Apple CEO Tim Cook says he might leave sometime over the next ten years

On January 15th, 2009, Tim Cook took over as CEO replacing Steve Jobs who was suffering from pancreatic cancer. Cook’s first reign as Apple’s top executive lasted 207 days as Jobs felt well enough to return to Cupertino during the third week of June. Jobs remained in his CEO post until August 24th, 2011 when he decided that he could no longer continue doing his job. Once again Cook replaced him as CEO and has had that position ever since. On October 5th, 2011, Jobs succumbed to cancer.

Regardless of what you might think of Tim Cook’s abilities, he has been the right man for the job. Under his leadership, Apple increased the size of the iPhone screen from 3.5-inches to the 6.7-inches on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. He added a larger 5.5-inch “Plus” model starting with 2015’s iPhone 6 series and also led a major redesign with the iPhone X; the latter model introduced the world to Face IDand the notch (although it wasn’t the first handset to sport one). Cook launched popular wearables like the AirPods and the Apple Watch. Sure, not every device has been a hit. Take for example the HomePod smart speaker which turned out to be a sales dud. Since Cook took over, Apple’s market cap has risen from $350 billion to $2 trillion. Clearly, Cook has been a perfect fit for Apple.

The good news is that Cook’s departure from Apple does not appear imminent. But it also sounds as though someone else will be the company’s CEO ten years from now. Back in 2019, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams was the clear successor to Cook. Like Cook did before becoming CEO, Williams worked with Apple’s supply chain. The first device he got his hands dirty on was the Apple Watch and more than once he had to stop the development of the timepiece in order to switch the materials being used. This led to a delay in the release of the device, but it was the right thing to do since it prevented possibly defective units from ending up in consumers’ hands.