It really isn’t. They used to sell to a very discerning but tiny slice of the public who was very bought into the brand. Now the sheer numbers dictate that they are addressing a much larger slice of the market (most of the market in some geographies and product categories) that isn’t anywhere near as bought in to the brand.

iPhone sales have been over 200 million units per year since 2015 and over 100 million since 2012. I'm not sure that "used to" and "now" and "tiny slice" necessarily match up with what your comment implies.

The context here is comparing Jobs to Cook. Jobs came back to Apple in the late 90s (and was dead by 2012, the year you mention).