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Apple boss Tim Cook took a 99 per cent pay cut in 2012 - the year his firm's maps crapp confused iPhone fanbois and rival Android dominated the mobile market.

The chief executive took home a paltry $4.17m in salary and a non-equity bonus, according to paperwork just filed with US financial regulator the SEC, down from the $378m he received in stock options and other compensation in 2011. His huge award that year was one of the biggest pay packages in history and came after Cook succeeded the late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs.

That's the reason for this year's apparent severe drop: in 2011, Apple compensated Cook with one million restricted shares that will vest over the next decade for taking the iPhone maker's throne. In 2012, his base salary actually went up half a million dollars, year on year, but there were no extra stock options.

“It pales by comparison because last year’s million-share grant was highly extraordinary,” Brian Foley, a compensation expert, told Bloomberg.

“There are other executives who remain unnamed at other companies who would be tempted to go for every last candy in the dish.”

Cook's award this year is also many times smaller than his 2010 compensation deal when he was chief operating officer. Meanwhile, for 2012, Apple's senior veep of technologies Bob Mansfield received $85.5m, and its chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer was given $68.6m.

Both packages include stock options. The iPad maker has a market cap north of $480bn. Fanbois may recall that Jobs famously gave himself a salary of $1 at Apple but held shares worth billions.

Cook was also a runner-up in this year's Time Person of the Year award, beaten by President Barack Obama and Pakistani activist teen Malala Yousafzai. ®

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