K. headquarters in the Battersea Power Station, and one of the topics they discussed was John Ternus taking over as Apple's CEO. Ternus, who was previously Apple's hardware engineering chief, succeeded Cook as Apple's CEO on September 1 . " "It's been an interesting transition," said Cook. "We really set out to have the best transition ever, a textbook example that people could look back to and learn from. It actually started years ago. Obviously, these things are not quick things and I feel so great about how things are going. I think everything has gone sort of exactly the way I had envisioned it. And it feels fantastic. " Cook said that he stepped down on September 1, just eight days before Ternus unveiled the iPhone Duo , in part to give Ternus some immediate momentum. "I wanted John to have some wind at his back," said Cook. "And the wind at Apple is very much based on the product cycle. This product cycle feels unbelievably great. " Cook had the seemingly impossible task of succeeding the legendary Steve Jobs as CEO. Jobs told Cook not to make a decision simply because it is what Jobs would have done, and Cook said that he provided Ternus with similar advice. "The advice I've given him is, make it your own job," said Cook. "Put your time in the things that you can add the most value to around the company. And that means don't mimic me. Just like I didn't mimic Steve.