And the values of our company are extremely well-entrenched. You know, we believe we're on the face of the Earth to make great products, and that's not changing. We're constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollinization of our groups, which allows us to innovate in a way others cannot. And frankly, we don't settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit where we're wrong, and the courage to change.

And I think regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well. And I would just reiterate a point Peter made in his opening comment, that I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history.

Cook's public profile as an Apple senior executive has continued to rise in recent years--likely by some combination of coincidence and design. Few top-level executives at Apple emerge from Jobs's shadow, but Cook has done so repeatedly in the past year. It was Cook (along with senior vice president of Mac hardware Bob Mansfield) who joined Jobs on stage during , Cook who kicked off , and Cook who delivered the news in January that . Add these to Cook's regular appearances on quarterly earnings calls with Wall Street analysts, and you get an executive who's clearly playing an increasing role in Apple's public relations efforts.

More recently, , and again in July .

Cook's drive for excellence at Apple is perhaps no better reflected than in this choice tidbit from a headlined "The genius behind Steve."