15 Products That Defined Tim Cook’s Apple Legacy
When Tim Cook took over Apple in 2011, the big question was whether anyone could follow in Steve Jobs’ footsteps. For many, Jobs was Apple.
Fifteen years later, it’s clear that Cook has delivered – and then some. Not with a single groundbreaking product like the Jobs-era iPhone or iPod, but with a long list of hits, experiments and occasional missteps that have transformed Apple today.
Here are 15 of our favorite Apple products that have shaped Cook’s decade-and-a-half legacy, both good and bad.
Apple Watch
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The Apple Watch was the first big “post-Jobs” category – and it wasn’t initially particularly warmly received. Early versions leaned awkwardly on fashion, complete with gold editions and luxury marketing, although early Apple Watches were only supported for a relatively short period of time.
But slowly but surely, Apple’s wearable found its footing. These days, the watch is less about style and more about health, with features like heart rate monitoring, ECG and fall detection, making it one of the company’s most important products.
It also helps that it works so well with connected iPhones, offering a level of interoperability that most Android-based wearables still can’t quite match.
AirPods
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Considering how popular AirPods are in 2026, it’s funny to look back at the reaction on social media when they were first introduced in 2016. People generally ignored the buds, comparing them to electric toothbrush heads, but within a year of launch they were everywhere.
As with the Apple Watch, Cook’s magic touch made the headphones work very well with iPhones, iPads and Macs. They offer great sound and features like seamless handoff between devices and have improved significantly over the years, not just in features but also in the overall design of the Pro and Max variants.
iPhone X
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While the original iPhone was a Jobs-era innovation, the iPhone X was the birth of the modern iPhone.
The staples of the iconic iPhone design – the home button and bezels – have been jettisoned in favor of an all-screen design with the now instantly recognizable Face ID notch. This was a controversial change at the time, but it’s a design that Apple still uses on its iPhone lineup today.
Apple Silicon
If there’s one product that feels like a true Cook-era mic drop, it’s Apple Silicon.
It was a big risk to give up the dominant power of Intel and build your own chips – especially considering that Mac apps would have to be fundamentally redeveloped so that the platform can take full advantage of the performance it offers. But that risk paid off almost immediately.
The M1 MacBook Air was incredibly fast, quiet and efficient compared to virtually all other devices and has only improved with newer versions in recent years.
iPad Pro
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The iPad Pro is Apple’s long-running attempt to answer a simple question: Can a tablet replace your laptop?
Even after all these years, the answer is still: it depends. But with the M-Series pen, keyboard, and increasingly powerful desktop chips, it has become the tool of choice for creatives and professionals who prefer the touchscreen to traditional mouse input.
Apple Music
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Cook not only pushed hardware forward, but also pushed Apple into the increasingly lucrative services business.
Aiming to take on the dominant Spotify, Apple Music was the company’s first foray into the services sector, and it was a huge success. It has an extensive collection of songs in Hi-Res format and Dolby Atmos for an immersive listening experience and of course plays exceptionally well on iOS, macOS and iPadOS.
Apple Pay
The introduction of Apple Pay has changed the way we pay for products and services, both online and in the real world. It’s a feature we don’t even think about these days – we just pull out our phones and pay with a tap – but Apple was one of the first to make it possible back in 2014.
Apple Vision Pro
The Apple Vision Pro is Cook’s “What’s next?” product, a £/$3,499 headset that Apple insists is not VR but “spatial computing”. It’s early technology, expensive and a bit cumbersome – but compared to cheaper headsets from Meta, it’s also undeniably impressive with its M-series performance and high-end graphics.
But whether it will be the next iPhone or the next HomePod remains to be seen – given the waning interest in VR headsets, it’s entirely possible it could be the latter.
iPhone SE
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Not every Apple product needs to be state-of-the-art, and the iPhone SE is a good example of this.
Cook’s supply chain expertise was on full display here, reusing older components with newer internals to offer the iPhone experience at a much more affordable price. It wasn’t perfect, of course, but it had a special place for those who missed the “old school” iPhone look.
Apple Pencil
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Steve Jobs famously said that no one wanted a stylus – but it turns out that when it came to the big screens of iPads, people did. They just didn’t want bad ones.
The Apple Pencil has helped transform the iPad into a legitimate creative tool, particularly for artists, designers and good old note-takers, with an experience that’s still not quite matched by Android pen alternatives.
MagSafe
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MagSafe – the iPhone variant not used on Macs – was a game-changer when it was released with the iPhone 12, so much so that the framework has now been integrated into the Qi2 standard for all phones to follow.
It just makes so much sense: With a ring of magnets, not only does the phone snap perfectly onto wireless chargers, but you can also add a ton of accessories like batteries, wallets, or even camera grips without having to fiddle with different cases. Just snap it on and pull it off when you’re done.
MacBook Pro
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Under Cook’s leadership, the MacBook Pro hit some bumps in the road. People loved the old style of the MacBook Pro, but Cook’s Apple reinvented it in 2016 by removing fan-favorite features like MagSafe charging and SD card slots and introducing an OLED touchbar that quickly became the butt of jokes.
It took until 2021 for the MacBook Pro to make an about-face, ditching the elaborate Touch Bar and reliance on USB-C and bringing back MagSafe charging and a plethora of ports, which, combined with Apple’s M-series silicon, now makes it one of the best laptops on the market.
MacBook Neo
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We couldn’t talk about the MacBook Pro without at least mentioning the MacBook Neo, which could be considered Cook’s magnum opus before his retirement.
The MacBook Air was Apple’s entry point into the macOS ecosystem for years, but it still cost close to a grand, if not more. The problem is that there are plenty of cheaper Windows-based laptops available, and they tend to win out among budget-conscious buyers.
But then along came the MacBook Neo, and although it has an iPhone-level A18 Pro chipset, it stands out in the budget market for both overall performance and battery life, all for just £/$599, which makes pretty much any cheap Windows laptop look underpowered and expensive. A defining moment indeed.
Magic Mouse 2
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The Magic Mouse 2 was a beautifully designed mouse with one small problem: it had to be charged from the bottom. This means you cannot use it while it is charging. Yes, the memes were great for this one.
It’s such a small decision, but it perfectly captures the “design over practicality” critique that dogged Apple for years, and will be remembered, for better or worse, as a defining product of the Cook era.
Polishing Cloth
Yes, really.
An Apple branded cloth for £/$19 to clean your screen. It instantly became a meme – not because it’s bad, but because it so perfectly reflects Apple’s confidence in its brand.
Only Apple could sell this… and cause it to go out of stock.
All joking aside, under Cook, Apple stopped being just a computer company and became part of virtually everything we do, from the way we pay for coffee to what we wear on our wrists. It wasn’t always a perfect run, but it transformed the post-Jobs era into a vast, unstoppable ecosystem that most of us can’t imagine life without today.
It’s safe to say that John Ternus now has big shoes to fill.
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