Tim Cook’s Legacy: Turning Apple’s Tech Stylish Devices Into Standing Symbols

In the approaching days, quite a bit might be mentioned about Tim Cook’s legacy at Apple. He expanded the corporate’s merchandise into new classes like wearables and headphones, debuted a collection of companies, developed a powerful buyer base in China and led the corporate to a $4 trillion valuation. 

From the second Cook formally took the CEO place in 2011, he was within the shadow of his predecessor and Apple founder Steve Jobs, whose legacy prolonged far past a lineup of profitable merchandise. Jobs’ legacy was being the face of Apple, aggressively pushing for user-oriented design simplicity within the background whereas singing their praises within the public highlight. His successor had huge footwear to fill and grew the corporate from a extra personal vantage, however his legacy is extra than simply how a lot Apple is price. Cook’s lasting influence can be measured in one other approach: how a lot Apple’s merchandise have turn out to be standing symbols.

I bear in mind my mother and father shopping for the 1998 iMac in Bondi Blue, the primary main product Steve Jobs launched after returning to guide Apple. “There’s no step 3!” got here Jeff Goldblum’s voice in a traditional business summarizing the prodigal CEO’s imaginative and prescient of the corporate’s merchandise: easy-to-use and stylish options to boring beige packing containers. This culminated within the white-plastic period of lamp iMacs, MacBooks, iPods and iPhones spearheaded by designer Jony Ive. 

Apple merchandise have been cool and massive sellers when Cook took over as CEO. But he targeted on the iPhone as a brand new middle of the corporate, utilizing it as a beachhead for its new unified gadget ecosystem. Once the iPhone was in individuals’s pockets, iOS’s easy-to-use interface and synergy with MacOS (sharing iMessage from 2012 onward) and WatchOS (with the primary Apple Watch in 2015) led them to stay with Apple’s smartphone line. Then their associates did, too, and found that their textual content conversations fell into two camps: blue with different iPhone homeowners, or inexperienced with Android homeowners.

In 2017, the iPhone X rang in a brand new period of home-buttonless, all-screen-front handset design and, subsequently, larger costs — the primary time it neared 4 figures (although cleverly priced at $999). Soon, extra iMessage options expanded the divide between these paying more cash for iPhones and people typically paying much less for Android units. This has led to social stigma for these sending “green bubble” chats. Apple was in no rush to bridge this hole, and at Code 2022, I watched as Cook himself instructed a fan to “buy your mom an iPhone.” 

Apple has considerably bowed to stress on this concern, including some additional messaging performance between iPhones and Android units when it integrated the data-based RCS messaging commonplace into its handsets again in 2024. But the stigma persists, and iPhones have continued to take pleasure in social superiority in lots of markets. That’s undoubtedly contributed to iPhone gross sales through the years, guaranteeing Apple’s telephones stay the corporate’s highest-selling units by an extended shot. 

If imitation is the sincerest type of flattery, Cook’s period has seen many merchandise come out that overtly resemble Apple merchandise to coast on their credibility. From the Huawei Matebook X of 2017 to the HP Dragonfly Pro of 2023, loads of laptop computer makers ape Apple’s smooth silver MacBook aesthetics. And contemplating all of the telephones I noticed at MWC trying like lifeless ringers for the iPhone 17 Pro right down to its signature orange hue, iPhone envy is alive and effectively. 

Tim Cook rings within the movie star period of Apple

Jobs dabbled in utilizing musicians to advertise Apple merchandise, just like the iPod, however the closest he received to utilizing celebrities was when he introduced the actor Noah Wyle on stage at Macworld 1999, giving a faux-Jobs speech (Wyle had simply portrayed him within the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley earlier that yr). 

The Tim Cook period is when Apple launches started overtly that includes celebrities, and nothing says standing like a well-known individual utilizing your product. To be truthful, Apple is not alone amongst tech corporations in doing this, however different examples actually really feel extra stilted, like when Jimmy Fallon helped debut the Pixel 10, or when Samsung unveiled the Z Fold 6 and Sydney Sweeney was additionally there. 

Cook oversaw an embrace of celebrities as pseudo-brand ambassadors. It began with a stumble in 2014 when Apple shoved a U2 album into each iPhone, a wildly unpopular transfer the corporate rapidly recovered from with its first new product within the new period. Back earlier than the Apple Watch launched in 2015, the corporate seemingly seeded the gadget out to Beyonce, Katy Perry, Drake, Pharrell Williams and others to flaunt on social media, cultivating prerelease hype and a luxurious affiliation for a tech gadget. 

Then on the grand unveiling of Apple TV Plus in March 2019, a laundry checklist of Hollywood’s prime stars have been both featured within the presentation or appeared within the viewers to sign their involvement in reveals and movies to come back, together with Steven Speilberg, Ron Howard, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Chris Evans, Jason Momoa, M. Night Shyamalan, Octavia Spencer, Hailee Steinfeld, Jane Krakowski, Kumail Nanjiani and extra. Cook himself introduced Oprah on stage to cap off the occasion. 

Cook has savvily tailored his product launch invite checklist to carry on extra present celebrities who made their mark on social media and streaming. In latest years, he is arrange interviews at Apple occasions with well-liked streamers like Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) and iJustine at WWDC 2025, in addition to at a secret Grand Central Terminal, NYC occasion for Apple’s fiftieth anniversary. Last yr, after the iPhone 17 collection was launched, he walked to the demo ground to show off the iPhone Air to Mr. Beast.

But to correctly honor 50 years of Apple, Cook introduced in one of many best residing musical legends, Paul McCartney, to mark the corporate’s half-century. 

Cook’s tenure at Apple could also be coming to an in depth, however he is proven a eager sense for make proudly owning an iPhone or MacBook a measure of standing. And by turning launch occasions into celebrity-studded product galas, he is ensured the corporate itself is seen as a worldwide image of high-end merchandise. How else do you get a Beatle to rejoice your birthday?