What Tim Cook Built | TechCrunch

After 15 years as Apple CEO, Tim Cook will step down from the role in September.

On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I discussed Apple’s big announcement. We thought about how Apple has changed since Cook took over from Steve Jobs in 2011, and what challenges new CEO John Ternus will face.

“If you look at a certain camp, it’s very much like, ‘John Ternus is a product guy and this is going to be amazing,’ and it’s very nostalgic and I go back to Steve Jobs,” Kirsten said. “But I think what people forget is that Tim Cook built another product, which was all about operations.”

Similarly, Sean noted that Cook has given Ternus a strong “start” as “the company’s numbers just keep going up.” But a running start doesn’t guarantee victory: “How much volatility is there in the corner? We are actually seeing a situation [with] the disintegration of a global economy, along with the rise of artificial intelligence that is changing the way business is done?’

Read on for a preview — edited for length and clarity — of our full conversation.

Anthony: The decisions that Apple makes trickle down to a lot of other companies because there are all kinds of startups that maybe don’t build their entire business on the iOS platform, but certainly a significant part of their business comes from the iPhone.

Kirsten: I think it’s been very interesting to see different pockets of the tech world respond to whether this is a good move or a bad move and [asking] what were Tim Cook’s successes and what does Apple need now?

If you look at a certain camp, it’s very much like, “John Ternus is a product guy and this is going to be amazing,” and it’s very nostalgic and I go back to Steve Jobs. But I think what people forget is that Tim Cook actually built another product, which was all about functions. And there’s been some really interesting coverage, even in books that have taken a deep dive into it. Its operating strategy is an Apple product. And it changed entire economies.

The question for me is: What happens when a strategist and business guy leaves? Who fills this void? Because you can make great products and that’s definitely very important in the Apple universe. But you need to have an operating strategy. And the world is changing, it’s not the same as when Tim Cook was first making it.

Sean: It’s not, but it’s hard to imagine a better start as a new CEO than the company Tim Cook has built.

As much as people complain about the stagnation of some Apple products, the iPhone hasn’t really changed the design in many generations, whatever new products you get are very niche and over the top, like the Vision Pro — for all that, the company’s numbers just keep going up. They bring in a ton of revenue. They make an incredible amount of money from the service business that Tim Cook started.

They do, in some ways, better brand building than they have for a while, even going out and creating content, like winning an Oscar for a movie, so much is done. And it looks like such a robust business, even in turbulent times, that Ternus may not need to worry about what the first year looks like.

We should say: Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO in September of this year. He will also be executive chairman. So I think the idea here is that Tim Cook is not going to go away and he’s still going to be your shield against, but also a partner with the Trump administration. Because he’s certainly demonstrated his ability to do that — sacrificing, I think, what many people would argue are some of Apple’s values ​​in the process in order to ensure that those relationships are durable enough. Even Donald Trump put a post on Truth Social about how Tim Cook kisses his ass all the time, in response to this news.

So the question, with all that said, is: As comfortable as this start is for Ternus, how much volatility is around the corner? We are actually seeing a situation [with] the disintegration of a global economy, along with the rise of artificial intelligence that is changing the way business is done? Is it something that will really be easy to handle? And who will he put by his side to make sure he can handle it?

Anthony: And I think it’s related to this question [is,] Apple seems to have a very resilient business right now, both on the hardware side and increasingly on the services side, but to what extent can it continue to have that business just by playing off the old hits? At what point does it really need to create a new product category?

I don’t know the exact answer to that. And maybe the iPhone [and] The creation of the smartphone category, in particular, is a once-in-a-generation thing, you can’t really expect it to happen every 10 years or so.

I think there’s also this interesting question about artificial intelligence. It seems this isn’t a category Apple has had much success in, and maybe that’s okay. Maybe whatever products end up breaking there, that’s just software on your iPhone, on your MacBook, and Apple doesn’t have to build all of that [and] instead of making these partnerships as he does.

But I don’t think it’s guaranteed. I think there’s probably a lot of anxiety and worry about what that future looks like.

Kirsten: Very quickly, I would like to say that Apple also can and does have the cash on hand to make some big bets and acquisitions. And I’ll be really curious to see how John [Ternus] performs on it.

I mean, one of the places where I reported on Apple was the special projects team, Project Titan, the supposed Apple car, and that seems to have disappeared and a lot of money was spent on it. Will he place big bets?

You were talking about cash on hand and I think it’s more than $45 billion at the end of 2025. So they have a lot of money to play with. Will he do anything about it in the near future?

Sean: The other thing I think we should point out is that while we’re talking about Apple having a resilient business, the App Store is also really crushing it lately. Sarah Perez wrote a really good story this week for us all the different ways the App Store numbers go up — installations, new releases in the App Store, it’s just a really exciting look for anyone who wants to dig into some data of one of the world’s largest software marketplaces.

In a world where everyone talks about how your ability to code anything will eliminate the need for distributed software, [the App Store] clearly proves it wrong.