Cook's new role as CEO is unsurprising, given the confidence that the board of directors and Jobs have had in naming him acting CEO in the past. Jobs' letter clearly suggests that the board had a succession plan in place, with Cook as the number one pick for the number one post.

He has been with Apple for over a decade, and is . 

"Tim Cook proved he can lead Apple and from a product line perspective.  Apple is likely covered for the next couple of years at least as far as big picture and direction," says Carolina Milanesi, research vice president of Consumer Technologies & Markets, for Gartner.  "Tim has done well during Steve's leaves of absence and, although he might not have Steve's charisma, I argue [that] nobody does. Tim has the support of the board and the trust of the employees."

?Yet Apple is intimately and indelibly associated with Steve Jobs. "Steve Jobs is the iconic leader and visionary at Apple," says Rajeev Chand, director of research, wireless, at Rutberg & Co.,  an investment bank in San Francisco. "Decisions at Apple are made by Steve Jobs, and the agenda is highly successfully driven by Steve Jobs. It is difficult to predict how Apple will change with the CEO succession, but it is likely that things will change."

It's hard to imagine them changing more than they have in the past five years. With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the companion iPod touch, and in 2010 the first iPad, Apple re-invented itself as the "post-PC company" par excellence. [See ]