Tim Cook hands Apple to John Ternus after 15 years

Tim Cook has never tried to be Steve Jobs. When he became Apple’s chief executive in 2011, he followed the advice Jobs had given him: “Never ask what I would do, just do the right thing.”

Fifteen years later, Cook leaves Apple with a business worth more than $4 trillion, compared with roughly $350 billion when he took over. He will remain at the company as executive chairman, while longtime hardware chief John Ternus becomes CEO.

Cook’s biggest contribution was not creating another iPhone-sized breakthrough. It was turning Apple into a larger and more financially resilient business around the products Jobs helped establish.

As CEO, Cook extended the operational discipline that had defined his career at Apple. He strengthened the company’s supply chain while expanding its manufacturing footprint beyond China. Under his leadership, Apple also pushed the iPhone into more markets and built a vast installed base of more than 2.5 billion active devices.

Cook then turned that installed base into a recurring revenue engine.

Apple’s services business grew to more than $100 billion in annual revenue, covering products such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Pay and iCloud. Wearables also became a significant business, with Apple Watch and AirPods generating $35 billion in fiscal 2025.

“Not only did Cook create his own path of operational and supply chain success but, he also created a ‘values-driven’ culture within Apple,” said Christopher Brown, a financial adviser at Synovus Securities, which holds Apple shares.

But Cook’s record also has notable gaps.

Apple abandoned its decade-long electric vehicle project in 2024. The Apple Maps launch in 2012 was widely criticised and contributed to the departure of software chief Scott Forstall. The $3,499 Vision Pro headset has also struggled to achieve broad consumer adoption.

The biggest unresolved challenge is artificial intelligence. Apple has faced criticism for delays in upgrading Siri and has trailed rivals in the race to make AI a central part of its products.

Apple earlier in the year announced that John Ternus will be taking over from Tim Cook.

Cook also leaves Ternus with the task of reducing Apple’s manufacturing dependence on China while managing rising US-China tensions and protecting its margins.

Ternus takes over with Apple in a far stronger financial position than the company Cook inherited. But his first major test will be whether he can produce the next phase of growth without simply extending Cook’s playbook.