Apple Thrived in 15 Years Under Tim Cook

After months of speculation, it’s now official: Tim Cook will step down as CEO of Apple on September 1 and move to the company’s board. He will be succeeded by John Ternus, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering and a long-time frontrunner for the role.

Cook first took over the prestigious position as Apple’s CEO in 2011, following on from Steve Jobs, the company’s visionary co-founder and driving force behind its resurgence in the late 1990s. Seen as a calm and operationally focused leader, Cook was identified as an ideal successor.

Widely credited as the architect of Apple’s highly efficient global supply chain during his time as COO, Cook oversaw a period of extraordinary growth. Under his leadership, Apple became the first company to reach a $1 trillion market valuation in 2018 and has since grown to around $4 trillion. Revenue and profits surged, with the company surpassing $100 billion in annual profit for the first time in its most recent fiscal year.

Despite these achievements, Cook has faced criticism for a perceived lack of groundbreaking innovation. While Apple launched major successes such as the Apple Watch and AirPods, it has yet to deliver a product with the transformative impact of the iPhone. The closest attempt, the Vision Pro headset launched in 2023, fell short of expectations due to its high price and limited demand.

“It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve as Apple’s CEO,” Cook said in a statement, praising his successor: “John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator and the values to lead with integrity.”

This infographic and article was originally created in German by Felix Richter, see it here.