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

Apple Corps said:
Steve had a unique style and, more importantly, a track record of market changing products / services. Tim has yet to establish the beginnings of such a track record.
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Cook has been sitting in the chair without any support for about 3 years now. In that time, he's made the company considerably more profitable, and has overseen the release of more than a few solid products. The iPad Mini. The iPad Air. The Retina Macbook Pro. The new Mac Pro. Products that are arguably at the top of their field, if not in power necessarily, then in design.

Contrast to Steve Jobs. It took him 5 years after returning to Apple before he oversaw the release of the iPod and iTunes. Yeah, they were neat products, certainly the Walkmans and CDs of their time, but I wouldn't call them world changing, either. Compact, convenient, nice. They were products of their age, though. Nothing completely unprecedented. If you really want to talk about things truly world changing, then you could say that Jobs, during his entire 30+ year history in the industry, was there for two of them, and only personally oversaw one: the Apple II and the iPhone. 30+ years, and only two products that can honesty be said to have Changed Everything.

...and we're giving Cook flak for not pulling off something similar only three years after a big transition.
 
mccldwll said:
For someone who claims to be a shareholder, you sure do post a lot of anti-AAPL crap. I don't know any real shareholders with anything approaching substantial positions who act like that.
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What anti Apple crap have I posted? What are you talking about?

As for Tim Cook - that is a different story. He may have performed as a COO and supply chain guru but not performing as a CEO from a partial owner of the company.

Share price closed at $528.70 today - 2014 is about 25% over already.

You probably don't know any shareholders with substantial positions period.

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Renzatic said:
Cook has been sitting in the chair without any support for about 3 years now. In that time, he's made the company considerably more profitable, and has overseen the release of more than a few solid products. The iPad Mini. The iPad Air. The Retina Macbook Pro. The new Mac Pro. Products that are arguably at the top of their field, if not in power necessarily, then in design.

Contrast to Steve Jobs. It took him 5 years after returning to Apple before he oversaw the release of the iPod and iTunes. Yeah, they were neat products, certainly the Walkmans and CDs of their time, but I wouldn't call them world changing, either. Compact, convenient, nice. They were products of their age, though. Nothing completely unprecedented. If you really want to talk about things truly world changing, then you could say that Jobs, during his entire 30+ year history in the industry, was there for two of them, and only personally oversaw one: the Apple II and the iPhone. 30+ years, and only two products that can honesty be said to have Changed Everything.

...and we're giving Cook flak for not pulling off something similar only three years after a big transition.
Click to expand...


Give it a break. Steve returned to a company on its last legs. Cook inherited an amazingly positive trajectory from Steve's vision. He needs to quit bumping his gums about the pipeline and deliver something that restores Wall Street confidence.
 
Apple Corps said:
Give it a break. Steve returned to a company on its last legs. Cook inherited an amazingly positive trajectory from Steve's vision. He needs to quit bumping his gums about the pipeline and deliver something that restores Wall Street confidence.
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"Sure, they're making more money than they ever have, but they're not absolutely blowing my mind like they did 4 years ago and making even more than that! I DEEM THEM A FAILURE! CHOP HEADS! DUMP STOCKS! GET A NEW CEO"!

Investors with your outlook are the reasons why we all have to suffer through a bubble recession every decade.
 
What is nonsense is Mr.Cook even taking time off to comment on it.

Silence would have been better and would seem so in with his personality.
 
Apple Corps said:
Give it a break. Steve returned to a company on its last legs. Cook inherited an amazingly positive trajectory from Steve's vision. He needs to quit bumping his gums about the pipeline and deliver something that restores Wall Street confidence.
Click to expand...

That is true. There are a couple points I would bring up. It takes some amount of time to bring a new product to market. That we haven't seen new product categories is also indicative that Jobs didn't have many new (major) categories added to the pipeline toward the end of his tenure. Otherwise some would have shown up. If work was started soon after Jobs officially stepped down, you would start to see them trickle out in the current year. Assuming no new categories are underway, you would also see a lag time with any replacement CEO. The second point is that I would like to know if you feel they missed the mark on any specific categories. Balmer was criticized for this, because Microsoft lagged behind Sony for years in consoles. They unsuccessfully tried to follow Apple with the Zune. They were behind the curve on smartphones and tablets. Are there areas where you think Apple missed their opportunity? I don't know how any company could have maintained that kind of growth forever. I'm also unsure who would step in and really shake up the product pipeline with a company the size of Apple.
 
Apple Corps said:
What anti Apple crap have I posted? What are you talking about?

As for Tim Cook - that is a different story. He may have performed as a COO and supply chain guru but not performing as a CEO from a partial owner of the company.

Share price closed at $528.70 today - 2014 is about 25% over already.

You probably don't know any shareholders with substantial positions period.

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Give it a break. Steve returned to a company on its last legs. Cook inherited an amazingly positive trajectory from Steve's vision. He needs to quit bumping his gums about the pipeline and deliver something that restores Wall Street confidence.
Click to expand...



You and your anti-Cook rankings for the past 1.5 years have become a complete joke. You're the Rocco Pendola of Macrumors. The old expression you botched in an earlier post is "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." You should listen to it. You say some of your shares were bought for less than $100. LOL. Some of mine are single digits. My average per share basis is under $100. I've been following it a lot longer than you, and I'm not whining and blaming people within AAPL for the hit the stock has taken since the high. Do something about your obsession.
 
Renzatic said:
"Sure, they're making more money than they ever have, but they're not absolutely blowing my mind like they did 4 years ago and making even more than that! I DEEM THEM A FAILURE! CHOP HEADS! DUMP STOCKS! GET A NEW CEO"!

Investors with your outlook are the reasons why we all have to suffer through a bubble recession every decade.
Click to expand...

No - you obviously don't invest do you? The number 1 responsibility of the CEO of a publicly traded company is generating SHAREHOLDER VALUE. At this, Tim Cook is a failure to date. His most recent stock buyback WASTED another $14 BILLION - that is $14,000,000,000 for goodness sake. AAPL hit an all time high of $702 in September 2012 - that was on the strength of Steve's track record (stock price and new CEO has a lagging indicator status). It is now 18 months later and look at the share price now. $20,000,000,000 wasted on buybacks to artificially prop the stock up and it HAS FAILED!!!!!

Institutional investors in AAPL are now at an all time low - low confidence in Tim Cook's leadership.

I have been in discussions with several other multi thousand share owners and all of us are considering the proper exit point. Selling at this low level would be an emotional decision and cost us all too much money. Increasingly, the Wall Street view is that APPLE has morphed into a value investment as opposed to the growth investment it used to be. Some of this is the law of large numbers but Tim has not performed well in his primary role given the excellent hand he was given when assuming the CEO role.

I use the Apple ecosystem, own many of their products, have been instrumental in displacing Windows in some corporate enterprises and am an Apple fanboy.

Tim Cook needs to go back to a supply chain and / or COO role from a partial owner of the company perspective.

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thekev said:
That is true. There are a couple points I would bring up. It takes some amount of time to bring a new product to market. That we haven't seen new product categories is also indicative that Jobs didn't have many new (major) categories added to the pipeline toward the end of his tenure.

OR it could mean that Tim has not found his footing and does not know what to do with the pipeline Steve had "lined up / planned / whatever"

As to missed categories, Steve was brilliant in creating products that we didn't even know we needed or wanted. If innovation will drive the share price than I am on the bus in griping about the lack of innovation. The real issue is not incremental innovation but game changing innovation - that we have not seen.

Maybe something else will drive the share price up, not sure what it will be though.

----------
mccldwll said:
You and your anti-Cook rankings for the past 1.5 years have become a complete joke. You're the Rocco Pendola of Macrumors. The old expression you botched in an earlier post is "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." You should listen to it. You say some of your shares were bought for less than $100. LOL. Some of mine are single digits. My average per share basis is under $100. I've been following it a lot longer than you, and I'm not whining and blaming people within AAPL for the hit the stock has taken since the high. Do something about your obsession.
Click to expand...

The CEO is responsible for share price - period.

You have no idea of how long I have been an investor in Apple.

Nothing was botched - I slightly modified it to fit the context - most everyone got that I'm sure.

I'll leave the kitchen when the share price gets to the appropriate level. Until then, I will continue my commentary as I see fit. Cook is not performing. If you are such a Cook fanboy that you can't see the concerns than put me on your ignore list - we will both benefit.
Click to expand...
 
Apple Corps said:
No - you obviously don't invest do you? The number 1 responsibility of the CEO of a publicly traded company is generating SHAREHOLDER VALUE. At this, Tim Cook is a failure to date. His most recent stock buyback WASTED another $14 BILLION - that is $14,000,000,000 for goodness sake. AAPL hit an all time high of $702 in September 2012 - that was on the strength of Steve's track record (stock price and new CEO has a lagging indicator status). It is now 18 months later and look at the share price now. $20,000,000,000 wasted on buybacks to artificially prop the stock up and it HAS FAILED!!!!!
Click to expand...

As an investor, you should be well aware that the stock market is a fickle, unpredictable thing. As a company, Apple is stronger now at $500 than they were during their stock peak at $700. So why is it they're now valued less, despite the fact they're making more, selling more than they ever have?

Because, quite simply, the stock market is a fickle, unpredictable thing, and they don't currently have a hype bubble to ride on. At $700, the stock market was banking on their potential for future growth. Now that they've both fulfilled that potential growth, and are now facing stiff competition on multiple fronts, their future growth isn't quite as assured. They're no longer a sure bet, and their stocks have plummeted because of it.

That's the nature of the market, rather than the fault of the CEO. Yeah, Cook could attempt cutting corners to maximize profits, but that would be taking a knife to the golden goose. Instead, they're taking the slow grower route. It's nowhere near as exciting as it once was, but assuming Apple has solid leadership in the future, they'll be around for awhile. They're becoming a long term investment company, a'la Microsoft. That's not to say they're going to become sedate and staid, they're just no longer riding on the thrills that usually come along with the opening an entirely new, extremely profitable market.

So really, the only problem here is that you didn't sell your stocks at $700 like you should've, and now you and yours are pissed off about it because you were all banking on it reaching $1000 per share, and have lost tons of potential money.
 
Renzatic - there are many other options for Cook to utilize in getting the share price up - cutting corners is not one that would make any sense - you should know that.

Do you know what multiple the stock is trading at? Why do you think institutional investors are at a recent all time low? It is not about being fickle or manipulating share price (pump and dump). It is about a serious lack of confidence in Cook.

Tim is miserable in the public arena - he tries to look and sound cool and "Jobs like" but can not pull it off. How does Google do it? What about Amazon? Why can't he be a more positive influence? Where is the exciting pipeline of new products. It has been 4 years since the iPad was launched.

$145,000,000,000 of low returning funds - he admits it is waaaaay more than any company needs but can't figure out how to return it to the owners.

As another poster pointed out, he appears to have way more passion about the green agenda, gay and transgender rights, wage equality and other social issues than he does for owner equity. His recent put down of an individual at the shareholder meeting reflects a disdain for the OWNERS of the company.

For a moment forget the stock price - declare a special dividend of $30/share and a lot of the clamor about ROI to investors will diminish. They have the cash - stop squandering it on buybacks.
 
Apple Corps said:
As another poster pointed out, he appears to have way more passion about the green agenda, gay and transgender rights, wage equality and other social issues than he does for owner equity. His recent put down of an individual at the shareholder meeting reflects a disdain for the OWNERS of the company.
Click to expand...

Now, this is deeply ironic. What was Steve's response to questions about the growing cash hoard at annual meetings and earnings calls? It was "talk to the hand." Steve's distain for the stockholders was written all over him, and sometimes even explicitly stated. It is abundantly clear that Apple would never declare any dividend so long as Steve was running the company. So what was one of the first things Cook did when he took over? He declared a dividend.

I am seriously wondering what you are going on about here.
 
Apple Corps said:
OR it could mean that Tim has not found his footing and does not know what to do with the pipeline Steve had "lined up / planned / whatever"

As to missed categories, Steve was brilliant in creating products that we didn't even know we needed or wanted. If innovation will drive the share price than I am on the bus in griping about the lack of innovation. The real issue is not incremental innovation but game changing innovation - that we have not seen.

Maybe something else will drive the share price up, not sure what it will be though.
Click to expand...

I can't find the exact quote, but Jobs always mentioned the issue of agility and being able to change directions. I was referring to whether Jobs had given input over potential product lines that didn't exist while he was alive and don't exist today. The categories where Apple enjoyed the most success after his return weren't non-existent. He brought growth to those product categories regardless of what existed in the wild. The imac guaranteed Apple the sale of a display with every consumer desktop sold. The ipod paired with itunes outsold the other mp3 players in spite of not providing superior sound quality. Apple had a complete system for it with itunes, a very unique design, and strong marketing. When the iphone debuted, everyone I knew switched from Blackberries. Email and web browsing already existed on phones. The category wasn't so much new. Apple brought growth to it.

Anyway I don't know what would be an obvious mark today in terms of hardware. Their previous work has really involved consolidating other product categories. No one carries a point and shoot camera anymore. They don't need a dedicated mp3 player for most things They use their PCs less, and a phone can be used for payments in some cases. The device has value added by taking on functionality. I think improvements in auto translation would be amazing for app distribution. Analyst speculation is always in terms of Apple releasing another gadget, yet they miss the fact that Apple has never really increased the number of items people carry at any given time. I really don't know what hardware they would approach right now, and their approach up to this point has been cheaper (high quality) software justify the value of hardware.
 
Is Apple even innovating anymore ?

More trash to sell more books. That said if anyone says Apple is still innovating like the once were - I'd say the company has passed that point on the curve.

I was thinking about piking up an Apple Thunderbolt display today until I realised it's four freaking years young (lol). One monitor, 4 years old, no changes or modifications ? The competition has driven right past it and lowered the cost for a similar or in some cases better product.

My iPad is starting to feel long in the tooth. Believe me, I was at one point ready to move nearly all of my work over to an iPad. I tried, I mean really stretched it. Still a long, long way to go. IOS updates are largely window dressing and UI changes. BTW - where is real multi-tasking anyway ? Please don't tell me we already have that (just because Apple says we do). We don't. Apple's flagship Photography App - another four year old product leading people to jump ship. Two models of a phone that change once every year if we're lucky.


Still a good company and I use the products, but if I have to be honest, Apple is looking old and stodgy ....

Rgds
 
Renzatic said:
Cook has been sitting in the chair without any support for about 3 years now. In that time, he's made the company considerably more profitable, and has overseen the release of more than a few solid products. The iPad Mini. The iPad Air. The Retina Macbook Pro. The new Mac Pro. Products that are arguably at the top of their field, if not in power necessarily, then in design.

Contrast to Steve Jobs. It took him 5 years after returning to Apple before he oversaw the release of the iPod and iTunes. Yeah, they were neat products, certainly the Walkmans and CDs of their time, but I wouldn't call them world changing, either. Compact, convenient, nice. They were products of their age, though. Nothing completely unprecedented. If you really want to talk about things truly world changing, then you could say that Jobs, during his entire 30+ year history in the industry, was there for two of them, and only personally oversaw one: the Apple II and the iPhone. 30+ years, and only two products that can honesty be said to have Changed Everything.

...and we're giving Cook flak for not pulling off something similar only three years after a big transition.
Click to expand...

wait for tim cook you measure the products if they are in top of their fields with regards to power or design but for steve jobs they have to be unprecedented. what gives?

why dont you mention the imac or mac ox for steve jobs. they came before itunes and the ipod and reversed the fortunes of the company.

unless going by income alone the ipod is no less world changing than the iphone. one could even question whether the iphone and ipad would have been thought of if not for the ipod.

besides the mac pro which is far too young to judge its just been slight evolution under tim cook.

i guess he can take credit for the 5c though.
 


----------
Apple Corps said:
No - you obviously don't invest do you? The number 1 responsibility of the CEO of a publicly traded company is generating SHAREHOLDER VALUE. At this, Tim Cook is a failure to date. His most recent stock buyback WASTED another $14 BILLION - that is $14,000,000,000 for goodness sake. AAPL hit an all time high of $702 in September 2012 - that was on the strength of Steve's track record (stock price and new CEO has a lagging indicator status). It is now 18 months later and look at the share price now. $20,000,000,000 wasted on buybacks to artificially prop the stock up and it HAS FAILED!!!!!

Institutional investors in AAPL are now at an all time low - low confidence in Tim Cook's leadership.

I have been in discussions with several other multi thousand share owners and all of us are considering the proper exit point. Selling at this low level would be an emotional decision and cost us all too much money. Increasingly, the Wall Street view is that APPLE has morphed into a value investment as opposed to the growth investment it used to be. Some of this is the law of large numbers but Tim has not performed well in his primary role given the excellent hand he was given when assuming the CEO role.

I use the Apple ecosystem, own many of their products, have been instrumental in displacing Windows in some corporate enterprises and am an Apple fanboy.

Tim Cook needs to go back to a supply chain and / or COO role from a partial owner of the company perspective.

----------
thekev said:
That is true. There are a couple points I would bring up. It takes some amount of time to bring a new product to market. That we haven't seen new product categories is also indicative that Jobs didn't have many new (major) categories added to the pipeline toward the end of his tenure.

OR it could mean that Tim has not found his footing and does not know what to do with the pipeline Steve had "lined up / planned / whatever"

As to missed categories, Steve was brilliant in creating products that we didn't even know we needed or wanted. If innovation will drive the share price than I am on the bus in griping about the lack of innovation. The real issue is not incremental innovation but game changing innovation - that we have not seen.

Maybe something else will drive the share price up, not sure what it will be though.

----------



The CEO is responsible for share price - period.

You have no idea of how long I have been an investor in Apple.

Nothing was botched - I slightly modified it to fit the context - most everyone got that I'm sure.

I'll leave the kitchen when the share price gets to the appropriate level. Until then, I will continue my commentary as I see fit. Cook is not performing. If you are such a Cook fanboy that you can't see the concerns than put me on your ignore list - we will both benefit.
Click to expand...


"[R]esponsible for the share price - period." Yes, we know that's your simplistic belief, along with your other silly belief that it's the CEO's fault if WS awards a lower multiple, and your over-the-top, incredibly stupid belief that firing Cook actually would help AAPL and the stock price. (Yes, you have been advocating firing Cook). Try rethinking that one. AAPL and Cook are doing fine at the moment, despite what the punditry, bloggers and peanut gallery say.
Click to expand...
 
numlock said:
wait for tim cook you measure the products if they are in top of their fields with regards to power or design but for steve jobs they have to be unprecedented. what gives?

why dont you mention the imac or mac ox for steve jobs. they came before itunes and the ipod and reversed the fortunes of the company.

unless going by income alone the ipod is no less world changing than the iphone. one could even question whether the iphone and ipad would have been thought of if not for the ipod.

besides the mac pro which is far too young to judge its just been slight evolution under tim cook.

i guess he can take credit for the 5c though.
Click to expand...

No. I'm saying that truly unprecedented things only came out rarely even under Steve Job's leadership, and it's both unfair and completely unrealistic to expect another iPod/iPhone type revelation from Tim Cook after only three years at the helm.
 
Renzatic said:
No. I'm saying that truly unprecedented things only came out rarely even under Steve Job's leadership, and it's both unfair and completely unrealistic to expect another iPod/iPhone type revelation from Tim Cook after only three years at the helm.
Click to expand...

Precisely. We are dealing with serious cases of selective memory here, as well as no small amount of gut instinct being substituted for clear thinking. Over and over again we hear the comment that Apple somehow "feels" different under Tim Cook. People often confuse their feelings for facts. As much as we admired Steve, we should never cross over to hero worship, where only the good things are remembered and the not-so-good things are swept under the emotional carpet.

All that being said, I believe that Apple needs to accelerate its product development process, and not just sustain the old one. The competitive landscape is much tougher now than it was just a few years ago. Also, Apple also needs to work that much harder at communicating its vision, especially in the lulls between new products. They need to tend their mindshare constantly, or the bored and jaded consumers (many of whom post here) won't be such a willing audience when the new products do appear.

Tim Cook is probably not the best person to do that. But then, he doesn't have to be that person. He can hire a great communicator. I think he should, and then fade into the background and concentrate his efforts on running the huge corporation that he had a big hand in creating.
 
When your memory of jobs puts him in a 'godhood' status.

anyone standing next to him will seem pale in comparison.

I honestly like what Cook has done. Yes he's not the visionary charismatic leader..

What he is, from a purely business standpoint,

Is a very Very competent CEO. the type of CEO that virtually any business would be pleased to have at the helm.

he's not an idiot. he must understand that he's not the product visionary and he's delgated, like a good manager to those he believes have the ability to do so.

Apple is making record revenues. insane profits. He's doing it right.

can that change? Absolutely. will it? imagination is key
 
IJ Reilly said:
Precisely. We are dealing with serious cases of selective memory here, as well as no small amount of gut instinct being substituted for clear thinking. Over and over again we hear the comment that Apple somehow "feels" different under Tim Cook. People often confuse their feelings for facts. As much as we admired Steve, we should never cross over to hero worship, where only the good things are remembered and the not-so-good things are swept under the emotional carpet.

All that being said, I believe that Apple needs to accelerate its product development process, and not just sustain the old one. The competitive landscape is much tougher now than it was just a few years ago. Also, Apple also needs to work that much harder at communicating its vision, especially in the lulls between new products. They need to tend their mindshare constantly, or the bored and jaded consumers (many of whom post here) won't be such a willing audience when the new products do appear.

Tim Cook is probably not the best person to do that. But then, he doesn't have to be that person. He can hire a great communicator. I think he should, and then fade into the background and concentrate his efforts on running the huge corporation that he had a big hand in creating.
Click to expand...

I agree with you about tending to mindshare, and I don't like that there are huge gaps between product launches. But I hope Apple never turns into a Samsung where they release tons of stuff all the time with the thought that the media and tech press will think quantity = innovation.
 
Rogifan said:
I agree with you about tending to mindshare, and I don't like that there are huge gaps between product launches. But I hope Apple never turns into a Samsung where they release tons of stuff all the time with the thought that the media and tech press will think quantity = innovation.
Click to expand...

Or a Google, initiating project after project with no sense of rhyme or reason, and often resulting no products at all. I don't think we have to worry about Apple becoming one of those companies that throw everything against the wall in hopes that something will stick.

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mccldwll said:
This one?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/...-the-same-as-ever/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Click to expand...

He states the case against this book perfectly. Kane is telling us that the problem with Apple is that Apple is still Apple.
 
MacRumors said:
With the book debuting today, Apple CEO Tim Cook has taken the unusual step of issuing a statement about the book, calling it "nonsense",
Click to expand...

And Tim Cook has made what was probably going to be a quickly forgotten book with mediocre sales into a best seller.

The author couldn't have bought advertising that good.... :confused:
 
Renzatic said:
So really, the only problem here is that you didn't sell your stocks at $700 like you should've, and now you and yours are pissed off about it because you were all banking on it reaching $1000 per share, and have lost tons of potential money.
Click to expand...

Haha, exactly! The guy who is publicly claiming to have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential earnings on his Apple investment is telling everyone else how things should be done? :D
 
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