The era of soaring market value tenfold under the "Cook era" is coming to an end: From $350 billion to $4 trillion, Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) is ushering in a new era.

After 15 years of succeeding Steve Jobs, Tim Cook is now handing over the leadership of Apple Inc. to hardware expert John Ternus. The outgoing CEO will remain as executive chairman, having achieved unprecedented success during his tenure. Here are some highlights of his tenure: $3.66 trillion Under Cook's leadership, Apple's market value grew by $3.66 trillion. As early as 2011, Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, California, was already a highly influential company. However, under Cook's tenure as CEO, the company's market value increased tenfold. When Cook took over on August 24, 2011, Apple's market value was slightly below $350 billion; since then, Apple has repeatedly set new record highs for market value, currently standing at $4.01 trillion. Apple's current market value is roughly equivalent to the size of the UK economy, the world's fifth-largest. Although this number is impressive, it is still not enough to make Apple the company with the highest market value globally, as in the age of AI, Silicon Valley peers Alphabet and Nvidia have surpassed it. 699% By the end of the fiscal year ending in September 2025, Apple's net profit reached $112 billion, a eight-fold increase from September 2010. Despite facing platform saturation in smartphone sales, the COVID-19 crisis, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical tensions between the US and Apple's main manufacturing base in China, Apple still achieved a 699% profit growth. Cook expanded the iPhone and App Store ecosystem with a range of supplementary devices under his leadership, including various sizes of iPads, a variety of Apple Watch models, and a wide range of Made for iPhone accessories. Under his leadership, Apple never returned to the naming convention starting with "i," but he maximized the profit potential of this product portfolio. "When Tim Cook took over, there were doubts from the outside," said Ross Gerber, co-founder and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management. "But he has done an outstanding job over the years." In January of this year, Apple reported that its active installed base had exceeded 2.5 billion devices. In the summer of 2016, Cook raised a packaging box at an employee meeting, announcing that the company had sold its billionth iPhone. He said at the time, "We don't aim for the highest sales volume, but always strive to make the best products that can change the world." The recent holiday season financial report set multiple records for the company: revenue, iPhone sales, and services revenue. Although Cook did not make many breakthroughs in fully original product areas - the Apple Car project has been canceled, and Vision Pro remains niche - he built a highly cohesive ecosystem that keeps users coming back. 540 retail stores Cook inherited one of the world's most respected retail businesses and expanded it further. He added about 200 stores to Apple's global network, significantly expanding its footprint in mainland China. Currently, Apple has 50 retail stores in China in Chongqing, Guangdong, Hubei, Yunnan, and other places, covering more consumers in the world's largest smartphone and personal computer market. Apple's success in China stands out among American tech giants, while competitors like Google and Meta are largely excluded from the consumer sector in that market. Average selling price of $1070 In 2017, Apple and Samsung Electronics made a significant decision: to test the $1000 ceiling for smartphones. The devices produced by these two global leading companies first touched this threshold, and subsequent upgrades broke through this limit. Since then, Apple has introduced more expensive options each year, with the average selling price of iPhones steadily increasing as the iPhone expands into the Pro and Max series. The first generation of iPhones in that year was ridiculed by then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for its high subsidized price of $500, but modern versions of the iPhone typically cost twice as much. According to market research firm IDC data, in 2011, the average selling price of an iPhone was $712, and by 2025, this number had reached $1070. Cook led the charge into higher price segments, which helped Apple demonstrate more resilience in this year's storage chip shortage crisis compared to Chinese competitors who rely more on lower-priced devices. Environment Cook advocated for various environmental initiatives within Apple, including expanding the use of recycled metals, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and streamlining excessive packaging. According to the latest environmental report, by redesigning packaging, Apple has avoided the use of 15,000 tons of plastic over the past five years, roughly equivalent to 500 million plastic bottles. The new MacBook Neo introduced this year is Apple's lowest carbon footprint MacBook ever, with 60% of its materials coming from recycling. However, Apple still has a lot of work to do to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality throughout the entire value chain by 2030. Apple Park Apple Park - the grand and futuristic headquarters envisioned by Jobs many years ago, was completed under Cook's leadership in 2017. This 175-acre campus is large enough to accommodate 100 American football fields with plenty of space to spare, housing over 12,000 employees, a 17-megawatt roof solar power facility from CECEP Solar Energy, and a two-mile-long employee trail. According to Apple, the campus also features an orchard, lawns, and ponds, and now it has become a habit for Apple's new product launch videos to use this setting as the background. As of the end of September, Apple has 166,000 employees globally, with millions more employed in the production and supply chain of its products. $600 billion One of the significant legacies left by Cook is his commitment to a $600 billion US investment plan announced last year. Apple stated that this is the largest investment plan in the company's history, with funds being used to support 20,000 new jobs, data center expansions, Apple Intelligence infrastructure, and server production in Houston. This statement was also part of Cook's negotiations with the Trump administration to avoid punitive tariffs on imported iPhones. As his successor, Ternus must fulfill Cook's commitments while delicately balancing Apple's domestic interests with critical overseas markets such as China.