Tim Cook needs to get the boot!

[preyan]

Well, I don't know where to start but here goes...

Tim Cook has done bugger all to keep Apple abreast with the world of technology. Let me start by saying that Apple has done nothing new or significant since Jobs passed on. NOTHING!

The only "innovation" use Cooks leadership is/was:

1. iPhone with fingerprint scanner that UNLOCKS your phone and nothing else (for now). I'm all for new technology but I believe if Jobs was around, he'd have gotten his team to launch the fingerprint scanner with more than just unlocking your phone. Even if there were apps that used it, it would not have been launched without someone or something coming on board

2. A thinner, faster iPad. Then again, this was the trend with all iPads from first generation

3. A redesigned, faster, light Mac

Actually, those are the only 3 things I can think off.
Here's his balls up in my opinion:

1. iPods are only 2% of Apple revenue but... they're profitable. This is his 3rd year at the top. iPod Touch is now not updated for 2yrs. Not even a thinner iPod or bigger screen or capacity. Something to keep the entire range "new and refreshed"

2. iPhones and iPod Touches - no bigger screen. Not only Samsung but other manufacturers/brands have proven successful with the public wanting thinner phones but with bigger/wider screens. Was a 4 inch screen with iPhone 5, but same width, the best Apple could do? Like really?

3. Fingerprint scanner only unlocks phone. O...k...remind why a 2 second code unlock isn't on par with this? This appears to have been launched to be "first". Let me re-iterate, only to unlock my phone which usually takes me about 2 seconds or less to put in my 4 digit pin?

4. iPads have lost steam since Steve's death. Except the expected from every techno leader and manufacturer, such as faster chip, etc iPad innovation is dead. It's like Apple feels obligated to upgrade the internals every year and that's pretty much all we have been getting since Steve died. Tablet range is also limited compared to competitors. Kudos though for the 128GB capacity

5. iOS. Where do I even start. The OS might be more efficient (which cannot be seen with the human eye but only observed through running of apps etc), the iOS 7 upgrade took Apple back to retard status. iOS 6 was sleek and classy. iOS 7 take it from class to Kindergarden. So thick pastel colors are what they thought was futuristic and innovative? iOS 7 for me look looks horrible. No complaints about how it operates but from a usability perspective, it looks like vomit haven

This man needs to go. Sadly, they started off with phones and tablets as the leaders and innovators. Looking at everyone around me, Apple products appear to be used mostly by those who want to come across as rich and classy. Some are but most are broke. My general observation is that people have started migrating to other products. This is my observation worldwide and does not mean Apple are losing all customers. They have an extremely loyal fanbase but if you ask me, I'd say give it 10yrs or so and we'll see a drastic change in worldwide consumer trends when it comes to Apple and it's products. Things such as as new ios adoption rates, sale of Apple products, etc,

And on a final note, while Cook is counting his Apple shares, Samsung has been capitalizing off his slowness and sleepiness. Functionality such as:
1. Proper multitasking ie REALLY doing 2 things at once (such as viewing a website for reference while translating it into an email, all on the one screen)
2. Watching movies and doing ANYTHING else at the same time. (I am not one of those "sit quietly, watch and do nothing else" people). I find this function extremely useful
3. Gesture functionality. Scrolling web pages with head and hand movements. Telling your screen "cheese" and it takes a photo. Telling your phone to play next song, repeat, shuffle, etc

Tim a Cook has done nothing but set Apple backwards! The damage is irreversible for the future. He also promised lots of new products this year. Well, the first quarter is pretty much on its way out. He also needs to shuffle the calendar. Apple launches are so predictable that I'm guessing the new iPhone will be launched in October/November. Just in time to compare it to the Samsung Note 4. (He's basically motivating me not to rush out and get the latest 5S)

 

[roadbloc]

Cook is fine. You cannot expect game changers every year.

 

[preyan]

If this statement came in 2012, I'd accept it. Going on 3yrs later, I'd disagree.
Not changing your game even in a year can make you go from hero to zero. The technology market is cut throat. Someone's working hard to take your throne.

Huawei is a classic example of where they are hungry for the market share. All the more reason to never under estimate any player in the game. Cook took over soon after Jobs death is 2011. Yes, Twenty Eleven. We are now in Twenty Fourteen. Yes, 2014

 

[oddnendz]

*sighs* How many threads we had about this? And how many do we need to endure??

 

[Shrink]

*sighs* How many threads we had about this? And how many do we need to endure??

As many threads as there are folks who believe that they have some brilliant, new, original, never-seen-before observation to impose...er...share with all of us.

 

[Michael Goff]

4. iPads have lost steam since Steve's death. Except the expected from every techno leader and manufacturer, such as faster chip, etc iPad innovation is dead. It's like Apple feels obligated to upgrade the internals every year and that's pretty much all we have been getting since Steve died. Tablet range is also limited compared to competitors. Kudos though for the 128GB capacity

iPad 2 spec bump, then 3 came out after he died and it got retina. :|

Steve Jobs did spec bumps too.

Also, Jobs wanted to just stick with one screen size. So they'd have an even smaller range.

 

[MacDawg]

I suggest you give up on Apple and start your own company

 

[phoenixsan]

Well.....

based in your initial argument and the rumor so treated here about "Steve let 5 years of products planned in the pipeline", I can see the point of your question.But then, Cook was bring to Apple based in his proficiency as logistics/management man.

So no innovation indeed....just letting the cart moving on. Or at least, no innovation in the Job-esque levels....

But seems to me, Mr. Cook can have 3-5 years more on the helm of Apple. Money is flowing, products are coming out. Legal threats, yes.....And new and big things coming out: nMP, the "iWatch", the Apple TV set (if comes to reality), iTunes radio....

But I can hear the idea about all those products are to compete in markets where Apple can make good forays (noo too risky). And about that are "expected evolutions" to things already in place.

Big purchases of Apple are in the area of production chain and intellectual property to leverage current offers....Bottom line: Let the Cook do his thing for more time.....

 

[BittenApple]

Cook is good at making profit by using shared components across product lines. He's an expert in supply chain management and it shows with the way Apple is packaging their products.

But this isn't necessarily the best for innovation...

 

[preyan]

I suggest you give up on Apple and start your own company

I wanted to register my company as Blackberry but that's also taken apparently

----------

Steve Jobs did spec bumps too.

Not saying spec bumps only are unacceptable but Jobs literally invented the commercialisation of tablets. He invented, before bumping. Cook leverages off Jobs innovation by just bumping specs. Again, this his third year. 3yrs of spec bumping and fine tuning size?

Problem from what I just by your comment is consumers are like Zombies and they'll believe anything said and thrown their way by Apple. That is actually sad and brainwashed.

From all companies, we don't expect miracles but expect useful innovation

 

[thekev]

Problem from what I just by your comment is consumers are like Zombies and they'll believe anything said and thrown their way by Apple. That is actually sad and brainwashed.

From all companies, we don't expect miracles but expect useful innovation

That is part of the problem. Jobs was a salesman. He didn't invent this stuff. A couple things are definitely missing here. One is that you assume the company would be in better condition if Jobs was still alive. The other is that you make the assumption that they have a better option as of today.

 

[7thson]

I don't take issue with your opinion. You're entitled to it and you clearly feel very strongly about this, as it seems you've given it great thought. I disagree with your point of view because I think you are only looking at Tim for what Apple has physically produced since taking the helm. I think it's fair to say you, like a great many others, are still in shock over Steve Jobs passing. It's the only explanation I can come to to explain why people keep comparing Tim Cook to Steve Jobs. However, we all miss Steve and wish he were still around, no one more than his family.
The reason Tim was chosen by Steve is because he understands the culture of Apple inside the company and out. There are very few who are up to this task. Maybe a few inside Apple, but I'm not convinced any of them would be better than Tim. I think you would be hard pressed to find a replacement outside Apple that would not try to redirect the company to his or her idea of what the company should be doing.
I am confident that Apple has a roadmap that they are following because they are tightly committed to the success of the company. This means they stay focused and not release a new "i" device just to soothe people's fears that Apple is resting on their laurels. While it would be nice of the finger print sensor had a broad range of application, it's just as well it doesn't since iOS 7 had significant amounts of energy invested into it just to get it to launch. They're still ironing it out and will continue to. It was a huge departure from all previous iterations. To the point that it was completely rebuilt, reframing it to grow into something far beyond the scope of what iOS 6 Could have.
I doubt my views will persuade you and it's not my intention to. More to the point is that I think firing Tim Cook would be the worst thing Apple could do right now. I look forward to seeing how this company strives to amaze us and build apon the legacy of Steve Jobs.

 

[macs4nw]

I don't take issue with your opinion. You're entitled to it and you clearly feel very strongly about this, as it seems you've given it great thought. I disagree with your point of view because I think you are only looking at Tim for what Apple has physically produced since taking the helm. I think it's fair to say you, like a great many others, are still in shock over Steve Jobs passing. It's the only explanation I can come to to explain why people keep comparing Tim Cook to Steve Jobs. However, we all miss Steve and wish he were still around, no one more than his family.
The reason Tim was chosen by Steve is because he understands the culture of Apple inside the company and out. There are very few who are up to this task. Maybe a few inside Apple, but I'm not convinced any of them would be better than Tim. I think you would be hard pressed to find a replacement outside Apple that would not try to redirect the company to his or her idea of what the company should be doing.
I am confident that Apple has a roadmap that they are following because they are tightly committed to the success of the company. This means they stay focused and not release a new "i" device just to soothe people's fears that Apple is resting on their laurels. While it would be nice of the finger print sensor had a broad range of application, it's just as well it doesn't since iOS 7 had significant amounts of energy invested into it just to get it to launch. They're still ironing it out and will continue to. It was a huge departure from all previous iterations. To the point that it was completely rebuilt, reframing it to grow into something far beyond the scope of what iOS 6 Could have.
I doubt my views will persuade you and it's not my intention to. More to the point is that I think firing Tim Cook would be the worst thing Apple could do right now. I look forward to seeing how this company strives to amaze us and build apon the legacy of Steve Jobs.

Agreed. And to the OP, no company can be all things to all people, all the time, and there will always be some people who are not happy, but Apple has a very focused vision, and Tim is not going to update products just for the sake of change alone; they have their intended roadmap and are staying on course with that.

 

[Michael Goff]

I wanted to register my company as Blackberry but that's also taken apparently

----------



Not saying spec bumps only are unacceptable but Jobs literally invented the commercialisation of tablets. He invented, before bumping. Cook leverages off Jobs innovation by just bumping specs. Again, this his third year. 3yrs of spec bumping and fine tuning size?

Problem from what I just by your comment is consumers are like Zombies and they'll believe anything said and thrown their way by Apple. That is actually sad and brainwashed.

From all companies, we don't expect miracles but expect useful innovation

iPad 3 gave us retina, something SJ didn't give us. that's a bit more than a spec bump. iPad Air made it one of the lightest tablets out there. That's hardly something to sneeze at.

Consumers are zombies, mostly.

Also, I am sick and tired of this deification of Steve Jobs. Yes, he made the iPad. But the original iPad was a joke, only able to be sold because of a cult of personality. I'm glad it did, it caused the rest of the market to change, but it wasn't all that great. The iPad under Cook (3 and above) is way more useful than either of the first two.

With the first iPad, we had a larger iPod Touch. With the newer iPads, we have a viable alternative to computers.

 

[malman89]

I don't get the 'no new releases... yet' gripe. Apple only typically releases stuff in June or October, correlating with WWDC and after back to school sales.

It's a pleasant surprise to get updates - typically minor stealth spec bumps - any other time.

 

[LizKat]

Unless the OP has a seat at Apple's design meetings, I don't see how any complaint that Apple is not innovating stands up to common sense.

One should not imagine that because we can now routinely ship texts and web pages around the world in seconds, an idea that someone has this morning for "the next amazing thing" can be translated into new products in shelf-ready boxes this afternoon.

I do not mean to insult the OP or derogate his desire for further innovation. I think most of us take a lot of stuff for granted today in technology. That we're able to do so fairly often with pretty good results speaks well of the underpinnings of that technology. Most of us have some kind of wishlist for the next round of improvements.

Some of us hope for certain seemingly minor changes. Some of us yearn for a close encounter with some completely different thing, and may not care what it is as long as it's different. I don't really get that whole "just make it different!" wish but I do know that that sort of longing does exist.

Still, that doesn't mean there's any shortcut from brainstorm to feasibility study to marketing analysis to prototyping materials, construction, firmware, software, packaging. As the old saying goes, there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip. It has always been like that. We should not imagine there was a smooth transition from ranks of monks transcribing sacred texts to the first run off the Gutenberg Press. It was quite a slog, and like most tech rollouts, half the battle was getting permission to do the thing...

Some of the demand for "innovation" in technology today actually stems from nothing more than boredom, which seems to be a growing affliction, at least in the USA. I'd guess that media consumption and gaming are too often replacing activities that have more broadly challenged human curiosity in the past.

The paths from "How does this work?" to "Look what I made!" are countless, and lots of them offer fun and excitement along with skill development, but maybe in the 21st century we've winnowed too many of them out of the picture and what's left doesn't take much skill, or imagination, much less make serious challenge to our human potential. It's alarming that the response to boredom is so passive-reactive: "Gimme something different!" as opposed to "I'm going to make a different thing!" It's well into the red zone of danger for the human race if you ask me, but I have no idea how to turn it around. I guess one must hope for enough people not to get caught up in dependence upon externally provided amusement as a way of life.

Meanwhile I'm still fascinated by what Apple has brought me in the way of personal computing power. I don't find any of their products putting up roadblocks for my personal development. On the contrary, I'm amazed at how the world continues to open up as more computing power gets packed into smaller devices. Maybe that's because I remember working in computer rooms that were half a city block long and filled with huge machines that only ran code shoehorned into modules that would compile in 32k and could be overlaid without eating their own next instructions. Talk about boredom... that was when you could wait 24 hours or maybe 3 days for the batch turnaround of a compile error. I say thanks to Apple for giving us plenty of power and room for personal growth while we wait for their next great thing.

 

[Rogifan]

iPad 3 gave us retina, something SJ didn't give us. that's a bit more than a spec bump. iPad Air made it one of the lightest tablets out there. That's hardly something to sneeze at.

Consumers are zombies, mostly.

Also, I am sick and tired of this deification of Steve Jobs. Yes, he made the iPad. But the original iPad was a joke, only able to be sold because of a cult of personality. I'm glad it did, it caused the rest of the market to change, but it wasn't all that great. The iPad under Cook (3 and above) is way more useful than either of the first two.

With the first iPad, we had a larger iPod Touch. With the newer iPads, we have a viable alternative to computers.

At Apple's shareholders meeting Tim Cook said that Apple now is kind of embarrassed by the first iPad. I think that's all we need to know about that product. One could argue the second generation is what the first one should have been.

 

[chrono1081]

I love how everyone seems to forget that Steve said he left 4 years of products in the pipeline before his death and everyone magically assumes as soon as soon as he died those all went away.

 

[preyan]

Steve may have left visions for a four year period but not even the brilliant Steve could predict exactly what the future held for technology and where exactly it was/is going. If anything, he was behind the 2012 product range. But that's about it.

Remember, Steve said in public that 3.5" iPhones was the "perfect" size indicating that there was no need for a bigger screen size That was like a year before his death by which time Samsung was well on it way to 4". Today have a 4" screen and the next iPhone is speculated the 4.7" if the internet is anything to trust including Mac Rumors.

No matter how brilliant someone is, taking their word and "chilling" with what they left behind is foolish. The game changes in a heartbeat.

 

[Plutonius]

Let's hear who your replacement is. Then we can discuss if Tim Cook should go.

 

[preyan]

It's not about a specific leader whom I prefer or don't. It's about the leadership and guidance to keep the ship afloat and abreast. Frankly, Tim is being paid enough to steer the ship. I just want him (being the current leader) to work (or do a better job) for his salary and shares.



He hasn't proven he is capable of the job based on the stagnation of their product line since Jobs passed on (which Apple isn't known for - stagnation and following others). Annual "spec bumps" isn't innovation that Apple is known for. This is everything to do with the leadership.

 

[macproredux]

I'd say he's doing fine

 

[Scrub175]

It's funny to see this post then the next thread below this one about a new deal Apple signs with a Russian carrier. Add to that the deal finalized with China in 2013, indeed the makings of why Apple should replace their CEO...

 

[adnbek]

I suggest you watch this OP, because that's how you sound to me in this thread.

 

[carjakester]

I suggest you watch this OP, because that's how you sound to me in this thread.

I love louis ck