Apple's Tim Cook Hands Reins to John Ternus Amid Rising Competition
After fifteen years at the helm of Apple, Tim Cook is passing the baton to John Ternus as CEO. During his tenure, Cook transformed the company into a $4.5 trillion behemoth from its initial $350 billion valuation under Steve Jobs.
Cook's leadership style was characterized by an 'operations-first' mindset, which he used to take Apple's cutting-edge products to the masses. He also created a values-driven culture within the company and leveraged the iPhone user base as a recurring revenue stream.
The company's annual sales rose from $108 billion at the start of Cook's tenure to $416 billion in the last fiscal year, with profit growing more than fourfold to $112 billion. Apple's wearables business brought in $35 billion in sales in fiscal 2025.
Critics have accused Apple of losing its innovation edge during Cook's era, particularly in AI features and hardware rivals' attempts to displace the smartphone as the default consumer device.
Apple's dependence on China has also been a concern, with rising Sino-U.S. tensions, tariffs, and supply-chain disruptions exposing the risks of concentrating production in a single country. However, the company has begun to expand manufacturing in India and other countries.