Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, topped the list of the best-paid CEOs in the US in 2011 thanks to stock options that put him more than $US300 million ($A305.95 million) above his next rival, a Wall Street Journal survey shows.

An online petition asking Apple to protect the Chinese workers who make its more popular products has gathered more than 162,000 signatures in just over a week.

Apple granted Tim Cook a “promotion and retention award” valued at $376 million when he took over as CEO in August, the company revealed in its 2012 proxy statement, filed Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

While Apple's iPhone is selling well across the globe, China has emerged as its fastest growing market for the device.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will take a leave of absence from the company for medical reasons, but will remain involved in major strategic decisions, the company said Monday. He will leave day-to-day operations to COO Tim Cook.

Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook earned a US$5 million cash bonus plus stock that could be worth nearly $17 million for the six months last year that he took the helm of the company.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs Wednesday announced he would be taking a leave of absence from Apple because of his health. Here is the text of the e-mail sent to all Apple employees.

Who is Apple's low-profile COO Tim Cook who is to stand in for Steve Jobs while he takes a leave of absence due to his health? Fortune did a profile of Cook last fall, when rumors where still swirling about Jobs' medical problems, in light of his thinness and paleness.