That’s because while there must be countless CEOs who insist on being the star of their corporate videos, there aren’t many with the public profile of Tim Cook. You could well argue that his making a cameo in the new iPhone veent was ego, but it felt as if it were more about the viewer than the man.
And there were so many viewers. Within an hour of the presentation finishing, YouTube was showing that 26 million people had watched.
They’re not all AppleInsider readers, they’re not all technology fans. Instead, the giant majority would be people who are interested in the company’s products, and who know that Apple puts on a good show.
These are not people who would necessarily have learned that Tim Cook was stepping down in advance, although he got worldwide coverage at the news the day it happened. They are not people who would already know who his successor was and go “oh, right, that Ternus guy.”
So while Cook’s cameo would make little sense to someone watching an Apple video for the first time, for most people this was when the succession happened. This was the Doctor Who-like regeneration, with John Ternus stepping in to bring a new take on a familiar role.