When Tim Cook became Apple CEO in August 2011, he stepped into one of the most difficult jobs in business. Steve Jobs had just resigned, Apple was already one of the world’s biggest technology companies, and many questioned whether anyone could keep the company moving forward.
Fifteen years later, Cook leaves behind an Apple that is far larger, more profitable, and more influential than the one he inherited.
Under Cook, Apple’s market value climbed from around $350 billion to several trillion dollars, making it the first company in the world to hit $1 trillion, then $2 trillion, then $3 trillion in market capitalization. At one point in 2025, Apple briefly crossed the $4 trillion mark.
Cook also expanded Apple far beyond the iPhone. During his time as CEO, Apple launched Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, AirTag, Vision Pro, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Fitness+, and Apple News+. Apple Watch went on to dominate the smartwatch market, whilst AirPods became one of Apple’s most successful products ever.
One of Cook’s most important decisions was moving the Mac away from Intel processors and onto Apple Silicon. The transition began in 2020 and gave Apple full control over Mac chips for the first time. The result was faster performance, better battery life, quieter devices, and tighter integration between hardware and software.
Cook also transformed Apple’s services business into a major part of the company. When he became CEO, Apple’s business was still heavily built around hardware sales. Since then, Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud+, Apple Pay, the App Store subscription model, and Fitness+ have all become major revenue streams. Apple’s services division now generates tens of billions of dollars every quarter.
Away from products, Cook became known for improving Apple’s operations and supply chain. His background in logistics helped Apple scale up manufacturing, reduce waste, manage inventory more efficiently, and support some of the biggest product launches in the world. Apple’s supply chain strength became one of its biggest advantages under Cook.
Privacy became another major part of Cook’s legacy. Apple increasingly positioned itself as the tech company that protects user data, adding features like App Tracking Transparency, on-device AI processing, end-to-end encryption, and stronger privacy controls across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Cook regularly described privacy as a “fundamental human right.”
Cook also pushed Apple heavily into sustainability. During his time as CEO, Apple committed to becoming carbon neutral across its entire business and supply chain by 2030, expanded the use of recycled materials in products, and invested in recycling programs including Daisy, the company’s iPhone recycling robot.
Beyond Apple itself, Cook became a much more public figure than many expected. He became the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company in 2014 and used his position to speak about equality, privacy, education, climate change, and human rights.
While Steve Jobs will always be remembered as the visionary behind products like the iPhone and iPad, Cook’s legacy is likely to be building Apple into a stronger, richer, and more stable company than ever before. He may not have reinvented Apple, but he turned it into the most valuable business on the planet.