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YuriAraujo

macrumors newbie
Apr 18, 2024
15
35
Tim gets a lot of grief for not being Steve.
Hardly his fault.
Steve knew he wasn't when he chose him.
I believe he was chosen to do exactly what he has done.
Have there been missteps?
Absolutely and some spectacular flameouts.
But lots of successes.
I imagine the process of choosing his successor is under way.
People forget that without Cook apple would’ve probably sank. Having a visionary is one thing, having someone that can actually make it happen is another. Cook is what made Steve’s vision come to life. Give credit where credit is due.
 

YuriAraujo

macrumors newbie
Apr 18, 2024
15
35
Another Apple's fiasco is that they are significantly lagging behind on AI intergration.
So what ? They control the keys to the ecosystem and no other LLM will be allowed to integrate with it other than apple’s own LLM when it comes out. What are apple fans going to do ? Leave and buy an android for AI stuff ? They didn’t left for a decade, they’re not to leave now for some superfluous gimmicky AI features like Wallpaper generation. Give me a break
 

Colpeas

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2011
522
209
Prague, Czech Rep.
Well i tried the AVP and it’s a gimmick, period. It sure lacks a purpose and one just can’t help but ask - why did not apple try to bring devs to develop (or port) high profile games for mac? They have the hardware, they have the resources, the vision headset would be a total gamechanger as far as VR / AR gaming is concerned, yet they market it as a nerdy screen-like accessory for nouvelle riches.
 
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mjs916

macrumors 6502a
Apr 1, 2018
820
998
Sacramento, CA
Tim had high hopes with the Apple Vision Pro but it failed spectacularly. It lacks a killer feature, it lacks a purpose, and it is just too expensive for a toy….

…How long can Apple survive with this Mediocrity?

Who will be the next CEO?



IMG_9019.gif
 

Hails09

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2022
459
435
I mean, first of all, the super obvious one: hats. I hope I dont have to explain hats in fashion to you?

Other than that:

Earings and other facial decoration (see: hats)

Shawls, scarves, headscarves, etc

Goggles. I can swim without goggles, but they improve the experience

And that’s just off the top of my head (pun intended)

And as far as glasses go, put a good HUD in a regular pair of glasses and they’ll sell great. Based on rumors that’s been Apple’s ultimate AR goal for years, tech isnt there yet though
Eye headsets don’t work & will never be successful because people don’t like to wear one all the time
Hence this piece
When the product was released, estimates pegged initial sales at around 200,000 units, though it’s not clear how many of those were returned. Even people who kept their devices have recently been sharing on social media that they rarely use them anymore.
 
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seek3r

macrumors 68030
Aug 16, 2010
2,543
3,734
Eye headsets don’t work & will never be successful because people don’t like to wear one all the time
Hence this piece
When the product was released, estimates pegged initial sales at around 200,000 units, though it’s not clear how many of those were returned. Even people who kept their devices have recently been sharing on social media that they rarely use them anymore.
I’m legit not sure what you think any of that has to do with my reply to you
 

Spock1234

macrumors member
Jun 27, 2007
89
51
Words, words everywhere…
Every CEO has to go at some point, so if you keep repeating this you’ll be right at some point.
This reminds me of the profound declarations from the anti-Apple analysts - "Apple stock will drop. Nothing can keep going up forever", "Everything that goes up must come down" ... well, Duh 🙄, and "The Law of Large Numbers will catch up with Apple" (actually, that is not what the Law says, at all) 🤦‍♂️.
 

TechnoMonk

macrumors 68030
Oct 15, 2022
2,551
4,026
Jobs said the problem with iTunes is you don't know what your favorite artists are up to, or what your friends are listening to, so they built Ping for "social music discovery." He said, "it's sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes. Its not Facebook, its not Twitter, its something else we've come up with. It's a social network all about music. And its built right into iTunes."

They simply wanted to increase discovery because that leads to more sales, but as the critics said, "Apple doesn't have the culture of a social media company" and it was a UI/UX mess so it never caught on.

We know Ping was never designed to be an alternative to Facebook & Twitter because it didn't launch with the required compatible features to facilitate a transfer of customers from Facebook & Twitter to Ping. It was simply Apple asking, "How do we make iTunes more social?" And the answer was, "you don't."

Source: Apple Special Event 2010
I know, but it was even funnier when they started using Twitter and Facebook a year later to follow the artists on iTunes. Imagine if Tim Cook had similar stuff happen now. Pitchforks will be out in no time.
 

ThomasJL

macrumors 68000
Oct 16, 2008
1,757
3,883
No its not. The summary is two fold:
  • Cook is a great EXECUTOR and EXECUTIVE. Do you know what CEO stands for?
  • He's not a product guy, so he does his job of providing for the product people in the company by making sure everything else in marketing and operations are running to scale, and smoothly, so that R&D and design can be funded, and they can scale manufacturing; he also has to make sure the stock is attracting talent or else there will be talent attrition and its hard to bring a company back from that.
Revenue, Profits, Market cap are simply indicators that he's doing all that well, that the company is healthy.

Once the visionary-founder leaves, a Cook-type is the best type of CEO you can ask for. You're not going to get another Steve Jobs.


Cook isn't a money guy, he's an operations guy. Let's discern that. He is very much unlike Ballmer and even Gates. Read Corporate Lifecycles by Ichak Adizes for why Cook isn't simply a money guy. The nature of mature corporations—they are perpetually on the brink of death. You hand a corporation to a money guy with no sense of operations and the company dies in 10 years (the board will usually fire the CEO prior to that happening, of coutrse). You hand a mature corporation to an operations guy who can balance all the heavy parts of a corporation and the company can live indefinitely, even grow 10x. A CEO like that just needs to make sure there is an internal culture of creativity and innovation that is producing new cash cows during approaching stagnation periods, to keep the company healthy.

None of us here are under a Cook spell. There is no cult of personality. We're just pragmatic and aren't going to **** all over someone doing a good-enough job. That doesn't make any sense.
Under Steve Jobs's time as CEO, I think Tim Cook did an excellent job with supply chain management. When I say that I really hope Apple fires Cook, what I specifically mean is that I hope Apple fires Cook as CEO, but not fire him entirely from the company, and instead put him back in his previous role in charge of supply chain management.

Apple needs a CEO like Jobs, and the perhaps the closest known thing to Jobs is Scott Forstall. Like Jobs, Forstall is a visionary.

Like Jobs, Forstall can be a jerk to his fellow employees, but he cares a lot about customers. Forstall actually kept a jeweler's loupe at his desk so he can examine individual pixels on skeuomorphic designs closely in order to give customers the best experience. That's how much he cared about user-friendliness. Cook doesn't give a damn about any of that. Cook cares more about shareholders.
 

seek3r

macrumors 68030
Aug 16, 2010
2,543
3,734
My first computer nods in approval. I can only what it would cost today considering inflation.
I figured out recently that the SE/30 sitting on my desk right now (I have a collection of classic macs around), adjusted for inflation, would cost $20,000 today
 
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Bug-Creator

macrumors 68000
May 30, 2011
1,783
4,717
Germany
Cook cares more about shareholders.

Aka, the people that decide whether he stays or goes...


But really, on the one hand we have the argument that Apple "lacks vision" and improves only existing products.

Yet when they do venture into new categories that don't produce massive success out of the gates "they have failed".

Reality is, Apple today is far better in any way than it was when Cook took over, noone can tell how the next 10 years will work.

What I am pretty sure of is that a "visionary CEO" is o.k. when he is also the (co) founder, "Visionaries" taking over existing companies will wreck more than they build and a "visionary employed engineer/designer" promoted to CEO is a just asking for disaster (unless he is flanked/controlled by people experienced in the business side).
 

Ctrlos

macrumors 65816
Sep 19, 2022
1,361
2,850
Cook is still the best person for the job at Apple. Under his stewardship we have seen the return of utility to product lines that had become over-designed and an industry-standard smartphone whose design is now considered as timeless as a Porsche 911, the Coca-Cola Bottle and the Converse Sneaker.
 
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RRC

macrumors 68000
Nov 3, 2020
1,687
2,684
Cook won't be going anywhere for a long, long time and it will be when he decides the time is right, no one else.
 

SalisburySam

macrumors 6502a
May 19, 2019
921
809
Salisbury, North Carolina
Under Steve Jobs's time as CEO, I think Tim Cook did an excellent job with supply chain management. When I say that I really hope Apple fires Cook, what I specifically mean is that I hope Apple fires Cook as CEO, but not fire him entirely from the company, and instead put him back in his previous role in charge of supply chain management.
I don’t think that really ever happens. The CEO of a huge successful firm stepping down to a far-more junior previously-held role in that same firm? Yeah, could happen but don’t think so.
 

thettareddast

macrumors 6502
Aug 29, 2016
398
535
Cook cares more about shareholders.
The literal (collective) owners of the company? Is he not supposed to?

It's to their direct benefit that the company succeeds, and their detriment that the company fails.

Since they hired Tim Cook, they've seen the company bring in $100B per year, $25B of which is profit, to almost $400B with $100B profit. I think they care about him, too.
 

thettareddast

macrumors 6502
Aug 29, 2016
398
535
I don’t think that really ever happens. The CEO of a huge successful firm stepping down to a far-more junior previously-held role in that same firm? Yeah, could happen but don’t think so.
Founders sometimes step down because they still have significant control/interest, but dont want all the executive duties.

But employees like Cook... would rather retire than step down. It's not as much the money as its the sense of responsibility thats keeping him working day to day.
 

erikkfi

macrumors 68000
May 19, 2017
1,726
8,097
Tim will be able to stay as long as he wants to, unless Apple starts having repeatedly poor quarterly earnings that shake investor confidence in him. Investors don't respond to product problems; they respond to profit and revenue problems. If Apple starts making crap, investors won't care as long as and people still buy it in the same quantities and at the same margins.
 

kc9hzn

macrumors 68000
Jun 18, 2020
1,824
2,193
Actually I would say all phones are "boring" as we are in the refinement stage of smartphones at least IMHO and in this article I feel states it pretty well. Of course we all have our preferences so you may be quite happy to change when upgrade time comes. I'm fine for awhile yet. ;)

The Best Phones Have Boring Designs (And That's a Good Thing)



Just IMHO of course...
Right, laptops and desktops are in a similar place and have been for, what, 25 to 35 years. The biggest thing to happen to laptops in the past ten years or so was probably the introduction of Apple Silicon. (Not for a lack of trying on Apple’s part. Remember, they went all in on TouchBar, which was at least an attempt at trying something new.) Prior to that, at least in the Applesphere, was probably the introduction of the MacBook Air back in 2008.
 
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seek3r

macrumors 68030
Aug 16, 2010
2,543
3,734
Right, laptops and desktops are in a similar place and have been for, what, 25 to 35 years. The biggest thing to happen to laptops in the past ten years or so was probably the introduction of Apple Silicon. (Not for a lack of trying on Apple’s part. Remember, they went all in on TouchBar, which was at least an attempt at trying something new.) Prior to that, at least in the Applesphere, was probably the introduction of the MacBook Air back in 2008.
eh, I'd argue the air was a big deal, it ushered in the era of "ultrabooks", which have taken over a huge chunk of the laptop market, even if we don't have that stupid name attached to them anymore.
 
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