Tim Cook’s Legacy: Turning Apple’s Tech Chic Gadgets into Status Symbols

In the coming days, there will be a lot of talk about Tim Cook’s legacy at Apple. He expanded the company’s products into new categories such as wearables and headphones, rolled out more services, built a strong customer base in China and led the company to a $4 trillion valuation.

From the time Cook officially took over as CEO in 2011, he was in the shadow of his predecessor and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, whose legacy extended beyond a list of successful products. Jobs’ legacy was the face of Apple, aggressively pushing simple user-centered design behind the scenes while singing its praises in public. His successor had big shoes to fill and grew the company from private equity, but his legacy is more than just how valuable Apple is. Cook’s lasting impact can also be measured in another way: how much Apple products have become status symbols.

I remember my parents buying a 1998 iMac in Bondi Blue, the first major product Steve Jobs released after returning to lead Apple. “There is no step 3!” came Jeff Goldblum’s voice in a classic commercial summing up the prodigal CEO’s vision for the company’s products: easy-to-use and beautiful alternatives to boring beige boxes. This culminated in the white plastic era of iMacs, MacBooks, iPods and iPhones led by designer Jony Ive.

Apple products were selling well when Cook took over as CEO. But he’s focused on the iPhone as the company’s new centerpiece, using it as the sea-head of its new integrated ecosystem. Once the iPhone was in people’s pockets, iOS’s easy-to-use interface and compatibility with MacOS (iMessage sharing from 2012 onwards) and WatchOS (and the first Apple Watch in 2015) led them to stick with the Apple smartphone line. Then their friends did, too, and found that their text conversations fell into two camps: blue with other iPhone owners, or green with Android owners.

In 2017, the iPhone X ushered in a new era of handset design without a home button, an all-screen front and, subsequently, high prices – for the first time it approached four figures (although it was reasonably priced at $999). Soon, iMessage’s many features widened the divide between those who pay more for iPhones and those who tend to pay less for Android devices. This has led to social stigma against those who post “green bubble” chats. Apple was in no rush to close this gap, and in Code 2022, I watched as Cook himself told a fan to “buy your mom an iPhone.”

Apple has gone some way to suppressing this problem, adding more messaging functionality between iPhones and Android devices when it integrates the data-based RCS messaging standard into its handsets back in 2024. But the stigma persists, and iPhones have continued to enjoy social supremacy in many markets. That has undoubtedly had an impact on iPhone sales over the years, ensuring that Apple’s phones remain the company’s best-selling devices by a long shot.

If imitation is a sincere form of flattery, Cook’s era has seen the emergence of many products that clearly resemble Apple’s products to continue its credibility. From 2017’s Huawei Matebook X to 2023’s HP Dragonfly Pro, dozens of laptop makers love Apple’s silver MacBook aesthetic. And considering all the phones I saw at MWC looked like dead arms for the iPhone 17 Pro right down to its orange signature, iPhone envy is alive and well.

Tim Cook ushers in Apple’s celebrity era

Jobs got into using artists to promote Apple products, such as the iPod, but the closest he came to using celebrities was when he brought actor Noah Wyle on stage at Macworld 1999, giving a mock speech for Jobs (Wyle had just portrayed him in the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley earlier that year).

Tim Cook’s time is when Apple launched and started to openly include celebrities, and nothing says status like a famous person using your product. To be honest, Apple is not alone among the technology companies that do this, but some examples certainly feel strong, like when Jimmy Fallon helped to release the Pixel 10, or when Samsung presented the Z Fold 6 and Sydney Sweeney was also there.

Cook was overseeing the embrace of celebrities as fake brand ambassadors. It started with a stumbling block in 2014 when Apple stuck a U2 album on all iPhones, an unpopular move the company quickly recovered from with its new product for the new era. Back before the launch of the Apple Watch in 2015, the company apparently brought out Beyonce, Katy Perry, Drake, Pharrell Williams and others to show off on social media, cultivating the pre-release hype and luxury association of the tech gadget.

Then at the grand unveiling of Apple TV Plus in March 2019, a list of Hollywood’s best star outfits were revealed at the presentation or appeared in the audience to show their involvement in upcoming shows and movies, including Steven Speilberg, Ron Howard, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Chris Evans, Jason Sh Momoeance, Night of Ovia, Ovialance M. Steinfeld, Jane Krakowski, Kumail How about others. Cook himself brought Oprah on stage to close the event.

Cook has cleverly adapted his brand launch invite list to bring in current celebrities who have made their mark on social media and broadcasting. In recent years, he has hosted interviews at Apple events with popular broadcasters such as Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) and iJustine at WWDC 2025, as well as at a private event at Grand Central Terminal, NYC to celebrate Apple’s 50th anniversary. Last year, after the launch of the iPhone 17 series, he went to the demo area to show the iPhone Air to Mr. Beast.

But to properly honor Apple’s 50th anniversary, Cook brought in one of music’s greatest legends, Paul McCartney, to mark the company’s centennial.

Cook’s time at Apple may be coming to an end, but he’s shown a keen sense of how to make owning an iPhone or MacBook a status quo. And by turning launch events into celebrity-studded brand galas, he ensures that the company itself is seen as a global brand of high-quality products. How do you get another Beatle to celebrate your birthday?