“When Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple’s CEO on August 24, 2011, the company’s future was anything but certain,” Victor Luckerson writes for TIME Magazine. “The tech giant had become the most valuable company in the world just weeks before, thanks to a decade’s worth of wildly successful new products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad. The disruptive devices were credited almost exclusively to Jobs’ genius, and consumers as well as Wall Street analysts wondered whether Tim Cook, his soft-spoken successor, could guide Apple even higher.”
“Fast forward three years and Cook has proved his doubters wrong. This week, he got quite the anniversary gift when Apple’s stock reached an all-time high, largely because of strong recent earnings reports and anticipation of the iPhone 6, rumored to be announced this fall,” Luckerson writes. “Apple’s new share price high is a sign investors are buying into Cook’s vision for the companys’ future, which looks different from Jobs’s.”
Here’s a look at four ways Apple has changed during the Era of Cook:
• Only Cook Could Go to China
• Goosing Apple’s Stock Through Share Buybacks
• Diversifying Apple’s Core Products
• Increasing Apple’s Acquisitions and Partnerships
Much more in the full article here.