Apple's Tim Cook No Steve Jobs

Apple CEO Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs. That fact is already evident in Cook's first couple of months on the job filling in for Jobs, who retired in August and died in October at the age of 56 after a long tenure as Apple's CEO.

A report from The Wall Street Journal which profiles Cook, on the job for just two months, notes that Cook operates very differently than Jobs, hailed as a great all-time innovator known for his unconventional leadership style as company CEO.

The newspaper reported, ...the low-key Mr. Cook has already put his operational mark on Apple in ways that suggest the company won't be entirely the same as under its intense and tempestuous co-founder.

Among the different ways Cook leads that emerged from the profile include:

--Cook communicates in a broader fashion. Already, Cook, 50, has sent several company-wide emails, including one that detailed a corporate celebration of Jobs' life after his death, and others announcing a charitable program and a major employee promotion.

--Cook is involved well beyond the product creative process. In recent weeks, the profile noted, Cook has tended to administrative matters that never interested Mr. Jobs, such as...corporate reporting structures.

--Cook quickly promoted Eddy Cue to senior vice president of Internet software and services at Apple. The move put Cue in charge of Apple's iTunes Store, iCloud, iAd and iBookstore platform, and it occurred less than two weeks after Cook became Apple's CEO. Cook communicated the promotion via a company-wide email.

--Cook restructured Apple's education division so that its sales and marketing teams are split up, and focused on the products they directly support. The effort restructured Apple's corporate structure, as the Apple vice president of education now reports to senior vice president Phil Shiller instead of Cook.

--Cook may put Apple's cash hoard to work. While the profile gave no specific clues as to what Cook might do with Apple's $81 billion cash hoard, it suggested that Cook may use it differently than Jobs, who seemed to like piling up the cash more than using it. Jobs had suggested the cash kept Apple positioned for acquisitions, and some was used to acquire Siri and other smaller companies and technologies, but with $81 billion, many have called upon Apple to distribute the money to shareholders or make more substantial acquisitions.