Tim Cook will step down as Apple CEO and hand reins over to the iPhone maker's hardware leader

Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down from the job that he inherited from the late Steve Jobs, ending a nearly 15-year reign that saw the company’s market value soar by more than $3.6 trillion during an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity.

The 65-year-old Cook will turn the CEO duties to Apple’s head of hardware products, John Ternus, on September 1 while remaining involved with the Cupertino, California, company as executive chairman.

Although he never shook the perception that he lacked Jobs’ vision, Cook leveraged the popularity of the iPhone and other breakthroughs orchestrated by his predecessor to lift Apple to heights that seemed unfathomable when it was on the brink of bankruptcy during the mid-1990s.