Apple in Good Hands with Tim Cook

Tim Cook, stepping in for his boss Steve Jobs for the third time in seven years, faces the challenge of keeping up Apple Inc.’s product development and girding the iPhone and iPad maker for rivalry with Google Inc.

Cook, 50, Apple’s operations guru, took charge yesterday after Jobs, who has been receiving treatment for cancer and a liver transplant, said he was taking another medical leave. In an e-mail to employees, Jobs said he would remain chief executive officer and be involved in major strategic decisions, yet didn’t say when he might return.

As chief operating officer, Cook runs day-to-day operations. When he stepped in for almost six months in 2009 during Jobs’s transplant leave, Apple shares climbed 70 percent. While Jobs, 55, sets the creative vision for Apple’s products, Cook’s oversight includes sales, manufacturing and distribution. He can ably take over again, said Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies & Co.

“He’s a star, just a different kind of star from Steve,” said New York-based Misek, who recommends buying Apple shares and doesn’t own any himself. “He’s arguably one of the best supply chain managers in the world, if you look at working capital management, cash-flow management, cash conversion cycles -- all those great metrics.”

Cook is taking charge of a company that has more than doubled to $321 billion in market capitalization since he last took over for Jobs. The expansion has been fueled by the iPhone mobile device, which almost doubled its sales in the fiscal year ended in September, and the iPad tablet computer, which went on sale in April.

Apple also now faces a formidable competitor -- smartphones based on Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Android has become a top-seller in the U.S., according to ComScore Inc., accounting for 26 percent of the smartphone market in November, compared with 25 percent for the iPhone.

The company is playing catch-up to Mountain View, California-based Google in the area of mobile advertising. Google was expected to grab 59 percent of the U.S. mobile-ad market last year, while Apple may have finished with less than 10 percent, research firm IDC said last month. The two companies also compete in the market for software that puts Internet content on TV.

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