When Tim Cook took over Apple in 2011, leaders from Silicon Valley to Wall Street predicted that the company’s best days were behind it. They feared that without Steve Jobs, Apple’s innovative CEO, the company would falter.
They were wrong.
Over 15 years, Mr. Cook engineered Apple’s rise from a $350 billion Silicon Valley darling to a $4 trillion cash-generating giant. The company’s annual sales quadrupled and its profits quadrupled. The iPhone became ubiquitous, the Apple Watch became widespread, and the company developed credit cards and TV shows.
Apple’s growth is a testament to how Mr. Cook turned the iPhone into one of the best-selling products in history. Introduced by Mr Jobs in 2007, the iPhone started the smartphone revolution and changed the way people work, socialize and travel. But Apple was selling just 72 million iPhones a year when Mr. Jobs died and Mr. Cook took over.
Two years later, Mr. Cook struck a deal with China’s largest wireless company, China Mobile. By the end of this year, Apple had more than doubled the number of iPhones sold, and China had cemented itself as the company’s biggest market after the United States.
In 2018, Apple became the first public company to be valued at $1 trillion on the 10th anniversary of the release of its iPhone. It had a facial recognition system, a full screen and a higher price, $1000, which helped take Apple’s sales to new heights.
Over the next year, the company added $1 trillion in market value after the pandemic prompted people who worked from home to splurge on iPhones, iPads and Macs. More than a billion iPhones and 650 million other Apple devices were in use worldwide.
Apple has been cruising ever since. People typically replace their iPhones every three years, and the company collects revenue for the apps and services used on those devices.
Although it has largely missed out on the artificial intelligence boom that is now lifting sales of its tech peers, the company’s profits and stock value continue to rise.
