Tim Cook celebrates Apple’s 45th anniversary by ‘rededicating’ to the mission of creating ‘transformative products’

Apple has been around for a long time. 45 years as of today, in fact! Over that time, the company has made a wide range of products, some of which have forced entire industries to evolve. But, for Tim Cook, this anniversary is a means to rededicate the team at Apple to a more important role.

Cook, Apple’s current CEO, took to Twitter and a company-wide memo to commemorate the company’s 45th anniversary today. On Twitter, the chief executive invoked the company’s co-founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs, saying that the company has done so much — but still has a ways to go.

That quote, per Cook’s Twitter post earlier today:

But Cook went beyond that, looking internally to send a memo to the company’s roster all over the globe (via MacGeneration). Cook starts out with the obvious, noting the date of Apple’s start and the importance of today’s date. He goes on to say that Apple has always focused on building “transformative products”, and that, with this anniversary, it’s important that the team at Apple “rededicate” themselves to Apple’s overall mission:

On April 1, 1976, a company was formed in Cupertino to create transformative products that redefine what technology can achieve and make people’s lives better in the process. Forty-five years later, we mark this occasion by rededicating ourselves to that mission — and to keeping it alive for a long time to come — rather than to remember it fondly as something past.

Cook goes on, saying that “great potential obligates great people to meet it”, a memorable stinger coming at the tail-end of a paragraph that’s basically a longer thought on Cook’s quote of Jobs: that Apple has made plenty of great products, but that isn’t any reason to rest. There is still room to create new things that, ultimately, can help the people who use them:

While some things about Apple have changed over these many years, the important things haven’t. From the M1 chip to 5G iPhones, from iPads that change the face of education and productivity to a Watch that can look out for your health, to the very best Software and Services that bring them all to life, we have never stopped setting the pace that others try to match. What I can tell you with gut certainty is that there has never been a moment of such great potential as this one, nor have we ever had so talented and dedicated a team. That shouldn’t make us rest easy. Great potential obligates great people to meet it.

Cook actually uses the same quote by Jobs to close out the company-wide memo:

In an email like this one, to mark a much earlier anniversary shortly after I joined Apple, Steve said, ‘it’s been an amazing journey so far, yet we have barely begun.’ Still true. Remember that none of us will be here for the end of the story, but it’s on all of us to make sure it’s one worth telling.

You can check out the full memo over at MacGeneration.