![\"Apple](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776728590_701_0x0.jpg\")
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Apple CEO Tim Cook holds an iPhone 17 during an Apple special event at Apple headquarters on September 09, 2025, in Cupertino, California.<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
For most of its history under late co-founder Steve Jobs, Apple was very much defined by expensive consumer gadgets like Macs, iPods, iPhones, and iPads. Indeed, starting from the company\u2019s founding through Jobs\u2019 death in 2011, the center of gravity inside Apple never really wavered: It was all about beautifully designed hardware that customers lined up on release day to buy.<\/p>\n
The Tim Cook<\/a> era at Apple, meanwhile, didn\u2019t so much turn that playbook on its head as extend it.<\/p>\n Over time, Jobs\u2019 now-outgoing successor (Cook will become Apple\u2019s executive chairman in September, passing the torch to hardware engineering senior VP John Ternus as CEO) layered something else on top of Apple\u2019s gadget-heavy strategy: A media ecosystem encompassing music, TV, movies, and journalism that would go on to profoundly reshaped the iPhone maker.<\/p>\n So much so, that Apple is now arguably one of the most important media companies in the world thanks to services like Apple Music and Apple TV (formerly branded as Apple TV+).<\/p>\n As word of Apple\u2019s just-announced CEO transition continues to spread and Cook\u2019s legacy begins to be assessed, this is likely to be one of the more obvious yet easy to overlook aspects of his leadership. That\u2019s partly because Cook, who wrote in a letter announcing his transition<\/a> that he feels \u201ca gratitude that I cannot put into words,\u201d also positioned Apple as a privacy-focused alternative to ad-driven rivals while navigating two increasingly volatile Trump administrations<\/a>.<\/p>\n Apple\u2019s reinvention as a media giant under Tim Cook<\/p>\n The push that he spearheaded for Apple to become a major media force, meanwhile, can\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n Start with Apple Music. On paper, that service was Apple\u2019s immediate answer to the rise of Spotify. But it also turned out to be something much more strategic \u2014 a way to keep users inside Apple\u2019s world, long after they\u2019d bought the hardware. It was also a big shift for Apple when Apple Music launched in 2015, with the company that popularized buying individual songs for $0.99 now selling access to a massive song library.<\/p>\n Apple also went farther than Spotify did, bringing personality and culture to the Apple Music service by tapping voices like Zane Lowe for artist interviews and live radio shows.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Apple TV.<\/p>\n Jason Sudeikis as Coach Ted Lasso in \u201cTed Lasso,\u201d streaming on Apple TV.<\/p>\n Apple<\/p>\n Apple didn\u2019t try to out-Netflix its gargantuan rival on the basis of volume. Instead, it went a quasi-HBO route, meaning the release of very few titles, a focus on prestige, and big cultural swings. That service launched in 2019, and only a few years later it already had big wins under its belt that cut through the streaming clutter \u2014 including shows like Ted Lasso and Severance. <\/p>\n New Apple TV releases include the now-streaming A24-esque Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles, with a stacked cast including Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer, while the Anya Taylor-Joy led crime series Lucky is coming later this summer (in July). <\/p>\n On the movie side, Apple TV also became the first streamer to take home Hollywood\u2019s top prize: A Best Picture Oscar in 2022 for the feel-good drama CODA, cementing Apple as a major player in the film and TV business.<\/p>\n