Tim Cook discussion thread [merged]

[44267547]

Because plenty of other recent Tim Cook/Apple CEO threads haven't been enough.

Because some feel they can manage a 42 billion dollar company better than he can, all while making this known on an opinionated website.

 

[555gallardo]

Because some feel they can manage a 42 billion dollar company better than he can, all while making this known on an opinionated website.

Well, at least I wouldn't repeat "Strongest pipeline" lie for 3 years in a row. And would force the company to make some really innovative products. Won't disclose the details, but I have a pretty clear vision on what it should be, how it could be manufactured and would certainly discuss the design concept with Jony and push that thing forward together. Oh and the ideas are pretty much a way to simplify the line-up, yet make it have some diversity at the same time.

 

[Tommo66]

Well, at least I wouldn't repeat "Strongest pipeline" lie for 3 years in a row. And would force the company to make some really innovative products. Won't disclose the details, but I have a pretty clear vision on what it should be, how it could be manufactured and would certainly discuss the design concept with Jony and push that thing forward together. Oh and the ideas are pretty much a way to simplify the line-up, yet make it have some diversity at the same time.

Well there is the issue, you can't force innovation or ideas. The iPod came out of Jobs wanting to enable his daughter to have more music in her pocket than a cassette tape could hold. The iPhone came out of the desire not to have to carry more than one device with you.

Apple's philosophy has been to make products people want to buy not make something and then work out how to sell it. On the whole this has served them well. And as has been mentioned before the Apple of today is different to the Apple of 5 years ago. There is a difference between running one of the largest companies in the world and running the scrappy underdog that Apple used to be. I think the problem really comes down to people like to root for the underdog and that isn't Apple any more.

 

[Dave245]

I don't compare him to Steve Jobs. Steve simply knew his peoples' strengths and weaknesses. And he was mentally so strong, that he shaped the world to his ideal. And Tim would've been a great CEO in Steve's ideal world. That's why he chose him. But Steve is no more around and his Distortion Field faded out, too. Therefore, what we see is just the true Tim, unaffected by that distortion field. Tim is now acting on his true own, which can be seen when compared to what Apple did for the first 2-3 years after Jobs' passing and what it's doing currently.

It was always going to eventually be Tim Cook after those years went by, even Jobs knew that he told Cook "do't ask what i would of done" which is what a lot of people on this forum do "Steve never would of done that" but it's irrelevant because Steve jobs isn't Apple anymore, time has moved on and so has the company. I don't see a problem with that, i just think people like to find things to complain about.

 

[iRock1]

There seems to be a generalized perception on the state of things at Apple right now. One in which Tim Cook is considered to be the new John Sculley, one in which the current Apple is a reminiscent of the almost-doomed company that was during the nineties. And as a matter of fact, I share that thinking too.

So imagine for a moment that our claims are listened and Tim Cook is removed as CEO. Then YOU are the new one.

What are the specific measures you'd take? What are the right calls a new CEO should take ASAP?

 

[bnmcj1]

Obviously one would have to make a damn hybrid like Surface Pro or Surface Book. Nobody wants to buy two devices when one is clearly enough the days. Touch Bar is ridiculous when you can have a whole touch screen. There is just no excuse for it.

MacBooks are so dated.

 

[Kebabselector]

Employ Tim Cook, just to annoy people here.

 

[pastrychef]

Some things I would do:

1. Make a traditional tower, Xeon based Mac Pro again with PCI-e slots and kill the cylindrical Mac Pro.
2. Make a Core i5/7 based desktop with a single PCI-e slot.
3. Re-introduce a polycarbonate, budget friendly MacBook targeted at students.
4. Make AMD and Nvidia GPUs available across the board on all Macs.
5. Update Macs more frequently.
6. Make all iPads compatible with Pencil.
7. Update Apple TV for 4K.
8. I would get Eddie Cue to get skinny bundles available for Apple TV asap even at the cost of lower margins than what Apple is used to.
9. I would work harder to eliminate Samsung from the supply chain.
10. I would not increase dividends and/or buybacks and try to build up more cash.

Some things I would not do:

1. I would not bring back the AirPort networking hardware.
2. I would not make touchscreen Macs. (Maybe make Wacom Cintiqs available in Apple Stores retail and online)
3. I would not make a car.
4. I would not try to appease stock analysts.
5. I would not repatriate cash hoard until tax conditions are more favorable.

 

[cmaier]

Buy Netflix and make it exclusive to apple hardware?

New airport with built in Siri and cameras for security, person recognition, and FaceTime-like functions

Apple TV - make it able to search my iTunes home sharing server dammit

add Apple Pencil support to macs (as input device but not for operating the ui)

 

[pastrychef]

NFLX trading at over 300 P/E and over $50B market cap is crazy. It would take a minimum of decades before an investment like that pays for itself.

 

[cmaier]

NFLX trading at over 300 P/E and over $50B market cap is crazy. It would take a minimum of decades before an investment like that pays for itself.

It's a defensive move. At some point all the good content is going to be controllled by hardware companies and if they make it exclusive to other platforms...

Not like apple knows what else to do with its cash horde

 

[tubeexperience]

...hire Panos Panay to run Apple's hardware division

 

[zhenya]

Obviously one would have to make a damn hybrid like Surface Pro or Surface Book. Nobody wants to buy two devices when one is clearly enough the days. Touch Bar is ridiculous when you can have a whole touch screen. There is just no excuse for it.

MacBooks are so dated.

Nope. I own a Surface Pro 3 - I've been using Surface devices exclusively for over 3 years at my job. I've come to the realization that separate devices are better. There's nothing wrong per se with the Surfaces, I just prefer a good laptop and a good tablet - and making each one great requires compromises that makes a hybrid less than ideal. I've found that the iPad works especially well as a companion device for a laptop - where I use it as a paper replacement to take notes on with the Pencil, to mark up and reference PDF's and books. Integrating that into one device is less than ideal because you've now reduced your screen real estate by half vs. a laptop and a notebook/book or a laptop and an iPad.

 

[pastrychef]

It's a defensive move. At some point all the good content is going to be controllled by hardware companies and if they make it exclusive to other platforms...

Not like apple knows what else to do with its cash horde

I'm confident that Apple can do it without having to acquire NFLX. They have enough cash to produce their own content.

 

[zhenya]

I would:

- Reduce the price on all MacBook laptops by $100-$200 across the board as soon as possible.
- Include 1 usb-a adapter in the box with all new MacBooks.
- Release an external GPU/Dock.
- Release a real, functional, elegant travel dock. Leaving this up to 3rd parties is a mistake.
- Design one new laptop intended to hit the $999 price point and drop the MacBook Air.
- Continue making stand-alone monitors. They might not be big margin, but they are a part of the brand. Walking into an office that had Apple monitors used to set a certain tone.
- Update the Mac Pro immediately - probably ditching the can form factor for something more flexible.
- Put the entire Mac lineup on a regular release cycle so that businesses can plan accordingly.

- Reduce the iPad lineup to 3 devices. iPad Mini (cheap, no Pencil support), new 10.5" iPad Pro, 12.9" iPad Pro.

- Reduce the iPhone lineup to 2 new devices at one time. Previous year's devices fill the entry level price point. Both size iPhone get all features instead of this silly business of forcing people to buy a larger phone to get all the features. Many people are willing to pay for them, they just really don't want a larger phone.

- Continue development of the Apple Watch, but push harder into fitness. It's ridiculous that it took months after release for any decent 3rd party apps to be able to use the new GPS.
- Drop the 2 models without GPS. Lower the entry price by $50 to compensate.

- Revamp the entire iCloud/services team led by someone who won't settle until the whole thing can be understood by your average user. It has gotten way too complicated.
- Reduce the cost of iCloud storage to make it more appealing for everyone to use it to its full potential.

 

[macmee]

probably I would focus more on the iPhone because that's where all the money is

also try and bribe donald trump to shutup about offshore manufacturing to avoid having to bring jobs back to the usa

^ If im the CEO then I only care about making money, I shouldn't really care about mac production if it doesn't account for much money, even if I personally want it

 

[pastrychef]

If im the CEO then I only care about making money, I shouldn't really care about mac production if it doesn't account for much money, even if I personally want it

Mac profits may not seem like much relative to what the iPhone generates, but it's still very profitable and any PC manufacturer would be happy with it. I don't feel it should be ignored or neglected.

 

[cmaier]

I'm confident that Apple can do it without having to acquire NFLX. They have enough cash to produce their own content.

Guess we will see, but they don't seem to have the right culture for that.

 

[zhenya]

probably I would focus more on the iPhone because that's where all the money is

also try and bribe donald trump to shutup about offshore manufacturing to avoid having to bring jobs back to the usa

^ If im the CEO then I only care about making money, I shouldn't really care about mac production if it doesn't account for much money, even if I personally want it

Part of the story that seems to be getting lost these days at Apple is that having an entire ecosystem is part of what has made Apple so successful. The iPhone becomes a lot harder to leave if you are also invested in Macs, iPads, AppleTV, and all the services that glue them together. The iPhone alone isn't enough in the long run. This is the problem with letting the Mac Pro, Mac Mini, iMacs, etc. go too long between updates, dropping Apple monitors and the routers. It's not that those need to make a lot of money for Apple on their own, but that people bought them because they trusted that they were among the best products in that category without having to worry about looking elsewhere. People start to look elsewhere for their desktops, monitors, and routers, and suddenly they become a lot more willing to leave Apple for their laptops, phones and tablets.

 

[tubeexperience]

...fire Phil Schiller and replace him with Panos Panay.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

I would make the Mac great again.

 

[Gjwilly]

Rein in Jony Ive.
The man is an artist but he's not the best engineer.
Diamond cut chamfers that lead to flaking anodizing, bendgate, touch-disease, backs popping off apple watches, the jet-black scratch magnet. Those are all wholly predictable outcomes of bad engineering choices. Beautiful engineering choices.... but still bad.

 

[cmaier]

Rein in Jony Ive.
The man is an artist but he's not the best engineer.
Diamond cut chamfers that lead to flaking anodizing, bendgate, touch-disease, backs popping off apple watches, the jet-black scratch magnet. Those are all wholly predictable outcomes of bad engineering choices. Beautiful engineering choices.... but still bad.

Ive doesn't do the engineering, so blaming him for bad engineering choice is not particularly fair.

 

[I7guy]

Well there is the issue, you can't force innovation or ideas. The iPod came out of Jobs wanting to enable his daughter to have more music in her pocket than a cassette tape could hold. The iPhone came out of the desire not to have to carry more than one device with you.

Apple's philosophy has been to make products people want to buy not make something and then work out how to sell it. On the whole this has served them well. And as has been mentioned before the Apple of today is different to the Apple of 5 years ago. There is a difference between running one of the largest companies in the world and running the scrappy underdog that Apple used to be. I think the problem really comes down to people like to root for the underdog and that isn't Apple any more.

I never rooted for Apple, they are a company that now makes products I like, no more, no less. I have no attachment to the old Apple and a mild attachment to the new Apple. Ymmv. However I still want them to make products I like and enjoy using.

 

[C DM]

Probably start by taking a peek at the previous thread about this very thing.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/tims-fired-youre-up-now-what.1965877/