Gadgets Won’t Define Tim Cook’s Legacy
August 31st, 2026. Happy Monday. Welcome to a new week. Today marks Tim Cook’s last official day as Apple CEO. It seems fitting to dedicate today’s article to Cook. Let’s jump in.
Gadgets Won’t Define Tim Cook’s Legacy
What looks to be a very busy September for Apple will also see John Ternus’s tenure as CEO begin. As part of Apple’s well-orchestrated CEO succession, Ternus has been job shadowing Tim Cook for months. Presumably, Ternus has already unofficially taken the CEO reigns.
Cook has been one of the best all-around CEOs we have seen in the modern business world. Compared to other Big Tech CEOs, there really isn’t a close second either. Unfortunately, time will likely need to pass for more people to realize just how effective and efficient Cook was as CEO.
It's tempting to judge Cook’s time as Apple CEO through a product lens. We can put the Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro on pedestals to compare them to products such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad that launched during the Steve Jobs era. However, such comparisons don’t strike me as being complete. Instead, they are superficial and shallow.
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Legacies Can Be a Tricky Thing (AVALON)
In this episode, Neil Cybart talks about how will historians will grade Tim Cook’s legacy as Apple CEO. Additional discussion topics include:
Walmart accepting Apple Pay
Apple unveiling M6 and M5 Ultra and broader updates to the Mac mini and Mac Studio
App Store sales weakness.
The auto industry A/B testing a car with and without CarPlay
The WSJ justifying Stanley Druckenmiller using AI to write his WSJ op-ed.
What are we going to do with additional free time made available by AI?
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