Apple's product evolution under Tim Cook: Watch, AirPods and Mac silicon

Apple's product line changed shape considerably during Tim Cook's time as chief executive, and the company now reports more than 2.5 billion active devices alongside $416.2 billion in net sales for fiscal 2025, according to Engadget. Cook took over in 2011 at a company already near the top of the technology industry, with the iPhone fueling growth, a young iPad and the Mac anchoring its computer lineup.

Engadget's review of his tenure argues the more revealing story is not the launch of fresh categories but how existing products were given different jobs. Some of Apple's largest shifts came from familiar hardware that gradually took on new roles.

The Apple Watch is the clearest example. Debuting in 2015 largely as a companion for iPhone notifications, messages, apps and activity tracking, it gained built-in GPS, swim tracking and extra workout tools with Series 2. Series 4 in 2018 marked a bigger turn, adding an ECG app that records heart rhythm from the wrist and fall detection that can contact emergency services when a wearer seems to have fallen hard and stayed still.

Later software and hardware kept pushing the Watch toward health monitoring. The watchOS 11 release in 2024 brought sleep apnea notifications, a Vitals app and Training Load. The Series 11 in 2025 added sleep scoring and hypertension notifications, meaning the device now tracks measures the iPhone cannot.

AirPods followed a similar path. Apple kept adding reasons for the earbuds to sit inside its wider ecosystem, including automatic pairing, movement between devices, noise cancellation and spatial audio. With AirPods Pro 2, the company introduced a Hearing Test, hearing aid features for mild to moderate hearing loss and hearing protection. AirPods Pro 3 then added heart rate sensing for workout effort.

On computing, Apple had long designed its own silicon for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch while buying Intel processors for Macs. In 2020 it announced a two-year move to homegrown chips, giving the Mac a shared architecture with its other devices and developers a more unified target. The first machines arrived that year, with the M1 inside the MacBook Air, the 13-inch MacBook Pro and the Mac mini.