Inheriting the empire
Succeeding Steve Jobs is a challenge in itself. Apple enthusiasts and shareholders naturally had high expectations, leaving Tim Cook little room for error. Despite that, Cook cooked, as the kids say. Not only did he launch a wide array of budget-friendly products, but Tim also maintained Apple’s overall image as a premium brand that sells high-quality, carefully crafted devices. Apple’s attention to detail lives on, and so do its trendsetting designs.
When Tim took over in 2011, Apple’s market value was around $337 billion, nothing to scoff at. Today, the company is worth around $4.5 trillion, a whopping 13.5-fold increase that has crowned it as one of the world’s most valuable companies. It now also makes over 4x more in annual revenue, and the number of active Apple devices has risen from 200 million to over 2.5 billion—a 14x increase over 15 years.
Catering to more than a billion unique customers comes with lots of hurdles, including geopolitical ones. During his time as CEO, Cook expanded manufacturing to new countries, such as India and Vietnam, reducing Apple’s reliance on China. He also maintained lower product pricing for longer than Apple’s competitors during the current memory crisis.
Transforming existing devices
It might seem like an easy task to take over the reins of Apple after the iPhone and iPad had already been launched, but in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Cook had to juggle numerous products in their infancy while fending off competitors and giving users reasons to upgrade every year.
At the time, the iPhone 6 was a major step toward Apple’s move into larger iPhones.
Apple
iPhone
Steve Jobs may have created the iPhone, but Tim Cook reimagined it. The iPhone’s overall design had persisted until Cook unveiled the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2014, barely three years after he had taken over. This move helped popularize larger smartphones and prepared the handset for a future dominated by digital media. A few generations later, the iPhone X debuted, completely overhauling the iPhone’s design and courageously retiring the iconic physical Home button in favor of gesture navigation. Then the first iPhone Pro followed a couple of years later, providing power users with an even more premium mobile computing experience.
Tim Cook didn’t just lead the iPhone design evolution, but he also helped make the product more accessible. He first experimented with the iPhone 5c and learned from its shortcomings what customers expect from an affordable Apple device. He then refined the formula with the SE line accordingly and perfected it with the latest “e” editions. We’ve now reached a point where there’s an iPhone for everyone.
