A decade has passed since the death of Steve Jobs, so what has Tim Cook achieved?

"Apple is finished after Steve Jobs' death". These are words we hear a lot from the death of the company's founder to this day, a decade after Tim Cook took office. Often this phrase is based on the feelings of the one who said it. But what about tangible progress? In this article, we discuss the path of Apple under Tim Cook during the decade since he was at the helm of the company.

The most valuable companies in the world

Do you remember a few months ago when the news was that Mission Impossible had been accomplished and that Apple had surpassed $2 trillion in market value? The news is outdated that Apple is now worth $2.5 trillion (approximately AED 9.2 trillion). Apple's holiday income exceeded $111 billion, four times the equivalent period in 2011 ten years ago.

Let's break down the numbers a bit. According to June 2021 returns, an average of $10 enters Apple's vaults for every passing second. Of them, $3600 is net income after expenses have been paid. So it is clear that users are not only still buying Apple products but that the company has expanded its base and increased sales year by year.

What about drastic changes?

Some would say that the company's success was inevitable. And that it was growing exponentially before the death of Steve Jobs and what Tim Cook did was just to maintain this growth and prevent the company from falling. And while maintaining a company the size of Apple is no easy feat, let's look at other aspects of Jobs' missing personality. They are the new products.

Jobs' tenure at the helm of Apple was marked by the launch of many new products that completely changed the market. iPhone, iPad, Mac. All are new products launched in the era of Jobs and now form the basis of Apple's profits, especially the iPhone. But Tim Cook's period was marked by the launch of successful accessories, perhaps a desire for safety and not venturing into a new product like foldable phones and perhaps because there are not many new devices that can be brought to the market today. But the most successful new products released under Tim Cook so far are the Apple Watch and Airpods, which you see everywhere.

Nor do we forget about the infamous Airpower wireless charging device that was announced and later canceled.

M1 . devices

Although it's still new, this shift may be remembered from Tim Cook's era as his greatest achievement in changing the electronics market. As Apple recently launched its new M1 processors, which was a huge success in terms of energy consumption, with a battery that may last for twenty hours, and performance that exceeds higher and much more expensive categories. So much so that Apple's M1 devices such as the MacBook Air are now considered cheap compared to performance! Also, after waiting for new devices was something that bothered any writer like me so that he would not recommend a device to users and then a better device comes out many times over, I can now nominate the current MacBook Air to 95% of people for years to come without feeling that they may miss out on a lot in terms of performance because it is already Regular use is sufficient as well as some professional uses as well. And if my 2015 MacBook Pro with a vintage Intel i5 dual core processor has been working great for me so far, then the MacBook M1 will definitely work longer.

What is interesting about the topic is that all this is in devices that are considered the least powerful and are designed for the “normal” user. How will your next Mac Pro be?

Because of this, many companies are now trying hard to develop their processor architecture for something completely new or enter the ARM market with Apple and try to imitate its success before Apple became the only dominant in terms of processor power and battery efficiency for years.

Services sector

Probably not a "device". But the services sector is growing strongly in the company to become an essential part of Apple's income. In the last nine months of 2017, revenue from services (software store, music, TV, games, etc.) was nearly $21 billion. Apple has announced that only the size of its services sector can make it a separate company from the 100 richest companies in the world.

Apple's Tim Cook's tendency to stimulate the services market is evident in its policies with the iPhone. Beginning of continuous updates for many years, up to six years for iPhone devices, passing through the launch of less expensive devices such as the iPhone SE and iPad and iPad Air with processors that can withstand many years forward. Apple knows that as devices improve, users will keep their devices for longer and buy new ones less in the future. So they decided to increase support for old devices and publish the iPhone and iPad in the hands of as many users as possible. Because the user spends a lot of money on purchasing software and services. Especially if they are affordable, such as Apple One and TV+, which Apple can make less than competitors simply because the number of users they have is huge. They will make a profit even if the price of the services is lower.

existential struggles

Courts are not new to Apple. I even think that the company since its inception spends 20% of its income on lawyers 😂 but the issue has escalated sharply in the last period. Instead of Apple suing other companies, other companies are now violently suing Apple. There are even governments that are suing the company. And all the problems revolve around the App Store, there are a lot of complaints that accuse Apple of taking too large percentages of developer sales. There are also a lot of concerns about the future of the store, as it could become in the future much, much larger and the basics of life more than the current stages. If we reach this stage with Apple controlling it as a single entity and without fair laws regulating store practices, Apple will actually turn into one of the parties that can change sectors of the economy or people's lives by a decision of its CEO.

at the end

It's never easy to judge Apple's performance since Tim Cook took over. Because there are many aspects that you can look at and according to your personal opinion, you can say that they failed here and succeeded there. But there is no doubt that Tim Cook has managed to preserve many of Jobs' legacies over the past decade. The company also made many mistakes.

In terms of money, Apple is now in its most successful period ever.

Sources:

Theverge | Yahoo finance