsteps of Jobs or create a new vision for the future of Apple.

A day after he became CEO, Cook sent a letter to Apple employees, promising that despite Jobs no longer being at the helm, Apple "is not going to change."

The first device that launched with Tim Cook as CEO was the iPhone 4S in 2011, which was announced one day before Jobs' death. Jobs had overseen the development of the device, but it was the first iPhone that had launched under Tim Cook.

iphone_5_lightning.jpg

The first iPhone to have been fully developed under Tim Cook was the iPhone 5 in 2012. The iPhone 5 represented a major turning point in the iPhone's history, as it was the first time since the iPhone 4 in 2010 that the device got a significant redesign. The iPhone 5 featured an all-new thin design and was the first iPhone with a larger display.

cook-one-more-thing-apple-watch.png

Two years later, the Apple Watch was announced as Cook's first "One more thing" product announcement, a phrase that Jobs had pioneered and used only to signify major revolutionary products. The Apple Watch was not only the first completely new product from Apple in the post-Jobs era; it was also the first new product for Apple under Cook.

Cook's second "One more thing" reveal would arrive in 2017, the year that marked the tenth anniversary of the first iPhone. For this special occasion, Apple announced the iPhone X, featuring the biggest redesign to the iPhone in its history.

iphone-x-front-back.jpg

In the years that followed, Apple under Cook would release new products and services, and would go on to become the world's first trillion-dollar company. Looking forward, Cook has said he doesn't expect to remain Apple's CEO for the next ten years, but his influence on the company is surely not done just yet.

Article Link: Today Marks 10 Years Since Tim Cook Became Apple's CEO
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/08/24/tim-cook-ten-years-as-apples-ceo/
  • Like
Reactions: BvizioN, carlsson and JKAussieSkater
SnakeEater1993

SnakeEater1993

macrumors regular
Sep 1, 2020
105
375
10 years since Apple changed its policy from ''I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this.''' to just releasing almost the same iPhone every year to keep shareholders happy...
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
  • Love
Reactions: -DMN-, Pasha Rodionov, behdadOS and 49 others
M

michaeljk

macrumors regular
Dec 14, 2013
115
137
Scale (e.g. huge volumes) is one reason Apple doesn't innovate as much. I seem to remember Steve Jobs saying that if Apple could capture just one percent of the then cell phone market, they'd be selling something like 10 million phones a year (I might have my numbers wrong here), and that would be good enough. Now, they are selling 15 million phones per month. So, to make it worth it to Apple to release a product, and to avoid the appearance of failure, they need to think big, very big, as in what can we make that will scale well with the enormous size of our company. Sure, they could go the way of Sony, or Samsung, and try to sell every product under the sun, and hope that every once in a while they get it right, but that was the Apple when Steve Jobs came back in 1997, and that was never anything he wanted.

I am guessing Tim Cook will stick around until Apple has made a (hopefully) successful and sustained launch of the Apple Car. Otherwise, he knows he will be known for not adding much at all to the Apple product line, although being known for making Apple the biggest company in the world would surely be enough for anyone to say, "look what I did!"
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: Razorpit, adib, Atlantico and 7 others
yaxomoxay

yaxomoxay

macrumors 604
Mar 3, 2010
7,288
33,920
Texas
michaeljk said:
Scale (e.g. huge volumes) is one reason Apple doesn't innovate as much. I seem to remember Steve Jobs saying that if Apple could capture just one percent of the then cell phone market, they'd be selling something like 10 million phones a year (I might have my numbers wrong here), and that would be good enough. Now, they are selling 15 million phones per month. So, to make it worth it to Apple to release a product, and to avoid the appearance of failure, they need to think big, very big, as in what can we make that will scale well with the enormous size of our company. Sure, they could go the way of Sony, or Samsung, and try to sell every product under the sun, and hope that every once in a while they get it right, but that was the Apple when Steve Jobs came back in 1997, and that was never anything he wanted.

I am guessing Tim Cook will stick around until Apple has made a (hopefully) successful and sustained launch of the Apple Car. Otherwise, he knows he will be known for not adding much at all to the Apple product line, although being known for making Apple the biggest company in the world would surely be enough for anyone to say, "look what I did!"
Click to expand...
Agreed. Another thing that slows down innovation is the fact that tech products are now pervasive, ubiquitous, and somewhat cheap. Hundreds of millions of lives - if not billions - are affected daily by products such as smartphones, smart TV's, smartwatches, and tablets. This is vastly different than the pre-2010 era. When so many people are affected, change is hard. It's hard at the manufacturer level because it's difficult to touch what is sufficiently working, and it's difficult at the user level because readjusting to new features and products is something that most people don't have the time ,patients, and even skills to do. Apple, as other companies, has not much choice other than being incremental in nature with one or new products every 5 to 10 years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jimmy_uk, Arran, Nebulance and 3 others
iPhaithful

iPhaithful

macrumors regular
May 5, 2010
244
282
It's been 10 years of unwarranted criticism, Steve Jobs nostalgia, and battering of the word "innovation" (I'm not even sure if anyone knows what that means anymore). The numbers do not lie, Apple is still at the very top and leading its competitors. That doesn't just happen because people remember the hard work and dedication of Steve Jobs. 2021Q2 has Apple at 53% market share with Samsung being the next best at 26%. It's time to stop the charades. Cook has been doing an excellent job.
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
  • Angry
Reactions: -DMN-, SnakeEater1993, klch and 29 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom