Outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook has presented his final earnings call, the quarterly financial phone meeting the company has with analysts, and just as at WWDC, he made a relatively quiet farewell.
In a change to the usual format of these earnings calls, Cook took a moment to talk both about himself and how the handover to John Ternus is going.
Before we get into questions, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all of from our shareholders, particularly our long-term shareholders, who have put their trust in us for so many years, to the analysts who have followed our company so closely. As you know, this will be my final earnings call, and John will lead these calls going forward. The transition is going seamlessly, and I am beyond excited. for John to step into his new role and lead Apple into its next era.He is truly one-of-a-kind and there is no better person to take the helm of the company. As I've said, I couldn't be more confident in his leadership, in our executive team, and in the extraordinary people at Apple who are determined to lives of our users all over the world. We have a bright future ahead, and I truly have never been more optimistic. So thank you all.
Having said all of this, Cook then resumed the regular format of the call by taking questions from analysts. So far, every one has thanked Cook for his time in charge of the company.
Fifteen years of earning calls
Every quarter since at least 2011 when he took over as Apple CEO, Cook has led an earnings call discussing profits and generally side-stepping analysts' questions. Despite having an audible head cold in many of them, he has not missed one in those 15 years, either.
There are reports, though, of just how seriously Cook takes these calls, and what he does to relax afterwards.
If you ever listen to them, the first half is chiefly Cook or the Chief Financial Officer reading prepared statements. Then the second half is both of them telling analysts that no, they won't reveal details about the iPhone 6, iPhone X, or iPhone Fold.
Peeking behind the scenes at AppleInsider a bit, we count how many times variations of "we do not comment on unannounced products" are said during an earnings call. One 2018 call resulted in eleven, which is the standing record.
Anyway, these calls are mandatory, and every cent Apple makes is studied and debated afterwards by analysts. The calls themselves, though, don't sound that pressing, yet after each one, Cook says he takes a walk across Apple Park to decompress.
"When I do something like our quarterly earnings call, after the earnings call, I come out here," he said in 2020. "The sound and the look [of Apple Park] is unbelievable."
"Just the sound itself makes these big problems and big challenges of the day seem so small," he continued. "This is like working in a national park for me, it provides that kind of feeling."
More than 60 earnings calls
If Tim Cook had only contributed to Apple's quarterly earnings calls since he became CEO, he would now have completed around 60 of them. But he's done many more, including back when Steve Jobs was in charge, and when Apple was seeing the start of its incredible financial growth.
Jobs left these calls to Tim Cook and then-CFO Peter Oppenheimer, until October 2010. That was the last earnings call Jobs spoke on before his death.
"As most of you know, I don't usually participate in Apple's earnings calls since you are all in such capable hands with Peter and Tim," he said according to a transcript on Seeking Alpha. "But I just couldn't help dropping by for our first $20 billion quarter."
In that call, Jobs talked up the success of the then-new iPad, and Tim Cook backed it up with some figures about its adoption by enterprise firms. Then financial analysts asked for specifics such as what Apple's margins were on the latest iPhone 4, and Cook declined to answer.
Flash forward to 2026, and the figures are dramatically different as Apple recently touched a $5 trillion market cap.
Sometimes it's hard to criticize a company's quarterly earnings, although without fail Apple's share price always dips after them. Even now, AAPL is down about 8% after-hours on yet another record-breaking, and Wall Street prediction shattering earnings report.
