The brand consultancy, Interbrand, ,  trailing only Coca Cola, and beating out IBM, Google and Microsoft. Its rise over the past year was dramatic: in the 2011 ranking, Apple was number 8 in brand value, an Interbrand metric that measures several values, such as the financial performance of branded products or services and the brands overall strength.

iPhone 4S last year and the new iPad this year have proven to be highly successful products, in unit sales, revenues, gross margins and profits. The iPhone 5 is expected to continue that success.

But many point out these products, and Apples current success, is simply the momentum created when Jobs was at the helm. A story quoted Pete Solvik, managing director of venture capital firm Sigma and a former Apple employee, saying The $64,000 question is: Does Tim have the ability to lead the organization to another major breakthrough in a new product category? I have little doubt he is going to have continued success with revisions of the current products. Everybody hopes that he has the ability to sustain the business with a new hit too."

But both the senior management team that Jobs assembled, and the very ethos of Apple itself, where Cook has worked for nearly 25 years, are still intact. Some commenters have said that Cook is simply delivering products midwifed by Jobss creativity. But Jobs hired Cook for precisely that reason: to create a powerfully efficient and adaptive supply chain that Apple is now leveraging on an unprecedented scale for its mobile product line.

Tim is all about execution, says Chuck Goldman, CEO of Boston-based Apperian, and a former Apple employee. What he lacks in product development has been picked up by the [larger] team. He is much more customer-centric then Jobs and he listens to them more.