Apple CEO Tim Cook Planning to Step Down Soon? Here's What He Has to Say

Tim Cook became the chief executive officer of Apple in 2011 after the company's founder, Steve Jobs, resigned from the company owing to his long battle with cancer. It has over a decade since Cook took over the reigns of the company. During this time, Apple, under Cook's leadership, has launched a host of new products including the Apple Watch, Apple AirPods and the Apple Vision Pro and enhanced the company's services portfolio launching services such as Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. 13-years into the job, Cook has no plans of retiring from his role anytime soon.

In an interview with the Wired, the Apple CEO answered the question on how long he plans to continue leading one of the most valuable companies in the world. Responding to question Cook said, "until the voice in my head says, 'It's time'."

"I love this place...It's a privilege of a lifetime to be here. And I'll do it until the voice in my head says, “It's time,” and then I'll go and focus on what the next chapter looks like," Cook said.

"But it's hard to imagine life without Apple, because my life has been wrapped up in this company since 1998. It's the overwhelming majority of my adult life. And so I love it," he added.

On Apple Intelligence becoming a paid service

During the conversation, the Apple CEO also touched the topic of Apple's generative AI-based features under Apple Intelligence becoming a paid service in the future -- something a number of reports in the past have hinted towards. Cook quashed all the reports saying that Apple does not plan on charging for Apple Intelligence powered features. 

"We never talked about charging for it. We view it sort of like multitouch, which enabled the smartphone revolution and the modern tablet," he said.

On Apple devices diagnosing medical conditions

Furthermore, Cook also said that the company was pouring in resources into enabling Apple devices into diagnosing medical conditions.

"I’m not going to announce anything today. But we have research going on. We’re pouring all of ourselves in here, and we work on things that are years in the making," he added.