How Apple Changed Under Tim Cook: 15 Years in Numbers - MacRumors
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How Apple Changed Under Tim Cook: 15 Years in Numbers

Apple CEO Tim Cook participated in his final Apple earnings call yesterday, with incoming CEO John Ternus set to take over on September 1. With Cook's tenure coming to an end, we thought we'd take a look at how Apple has changed over the last 15 years.

Tim Cook Apple Park
Cook took over as CEO on August 24, 2011, after Steve Jobs resigned.

Apple's Revenue

During yesterday's earnings call, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan shared an interesting observation about Apple's quarterly earnings. When Cook took over as CEO, Apple's revenue for all of 2011 was $108 billion.

Apple reported $109.4 billion for Q3 2026, earning its 2011 revenue in a single quarter. We don't have the numbers for fiscal 2026 yet, but in fiscal 2025, revenue was $416 billion.

iPhone revenue in 2011 was $47 billion, and just this quarter, it was $54.3 billion.

Valuation

Apple stock is down today after Cook said he expects supply constraints and memory shortages to affect revenue in the current quarter, but last week, Apple briefly hit a market cap above $5 trillion. Apple's market cap is now around the $4.5 trillion mark, and it once again trails Nvidia for world's most valuable publicly traded company.

Apple was the first company to reach a $1 trillion valuation in August 2018, the first to reach $2 trillion in August 2020, and the first to reach $3 trillion in January 2022. It was the third company to hit a $4 trillion valuation in October 2025, and then the second to reach $5 trillion.

A day after Cook took over in August 2011, Apple's stock price was $13.35 (split-adjusted). Today, it opened at $304.81, a roughly 23x increase. There was a 7-for–1 split in 2014 and 4-for–1 split in 2020 during Cook's tenure.

Installed Base

Apple said it has over 2.5 billion active devices. Apple didn't share installed base numbers until 2016, when it hit a billion active devices.

Services

Apple's services category revenue has seen the most growth. It was $9.4 billion in all of 2011, but in Q3 2026, it was $30.7 billion. In fiscal 2025, services brought in $109 billion.

Apple said during the earnings call that it now has 1.5 billion subscriptions. A huge number of services launched under Cook, including:

Back in 2011, Apple's services were limited to AppleCare, iTunes, and the ‌App Store‌.

Product Launches

Under Cook, Apple launched everything from the AirPods to the Apple Watch.

Capital Returns

Cook initiated quarterly dividends in 2012, and also executed an ongoing share repurchase program. Since then, Apple has returned more than $1 trillion to shareholders.

Transition to John Ternus

Cook said yesterday that the transition to Ternus is "going seamlessly." Ternus will become CEO on September 1, ahead of when Apple announces new iPhone models. Cook will remain at Apple as executive chairman, where he will engage with policymakers and help Apple navigate regulatory pressure.

In April, Cook said he planned to remain at Apple for years to come. "I am healthy. My energy is high, and I plan to be in this role for a long time," said Cook. He said he will support current hardware engineering chief John Ternus in any way necessary when Ternus takes over as CEO, and he plans to continue to offer knowledge and experience whenever it's needed. "Apple will be my top priority," he said. "It's who I am at my core, and I can't imagine it any other way."

Cook on Ternus

Cook yesterday said Ternus is the best choice to take over Apple.

The transition is going seamlessly, and I am beyond excited for John to step into his new role and lead Apple into its next era. He is truly one of a kind and there is no better person to take the helm of the company.

As I've said, I couldn't be more confident in his leadership, in our executive team, and in the extraordinary people at Apple who are determined to enrich the lives of our users all over the world. We have a bright future ahead, and I truly have never been more optimistic.

Ternus has been at Apple since 2001, when he joined the product design team. He became vice president of hardware engineering in 2013 and focused on the AirPods, Mac, and iPad. In 2020, he also took on the iPhone, and he became senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2021.

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Top Rated Comments

5 weeks ago
Cook will go down as one of the all time great CEOs of a major corporation. During his tenure, Apple grew in ways few companies ever manage. While not the visionary of Steve Jobs, he's a business genius who turned Apple into the powerhouse it currently is.
Score: 49 Votes (Like | Disagree)
19callum93 Avatar
5 weeks ago
Congratulations Tim! Sometimes he doesn’t get the respect he deserves 👏 and Good luck John! Looking forward to the future.
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Agent007 Avatar
5 weeks ago
Tim Cook will be remembered as the quintessential "late stage capitalism" CEO. Boosting AAPL share price isn't just a top priority - it's the only priority. As a result, the overall user experience has degraded considerably.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I7guy Avatar
5 weeks ago
Impressive tenure.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
5 weeks ago

I'd expect to see ads for apps in a store. That's kinda the point of a store... to go shopping.
No. People searching the App Store are hoping to get matching results up top, not whatever paid Apple the most.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
5 weeks ago
Ads.

Introduced into first party Apple apps in 2016...
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)