Today Tim Cook steps down as Apple CEO I've been an Apple computing journalist since 2004, here are the 5 ways that Cook changed Apple for the better

Date:
Tue, 01 Sep 2026 11:04:24 +0000

Description:
Tim Cook has stepped down as CEO of Apple. Here's a look back at how he changed the company over the last 15 years.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Weve arrived at something of a crossroads for the worlds favorite smartphone manufacturer and maker of shiny things. On August 24, 2011, Steve Jobs resigned as Apple CEO and Tim Cook
took over. Today, September 1, Cook leaves the CEO role as new CEO John
Ternus steps in.

Fifteen years ago, Apple had to prove that it could survive without Steve Jobs. We now know the answer to that question. Yes, it could but it stopped behaving quite so much like the maverick company that had thrived on innovation, arrogance, and boldly striking out into new territory. Under
Cook, Apple became more disciplined, more predictable, and increasingly focused on refining its established product lines. Its perhaps unfair to
paint Cook purely as a custodian and refiner of Jobs greatest hits Apple did release the Apple Watch and Vision Pro under his guidance, after all but history will remember him as the great refiner rather than as a creative genius like Jobs. As Cook hands over the reins to Ternus and Apple prepares for its next chapter, lets look back at his tenure and how he changed the company. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: 1. He made Apple rich (Image credit: Apple) The first thing Cook did was not try to be Steve Jobs. When he inherited the role, Cook was looking at a product lineup that was the envy of every smartphone and computer manufacturer in the world
Apple had the iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod, App Store and iTunes and he exploited it to the max.

Cook turned Apple into an incredibly efficient global machine, and perhaps we should have seen it coming. Before becoming CEO, he had been Apples COO, responsible for worldwide sales, operations, and its supply chain. You may like Tim Cook was the best Apple CEO for his time John Ternus' tenure will
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a Wolf of Wall Street

Cook turned Apple into a money machine. When he took over, Apple was worth just under $350 billion. That was nothing to be sniffed at, but this year its market value briefly crossed $5 trillion. Apples entire revenue in 2011 was $108 billion; in Q3 2026 alone, it generated $109.4 billion. Incredibly,
Apple now makes as much money in three months as the company Cook inherited made in an entire year. 2. He made Apple a services company Tim Cook and Alicia Keys on stage at Apple's 50th anniversary celebrations. (Image credit: Apple) Considering how many services Apple now runs, and how much money I
give it every month, its easy to forget that it wasnt always like this. When Steve Jobs was in charge, Apple was very much a hardware and software
company. Of course, it had iTunes, which gave it incredible connections to
the music industry because of its iPod heritage, but in those days you bought music; you didnt rent it. Now that has all changed. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

In 2011, when Cook took over, Apple essentially had iTunes, the App Store and AppleCare. Cook-era Apple gave us Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Pay, Apple Card, Apple News+, Apple Arcade, Fitness+, iCloud + and the much bigger subscription business around them. It was an impressive shift in Apples direction, giving it a reliable stream of recurring revenue while pulling customers even deeper into its ecosystem. 3. Apple Watch and AirPods expanded the ecosystem (Image credit: Getty Images) Rather than arriving with a bang, the Apple Watch was something of a slow burn. Its hard to imagine it now, but at launch it felt as though Apple didnt really know what it wanted the Watch to be. It was several things at once a fitness tracker, a fashion object, an app platform and a luxury item. There was even an 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition , with prices ranging from $10,000 to $17,000.

In classic Tim Cook fashion, however, the product was refined over time.
Apple added increasingly sophisticated health features, including ECG
readings and fall detection, allowing the Watch to build up a much more
useful picture of your health. What started as a product with a heart-rate monitor and three activity rings developed into a health and fitness watch that deserved its place in the market. What to read next Everyone says John Ternus must fix Apple but the company isn't broken 17 things we learned at WWDC 2026 25 classic Apple photos that show the biggest WWDC moments in history

AirPods were a different story altogether. I remember people thinking they were too expensive for earphones, but they hadnt factored in how easy AirPods made connecting Bluetooth earphones to an iPhone, or switching between other Apple devices such as a MacBook and Apple Watch. They were a big success almost immediately.

Together, Apple Watch and AirPods also made the iPhone more valuable. They werent simply accessories; they extended Apples ecosystem onto our wrists and into our ears, making its products harder to leave behind. 4. Apple silicon demonstrated that Apple could still execute huge technological transitions (Image credit: Apple) Apple silicon is probably Cooks biggest technological achievement. Moving the Mac from Intel processors to Apples own chips in
2020, while bringing its huge library of existing software and millions of users along with it, was an immense challenge. Yet Apple made the transition look almost routine.

The M-series chips transformed the Mac. They delivered far better performance per watt, substantially longer battery life and much less heat than the Intel processors they replaced. Suddenly, even Apples thinnest MacBook Air could offer the sort of performance that had previously required a much bigger, hotter and noisier machine.

The transition also gave Apple control over the Macs technological roadmap
and brought its computers onto the same fundamental architecture as the
iPhone and iPad. Apple had changed the Macs processor architecture twice before, but the smoothness of the Apple silicon transition showed that Cooks Apple could still make an enormous technological bet and execute it brilliantly. 5. Privacy became a defining philosophy (Image credit: Getty Images / Justin Sullivan) Perhaps Cooks most important contribution was turning privacy into one of Apples defining principles. Cook repeatedly described privacy as a fundamental human right, but Apple also backed up that language with features that materially changed how its products worked. Even today I still associate Apple with privacy, and I think a lot of other people do as well.

Under Cook, Apple introduced the controversial App Tracking Transparency , which forced apps to ask before tracking people across other apps and websites. It added privacy labels to the App Store, Mail Privacy Protection, Sign in with Apple and more on-device processing, while expanding end-to-end encryption across its services.

Apple even took on the FBI in 2016 rather than create software that could bypass the security of a locked iPhone.

Of course, privacy also became extremely effective marketing for Apple, and
it was a lot easier for Apple to go down this route when it made money from hardware instead of selling ads. Apple's record on respecting privacy in
China isn't spotless, but under Cook it felt like Apple genuinely cared about protecting your data. Gone but not forgotten Tim Cook isn't actually leaving Apple. He's still on the board, just not the CEO. While Cooks record of being in charge has been more than impressive, he never quite managed to produce a product that changed the world the way the iPhone did. The Apple Vision Pro was perhaps his biggest attempt, but its timing was unfortunate. Just as it tried to persuade the world to put on a headset, Apple was being blindsided
by the rise of generative AI, which left Siri looking seriously underpowered.

Perhaps judging Cooks reign against the Apple that produced the iPhone is unfair a product like that is a once in a lifetime event. Now it is John Ternus' turn at the helm, and hes going to need to get a grip on Apples AI experiments and produce a coherent vision for the future. Tim Cook has put
him in a very good position. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. The best MacBooks and Macs for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

Read our full guide to the best MacBooks and Macs 1. Best MacBook overall: MacBook Air 13-inch M5 2. Best budget MacBook: MacBook Neo 3. Best Mac: Mac mini (M4) 4. Best MacBook Pro MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 5. Best Mac for professionals Mac Studio M4 Max



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