Forbes: Apple shopping for a new CEO

ugahairydawgs said:

Would be fairly earth shaking news if its true.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/genemarcial/2013/04/21/is-apple-looking-for-a-replacement-for-ceo-cook/

Click to expand...

I posted this in the other thread (Apple used to be ahead of the curve) but this is bad news for Apple. The mere rumor of this is sure to cause a larger loss in confidence than any drop in stock could.

I was reading that too. I agree that even a rumor of it will make the stock market move.

But why wouldn't Apple be looking? The numbers don't lie. Stocks are dropping with no sign of stopping. How long will they let him drive a sinking ship?

MuddyPaws1 said:

I was reading that too. I agree that even a rumor of it will make the stock market move.

But why wouldn't Apple be looking? The numbers don't lie. Stocks are dropping with no sign of stopping. How long will they let him drive a sinking ship?

Click to expand...

Yet sales and profits are still up? Yea sinking ship.

decafjava said:

Yet sales and profits are still up? Yea sinking ship.

Click to expand...

You think the current stock price is ok? $290 billion of Apple’s market value has been wiped out in just six months. Stock is at a 52 week low. In 7 months it dropped from $700+ to sub $400.

Several of Apple’s big stakeholders have already cut back their holdings as of their Dec. 30, 2012 filings. Among them: Fidelity Management & Research, State Street Global Advisors, TIA-CREF, Invesco Power Shares Capital Management, and Northern Trust Investments.

Click to expand...

None of that means anything to you?

Well to be honest, I'm not a big stock expert but I get the impression a lot of it is based on a sort of mob mentality and is easily manipulated. I mean everything I read says Apple still makes healthy profits and sales and hold a good chukc of the market-they still dominate the tablet market for instance. I just get the impression as a layperson that the stock market doesn't always jibe with reality.

Is Apple secretly searching...

Click to expand...

Some Wall Street sources close to some Apple executives...

Click to expand...

there's no available evidence...

Click to expand...

...most analysts at major Wall Street firms remain generally positive toward Apple.

Click to expand...

Apple is in a "quiet period" when it's not allowed to make any public comment because it's scheduled to report quarterly earnings on Tuesday.

Click to expand...

1) Anyone can write anything
2) Unfortunately the market swings more on perception and emotion than on reality.
3) It would be nice if "analysts" had a quiet period.

Stock price is a perception problem, not a business problem. They are doing just fine, huge profits and everything, people just were too bullish.

Though if I were Apple, I wouldn't replace Cook unless you could bring in the Woz or something. Any replacement is going to pretty much function worse than Tim Cook. They'll come in, not do as good of a job as him, and nothing will change product wise.

Apple should focus on continuing to improve desktop computers and not just relying on mobile.

I'd say Tim Cook is a decent care-taker CEO, but not one that seems to have great vision or drive.

Yes, Apple has enjoyed a lot of successes financially under him, but most of the grunt work was done by Steve.

Look at some of the missteps under his leadership.

Apple Maps is an unmitigated failure, one that should have not seen the light of day. Beta testers of iOS 6 were quite vocal in stating its lack of finish, but they rolled something out that was incomplete and buggy.

Hiring Browett, all I can say for someone who's supposed to be a supply chain genius and one who has his pulse on the apple stores, he screwed this up big. No way should he have been hired

I'm not sure if its really his "mistake" but I'll mention it. Why in the world would you roll out a thin iMac, I mean it just sits on the desk, and because of the components its only thin from one angle, you cannot help but see the bulge in the back.

Siri has not really been the success it should have been, though this may have been partly on Job's watch I'm not sure about the timing.

maflynn said:

I'd say Tim Cook is a decent care-taker CEO, but not one that seems to have great vision or drive.

Yes, Apple has enjoyed a lot of successes financially under him, but most of the grunt work was done by Steve.

Look at some of the missteps under his leadership.

Apple Maps is an unmitigated failure, one that should have not seen the light of day. Beta testers of iOS 6 were quite vocal in stating its lack of finish, but they rolled something out that was incomplete and buggy.

Hiring Browett, all I can say for someone who's supposed to be a supply chain genius and one who has his pulse on the apple stores, he screwed this up big. No way should he have been hired

I'm not sure if its really his "mistake" but I'll mention it. Why in the world would you roll out a thin iMac, I mean it just sits on the desk, and because of the components its only thin from one angle, you cannot help but see the bulge in the back.

Siri has not really been the success it should have been, though this may have been partly on Job's watch I'm not sure about the timing.

Click to expand...

Siri and thin iMac were still under Jobs product line though weren't they?

eric/ said:

Siri and thin iMac were still under Jobs product line though weren't they?

Click to expand...

ugahairydawgs said:

All of those products you mentioned (Maps, iMac, Siri) were all products that were developed under Jobs. When he died anyone who got near a microphone (Cook included) wasted no time letting you know the product lineup was in motion for, in some cases, up to 4 years out.

Tim Cook's "vision" is still unseen at this point for the most part.

Click to expand...

True I'm sure Steve had some hand in it, but Cook has to take responsibility for Maps and Siri, in that he was the CEO gave the approval to release that to the public.

I think Apple has been sitting on its laurels lately and if the 5s comes out with just a minor tweak, Apple's competitors will be making more inroads in marketshare then before.

As it stands it looks like iOS7 is getting a make over which is needed.

With increased competition Apple needs to stay on their A game and so far we've only seen their B game. Is that Cooks fault, perhaps not entirely but he's the CEO and he needs to take responsibility on apple's execution.

I don't get why they would be shopping for a new CEO. Apples sales and profit has been increasing massively year over year. It's still been going up under Cook.

The stock just reflects what I thought for a while. Apple stock was way overvalued. Everyone was jumping on the bandwagon thinking the stock would continue to soar. However, the stock price was increasing much faster than Apples profits for a while now. The bubble has to burst at some point.

http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/AAPL/financials

Shopping for a new CEO would be foolish. When Apples profits are still increasing rapidly under a guy handpicked by Jobs. The last thing they need to do is start shopping the CEO club. Someone else may end up changing Apple's processes to be more open and use focus groups destroying the company.

ugahairydawgs said:

How exactly has Apple been "sitting on its laurels"? They've released a ton of new product (not all of it earth shatteringly great...I'll give you), which doesn't really jive with the notion that they've been doing nothing.

Click to expand...

The iphone has largely been untouched since the it was rolled out (aside from the retina display), iOS has not changed for several versions. Android has been swinging for the fences with features and performances increases.

The hallmark of the new iMac is that its thin if you look at it at a very specific angle. Apple did introduce Fusion which is a nice feature.

No Mac Pro,

Pro apps have largely been ignored

No iLife or iWork for ages.


I'd say that quantifies as sitting on their laurels imo. That doesn't mean they're doing nothing but they're not keeping up with the competition and they're not supporting existing customers with hardware and software they're clamoring for.

maflynn said:

The iphone has largely been untouched since the it was rolled out (aside from the retina display), iOS has not changed for several versions. Android has been swinging for the fences with features and performances increases.

The hallmark of the new iMac is that its thin if you look at it at a very specific angle. Apple did introduce Fusion which is a nice feature.

No Mac Pro,

Pro apps have largely been ignored

No iLife or iWork for ages.


I'd say that quantifies as sitting on their laurels imo. That doesn't mean they're doing nothing but they're not keeping up with the competition and they're not supporting existing customers with hardware and software they're clamoring for.

Click to expand...

Agree with the Mac Pro and ilife and iwork comments. iphone largely untouched?? Disagree there, my iphone 5 is a large leap over my 4-speed as well as display wise-better (well more practical) construction and not insignificant changes and spec bumps all around. ios is slow but at least it's stable and I think we may see an interesting change in direction with ios 7. I don't see android phones as bringing huge changes in generations now-they brought some great stuff but we're in the evolution change in mobile.

----------

eric/ said:

Stock price is a perception problem, not a business problem. They are doing just fine, huge profits and everything, people just were too bullish.

Click to expand...

Eaxctly what I was trying to get at.

ugahairydawgs said:

How exactly has Apple been "sitting on its laurels"? They've released a ton of new product (not all of it earth shatteringly great...I'll give you), which doesn't really jive with the notion that they've been doing nothing.

Click to expand...

If you ask me, its mainly in the poor state of their software. iOS 4 was miles ahead of any other mobile OS at the time. We're now on iOS 6 and I'd say both Android and Windows Phone have the edge. Since iOS 4 all they have done is add more icons I cannot delete, make my iPhone slower and break a few apps.

OS X is another example. Since Snow Leopard, OS X has had nothing but an iOS makeover. Still no up to date version of OpenGL for gamers, multi-monitor support pretty much gone and a massive focus on redesigning apps that really didn't need it (with the exception of iTunes). The added security they've put in is nice, but half the iOS inspired features seem implemented awkwardly and just seem to get in the way.

Lack of attention to pro apps has been clearly visible over the years.

I guess the problem for me is that it is great that these devices work fine for the average Joe, but there seems to be nothing but stale air if you want to do something a bit beyond that. Apple's software used to be a great blend of features for both the pros and the consumers and it seems increasingly one sided nowadays, reducing their gadgets to nothing but mere consuming devices rather than devices for creativity.

decafjava said:

iphone largely untouched?? Disagree there, my iphone 5 is a large leap over my 4-speed as well as display wise-better (well more practical)

Click to expand...

I go back and forth on this. Yes, its faster, but I'm not sure about the display being better. The longer form factor is a bit odd, but I will concede that apple was trying to improve the phone, though I don't think is a large leap (processing speed aside) from the iPhone 4.

maflynn said:

I go back and forth on this. Yes, its faster, but I'm not sure about the display being better. The longer form factor is a bit odd, but I will concede that apple was trying to improve the phone, though I don't think is a large leap (processing speed aside) from the iPhone 4.

Click to expand...

Yeah it was really just a specs increase. They haven't done anything "revolutionary" in a little while. But to be fair, the manufacturing techniques, and supply chain improvements are quite the achievement. They are manufacturing things with such precision it's mind blowing.

And that's the problem. People keep expecting a new iPad, or new iPhone every year. This whole iWatch thing is going to be a disaster. Just like Google glass, we keep putting hardware on people, we need to free people from devices.

Apple doesn't need a new CEO. All they need is a charismatic person to do the special events etc.

The problem is they won't find anyone decent to be CEO. The reason why no one has faith in Cook is because of he seems to lack vision like Jobs had. There really isn't anyone available out there that has that vision. Ive is probably the only person to even getting close to Jobs vision ability, but I don't think he is cut out for the CEO position simply because he doesn't really care for the business side of Apple.

Companies will always go through a period like Apple is now when a truly visionary leader leaves the company. What Apple has to avoid is hiring an idiot with a MBA that will only look out for the bottom line, which ruined a lot of our great companies( GM, Ford, Chrysler, the airlines, etc). That is what almost killed Apple back in the 90's. Apple needs someone with vision. I can't think of anyone outside of Apple that has vision that is available and the only internal candidate is Ive which for reasons I already stated above, probably won't happen.

velocityg4 said:

I don't get why they would be shopping for a new CEO. Apples sales and profit has been increasing massively year over year. It's still been going up under Cook.

The stock just reflects what I thought for a while. Apple stock was way overvalued. Everyone was jumping on the bandwagon thinking the stock would continue to soar. However, the stock price was increasing much faster than Apples profits for a while now. The bubble has to burst at some point.

http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/AAPL/financials

Shopping for a new CEO would be foolish. When Apples profits are still increasing rapidly under a guy handpicked by Jobs. The last thing they need to do is start shopping the CEO club. Someone else may end up changing Apple's processes to be more open and use focus groups destroying the company.

Click to expand...

If Apple stock is way over valued what is Google, Amazon and Netflix?

eric/ said:

if I were Apple, I wouldn't replace Cook unless you could bring in the Woz or something.

Click to expand...

Hope this wasn't serious lol

Peace said:

Apple doesn't need a new CEO. All they need is a charismatic person to do the special events etc.

Click to expand...

Should have Jony Ive do all announcements

eric/ said:

Though if I were Apple, I wouldn't replace Cook unless you could bring in the Woz or something. Any replacement is going to pretty much function worse than Tim Cook. They'll come in, not do as good of a job as him, and nothing will change product wise.

Click to expand...

While I love Woz I doubt he will go back to Apple, he is happy with things like working with kids, charities, and small companies. Even if he wanted to come back though he is more suited to being the brains in a startup than setting the direction for a company as big as Apple is today.

The one thing I fear most about Apple is that they get into the non-steve era again. The parade of failed CEOs. Brr!