Tim Cook’s 15-year Apple legacy: How he transformed the company after Steve Jobs

In August 2011, Tim Cook stepped into one of the tech industry's most high-profile roles when he became Apple's CEO. He took over from Steve Jobs, who had built Apple into one of the world's most admired technology companies and transformed consumer technology through his leadership.

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Cook brought a strong background in supply-chain management and operations, having previously optimised just-in-time manufacturing, lowered inventory levels and negotiated component contracts. That operational expertise became an important part of Apple's strategy as the company scaled.

Fifteen years later, Apple has evolved significantly beyond the foundation Jobs established, expanding into an extensive ecosystem encompassing devices, subscriptions and services. Highlighting this immense growth, Apple's market capitalisation briefly crossed the $5 trillion mark in July 2026.

But Cook's impact was not limited to Apple's financial growth. He also changed how the company scaled its products, services and operations after Jobs.

Services became a major growth engine

One of Cook's biggest changes was turning Apple's existing hardware ecosystem into a much larger services business. In 2011, services generated only a small share of Apple's revenue. Under Cook, the company expanded into Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud+, Apple Fitness+ and Apple Arcade, among other services. By 2025, services revenue had reached a record $109 billion.

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Apple also expanded its ecosystem with products such as Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod and HomePod mini. The wearables, home and accessories business grew from less than $10 billion a year to more than $30 billion.

Apple grew bigger and more vertically integrated

The scale of Apple's transformation is visible in its finances. The company generated about $108 billion in revenue in 2011, compared with close to $400 billion today. Its market capitalisation has also risen from around $350 billion to roughly $5 trillion.

Cook's operational background also became an important part of Apple's strategy. The company expanded its supply-chain investments and increasingly diversified manufacturing beyond China, while continuing to focus on scaling its hardware business.

Another major shift came with Apple's move into its own chips. While the company's custom-silicon strategy began before Cook, he expanded it significantly. In 2020, Apple announced that Macs would move from Intel processors to its own M1 chips. The transition strengthened Apple's control over its hardware, software and silicon roadmap.

New products and a leadership transition

Cook also oversaw the launch of Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro, alongside the expansion of the iPhone, iPad and Mac lineups.

At the same time, he changed Apple's approach to returning cash to shareholders, launching a dividend and stock-buyback programme in 2012. Apple has since spent hundreds of billions of dollars on share repurchases.

Now, as Cook prepares to hand over the CEO role to John Ternus on September 1, his Apple story is entering its next chapter. Cook will become executive chairman, while Ternus takes over as CEO.

For Cook, the next chapter may be different. But the company he leaves behind is far larger, broader and more deeply built around an ecosystem of hardware, software and services than the Apple he inherited in 2011.