Apple CEO Tim Cook Calls New 'Haunted Empire' Book 'Nonsense'

[Renzatic]

But I am very proud of Tim Cook for coming up with a very strongly worded response to this disgusting book.

Disgusting? Comeon. I'd save the extreme emotional responses for things that actually deserve it. Like books advocating genocide or holocaust denial. This is just an opinion piece about a possible downturn in a large corporation. About the most it'll stir up in me is disagreement with the conclusions.

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Spot on !! It has been 4 years since the last "needle mover" product introduction (iPad), the stack price languishes under his "leadership" (whatever that may be), and his efforts at inspiring the WWDC crowds is feeling more and more ineffective. Dry, uninspiring, and with a questionable attitude towards the owners of the company.

And between the unveiling of the first Mac to the iPod, Apple didn't do much of anything that could be considered truly revolutionary. Even what Jobs was doing over at Next at the time could be considered a more advanced iteration of what came before.

You can't expect industry shaking turns of events ever couple of years. Even once a decade is kinda expecting a little too much. Revolutionary products only come about only every so often.

 

[henlipoter]

i'don't think it can be ture

 

[sixrom]

I'm reading the book now.

Kane, the author, has performed lots of in depth comprehensive research that's well documented. Along with countless interviews of many people inside and outside of Apple. I can see why Tim is responding.

It's a very compelling read.

 

[IJ Reilly]

No comment.

You might well say that.

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no im asking you if you would have criticized if he hadnt issued a statement. he wasnt asked at a news conference right?

No, I don't think you understand what I've already said. I said it was wise for him to put comments on the record such that he doesn't have to answer any questions in any venue in which he is likely to be questioned.

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For those defending this book...the author claims that Steve wanted Cook to be CEO because he didn't think Cook would do as good of a job as he did; that his legacy would be complete if Apple faded after he died. Do people here actually believe Steve wanted Apple to decline after he died?

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/steve-jobs-wouldnt-want-tim-cook-do-better-he-did

I also just read that interview on Marketplace. The entire premise is sick and twisted. Steve was quirky no question, but anyone who knows the first thing about Apple knows that the company was his legacy. I suppose at some point we will hear his widow's opinion on this singularly putrescent theory.

 

[reznick]

How ironic. The author praises Steve Jobs, and yet attempts to decimate his single greatest invention: Apple.

 

[bursthead]

I also just read that interview on Marketplace. The entire premise is sick and twisted. Steve was quirky no question, but anyone who knows the first thing about Apple knows that the company was his legacy. I suppose at some point we will hear his widow's opinion on this singularly putrescent theory.

You can take this with a grain of salt. This was in the comments of the marketplace piece:

"Having worked as a designer at Apple with what might be described today as a dream team of 'imagineers' - folks who designed much of what people are in love with and using today, I have to say that this author's analysis of Apple and Tim Cook's leadership is the most accurate and true that I have read to date. Ms. Kane gets it. Yup - for those of us who worked/lived/and played there, indeed - this is spot on. And I very much appreciate SOMEBODY saying what folks like myself have been feeling ever since we lost Steve. A lot of BS was written and stated about Steve and Apple in general ...and given lots of undeserved press, credibility, and accolades by the press. Most of it was laughable and the stuff of someone's imagination. THIS is the first analysis I've encountered that truly reflects what at least my experience was working for Apple as a creative and it reflects"

 

[Rogifan]

I also just read that interview on Marketplace. The entire premise is sick and twisted. Steve was quirky no question, but anyone who knows the first thing about Apple knows that the company was his legacy. I suppose at some point we will hear his widow's opinion on this singularly putrescent theory.

To me this is more damning than anything in the book (unless this conclusion is in the book too). She's basically saying that Steve engineered Apple's demise by design. I suppose she thinks he got Forstall fired from the grave too.

Anyway, I don't think she knows her subjects that well. She says Forstall had "ambition and vision". Ok, I'd agree with the first part, but about the second...what exactly was Forstall's vision post-Jobs? After he was let go there were stories out there that he was emailing his team begging them for ideas on what to do next with iOS. That doesn't sound like someone with a vision.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/...hor-of-haunted-empire-apple-after-steve-jobs/

 

[BvizioN]

Because introducing an 8GB iPhone 5c and the iPad (4th gen) is the "best work of their lives"

I do agree with the rest of your comment but I only wanted to quote this one. Why is everyone having such a long orgasm about an older better iPad that replaced a much older/less powerful iPad, and also a slightly cheaper/lower storage iPhone C that nobody is gonna hold a gun to nobody to buy it? Seriously, I must be missing something here!!

 

[finbred]

You can take this with a grain of salt. This was in the comments of the marketplace piece: "Having worked as a designer at Apple with what might be described today as a dream team of 'imagineers' - folks who designed much of what people are in love with and using today, I have to say that this author's analysis of Apple and Tim Cook's leadership is the most accurate and true that I have read to date. Ms. Kane gets it. Yup - for those of us who worked/lived/and played there, indeed - this is spot on. And I very much appreciate SOMEBODY saying what folks like myself have been feeling ever since we lost Steve. A lot of BS was written and stated about Steve and Apple in general ...and given lots of undeserved press, credibility, and accolades by the press. Most of it was laughable and the stuff of someone's imagination. THIS is the first analysis I've encountered that truly reflects what at least my experience was working for Apple as a creative and it reflects"

Anonymous comments are rather salty, indeed... 5 years at WSJ should give Kane credibility, yet I find her comment "For Tim Cook to have such strong feelings about the book, it must have touched a nerve” very, very naive. If that was a prime example of the depth of her reasoning, I'll have to file her under Desperate-to-make-myself-relevant.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Don't tell us, show us.

Do something big, Mr Cook.

Please and thank you.

 

[rickdollar]

Thank goodness Apple doesn't seek to gain popularity and cash.

You missed the point.

 

[whathesaid]

Even if the book is nonsense, the fact he is commenting on it gives the book more unwanted publicity.

 

[gnasher729]

Tim Cook is starting to sound like the Iraqi Information Minister. Do you remember him? He said things like "There are no American tanks in Baghdad. American troops are retreating." When he said that, an American tank rolled past behind where he was speaking to CNN reporters.

Reminds me more about American statements: "Iraquis are retreating. They have no tanks left in Baghdad". The point I'm making is that it is not a ridiculous statement if its true. "This book is nonsense": true. "I must have hit a nerve": false.

 

[albusseverus]

just more Wall St Journal Apple stock manipulation

Likewise, there wouldn't be much of a book, if all she said was that Apple was doing fine.

Let's face it, the truth and facts are just BORING, right?
Hardly, the truth is stranger than fiction.

Negative Apple stories sell any publication, from newspapers, to HuffPo, to bloggers, and that's the only maxim at work here. And that's the tragedy, Kane is supposed to be a respected writer. Sadly, gone to the bottom of my list, now. Joined the Wall St chorus of infinite growth or we'll dump your stock, and pooped all over your own brand. Great career move, but made yourself irrelevant to Apple coverage, now.

The other extreme is a puff piece, pure PR, and just as inane as trying to portray the most successful company in history as being in trouble.

Somewhere in the middle will be the truth, which will be much more interesting and even more deliciously untouchable. Cook has the biggest shoes in modern history to fill and it's a major struggle, which would be well worth documenting.

Unglamorous and thankless, as Cook's time in-charge might be, it's incredibly interesting.

• Jobs got away with a lot of things, because he was Steve, and his time was limited.
• Cook just doesn't have the luxury and faces immense challenges.
• No dividends from Steve. Tim just had to buckle. But if we see the buy-back as a way of taking control back from Wall St, we wait to see how cool Tim is with these guys. I'm excited to see how it plays out.
• Steve could say no to Adobe's government spying (Flash & Insight/Omniture), now Mr Flash, the maker of the most insecure software in history, has Bob Mansfield's position at the heart of Apple technologies. That's a book in itself.
• Signing on to Prism (it gave Apple immunity from prosecution), then outing Goto Fail - there's a real story there, that NOBODY will want to talk about.
• Succession Planning - clearly much of the top executive are using Steve's passing as a good time to take their billions and enjoy their family/life.
• And probably much more on the staff retention side generally. Or more specifically, passing on the culture and intellectual knowledge to future generations of staff.
• Plus, why release everything the month before Christmas? I'll bet there's some forced circumstance there, too.

I'm a big Cook fan. I wasn't when he hired the toe-cutter to run the Apple Stores, or Mr Flash to succeed Bob Mansfield, or bowed to Wall St paid dividends and put the company at Wall St's mercy. But I see these things as 'the necessary' to assuage the establishment, and I await Cook's solution to the immense pressures that created these situations.

These are the real stories, and the main stream media are off creating distractions, so we don't ask these questions… the real questions. Do more than condemn this book for what it is - more Wall St Journal Apple stock manipulation. Seek out the real issues.

 

[swingerofbirch]

Even though this book had been in my radar several times (that noisy John Gruber was decrying it), I thought nothing of it: another book about Apple.

Even the title, "Haunted Empire," didn't catch my attention.

But then to see the CEO of one of the world's biggest companies suddenly debating an author I'd never heard of before about whether the company is haunted or not, well, it suddenly made the company sound somewhat haunted.

 

[tom vilsack]

Timmy if you want us to believe you, then how about something new and innovative. Since you have taken over all we get are cheaper plastic iphone models,and countless ipad this and that. Where is the next device we never even dreamed of? Do you stay up all night drawing on a chalkboard like steve,or are you just another ceo counting the money? Timmy it wasn't that long ago that Microsoft ruled the computer world and then got lazy,are you about to follow the same path?

 

[Fox Fisher]

LoL

Kane is trolling for publicity. Apple has 4 concrete products and of course it will take some time to release a new product line. I can't believe how many people want Apple to send a rocket to the moon just for the sake of doing something "new".

 

[DanneSAndin]

If he says it’s bull… then it has to accurate. Otherwise why would he say anything? I hadn’t heard about this book, now I’m very interested.

 

[simonmet]

If he says it’s bull… then it has to accurate. Otherwise why would he say anything? I hadn’t heard about this book, now I’m very interested.

Exactly.

Seems like poor judgement for Tim to come out and acknowledge it at all, especially to put down someone's work by calling it nonsense.

He just legitimised the book in one fell swoop. The author must be thrilled.

I'm definitely going to check it out now that it seems to have raised the ire of Tim and Apple so much.

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I take it this won't be for sale in the iBook Store!

 

[Felasco]

when a giant bothered by a fly, the giant has a problem

Ha, ha! Old as I am, I am reminded of Richard Nixon being compelled to come to the podium and declare, "I am not a crook! I am not a crook!"

I know nothing about the book, or what Apple's stock price may be in the next few quarters, or what products are coming next etc.

The larger picture is easier to predict using the universal maxim, everything that goes up must come down. Apple is on top of the world right now, and there is only one direction to go from there.

The Internet and all the nifty gizmo gadgets that Apple produces are the latest rage trend fad for now, but people are easily bored, and the pendulum eternally swings. The stage is set for a new generation, say those in diapers now, to rebel against the whole thing.

The vast majority of services that Apple provides are nifty indeed, but not really necessary, as is proven by the fact that human beings have been living without them for thousands of years.

 

[RuffyYoshi]

Even though I haven't read the book, I vote it's not entirely off considering the recent 8GB iphone 5C, iPad relaunch and the massive ****up that is Sir Lifts-A-Lot's iOS7.

Sorry Tim, to me you're another money counting CEO.

 

[macs4nw]

Oh Tim, you might have been better off to ignore it; why lend it credence, or even legitimize it by such a reaction, and even give her free publicity?

 

[Felasco]

Sorry Tim, to me you're another money counting CEO.

I don't know if he is or not, but I think you might be on to something with your comment.

Apple arose near the end of the hippy movement, and there was originally a good bit of "power to the people" philosophy involved. Early Apple users were joining a movement as much as they were buying a product.

That original sense of noble mission was lost as the boomer generation transitioned from being philosophical hippy types to an embrace of rampant yuppie consumerism.

Thanks to Job's marketing genius, Apple culture has always contained a bit of almost religious fervor, and perhaps some people are mourning the loss of the larger vision. Apple is just about gadgets and gizmos now, a much smaller affair.

 

[gnasher729]

He just legitimised the book in one fell swoop. The author must be thrilled.

Are you going to buy it because Tim Cook called it "nonsense"? That's weird.

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If he says it’s bull… then it has to accurate. Otherwise why would he say anything? I hadn’t heard about this book, now I’m very interested.

Because it is a book about Apple, and it's nonsense. That's why the CEO of Apple, the company that the book is about, says it's nonsense.

But go ahead and buy it. It's your money, not mine. Buy a copy for every friend and family member that you have.

 

[ValSalva]

Even though I haven't read the book, I vote it's not entirely off considering the recent 8GB iphone 5C, iPad relaunch and the massive ****up that is Sir Lifts-A-Lot's iOS7.

Sorry Tim, to me you're another money counting CEO.

Not everything SJ touched turned to gold. Remember the fiasco when the original iPhone was released? Apple dropped the price only weeks afterward. That seemed desperate at the time. Now the iPhone business alone is bigger than Microsoft.

Every CEO, including SJ, has to be accountable to the board. It's really too early to judge Cook on the moves of this week.