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Apple CEO Tim Cook Calls Recent WSJ Report About Jony Ive 'Absurd'

"Ive was said to be frustrated with an increasing focus on operations over design."

shocked, i'm shocked

So everything we've been saying for years is true? Can we stipulate that extreme form over function is wrong. That's not understanding what your job is. That's being out of touch with reality. Quashing functionality at any cost is not something to aspire to. Or admit to.

I mean, Apple allowed him to create the thing he's been most proud of in years.... a $1000 monitor stand. That's his Swan Song...(or Albatross).

Now Sir Ive is free to make the most incredibly beautiful things that are totally useless !! Billionaires Rejoice !!
 
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This is what Tim Cook wrote in the first paragraph of his statement:

"A lot of the reporting, and certainly the conclusions, just don't match with reality. At a base level, it shows a lack of understanding about how the design team works and how Apple works. It distorts relationships, decisions and events to the point that we just don't recognize the company it claims to describe."

Reading between the lines Tim Cook is saying some of the facts are right but their interpretation is wrong. ie by saying the 'conclusions,' he is saying how the NBC explained the actions that had happened. Also, there is no outright comment on Jony Ive, besides agreement with what Ive previously said - this denotes a lack of wanting to take a risk or say anything that Ive would disagree with - indicating fragility in the relationship.
 
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iBreatheApple said:
My impression:

Customers - please keep buying our products to perpetuate , and it’ll all be fine. Stakeholders - we are going to keep focusing on maximizing profits rather than what made Apple thrive, don’t worry.
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That’s precisely the CEO’s job.
 
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This is the bit in the WSJ article I laughed out loud at:

MacRumors said:
...
Ive ... failed to offer design team members the guidance they needed...​
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So, you’re telling me, a world-class design team of free-thinking creatives, was miffed because they weren’t being guided. Yeah, right.

Who did WSJ interview for this journalistic jewel? A rejected summer intern?
 
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Logiarius said:
...
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Close on all counts. I actually considered it plausible from working in the design racket for the last 25 years and seeing this happen over and over to design professionals in every industry. I do want it to be true because I hope this opens up the opportunity for other talented individuals within the design team to make some bold moves of their own. I don’t praise Scott Forstall, but do value some of his UI choices that made the iPhone extremely self-explanatory and efficient back then, though those efforts have largely been discarded for inevitable practical reasons as iOS continues to grow in scope.
 
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Jony was frustrated with his lack of ideas and the guidance of Steve. I’m guessing (hoping) he’ll just ride quietly into the sunset. He’ll just be the money behind his new venture.

Cool just trying to downplay the article without providing any counter proof.
 
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believe the news.

Tim stands with the news... except when it doesn't paint Apple in a flattering light. Then he doesn't.

He wants the cake, and bc most give him a blind pass, he gets to eat it , too
 
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Glockworkorange said:
I don't think the WSJ article said the design team was not talented.

I think the article talked about how Ive had basically checked out over the past few years.

Cook's comment is misdirection--it doesn't address the true point of the article.

Leads me to believe the WSJ article was largely accurate.
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The Journal is one of the few media outlets that still practices journalism. I suspect they researched before publishing.
 
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az431 said:
Tim Cook called the article absurd and a distortion of reality. Doesn’t get much clearer than that.
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Agh, so the WSJ stole the reality distortion field???!!!! :eek: Now THAT is news! Tim, get it back! No wonder things have seemed so blah at Apple for so long.

*(Though I enjoyed the WWDC event immensely.)
 
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iBreatheApple said:
If a relevant portion of your consumers are losing interest and have negative perceptions about the potential future of your company and questioning if you are on a downward slope, there is undoubtedly room for improvement.
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No disagreement there.

Cook’s job is to maximize company value and sustainability. We probably agree and I misunderstood your earlier post.
 
Doctor Q said:
Amidst these claims and counterclaims, we need to hear from Jony himself. What say you, Mr. Ive?
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Ive will not bite the hand that feeds him. Not when his new design company is supposedly getting paid millions from Apple for design work.
 
I find it all a little bit sad. Jobs was a genius, there's no doubting that. He made missteps along the way, but often corrected course quickly.

Over the last few years, under Cook, the company and their products have lacked the pizzaz that Jobs gave them. Maybe Jobs was just a better salesman, but I think it's a little bit more than that.

Each new iteration of iPhone or watch, brings no big new features to gloat about. Customers seem unwilling to upgrade as often, if we believe the sales reports.

The desktop products have been abysmal. The new Mac Pro is one of the ugliest looking computers I think I've ever seen in my entire life. It's also a bit like the gold Apple Watch. It's a pointless vanity project, targeted towards a very tiny audience. I doubt this would've received approval from Jobs himself.

I'm still running a Mac Pro 2008, I had been hoping for a return to the same style with improved components, but what I got was a hybrid trashcan design. Sure it has 8 PCI slots, but there's no internal room for actual HDD. The SSD are from what I can tell, proprietary locked, so will cost an arm and a leg to replace when they inevitably die. It's an embarrassment. I'm happy that Adobe is happy with it, but I have had to go out and buy a second hand 2012 Mac Pro in the meantime.

I'm hoping that the company wakes up to itself and stops listening to its marketing department and starts looking at what made them the success they are in the first place, and returning to that. The company seems unable or unwilling to innovate. I'm not sure if that's down the the death of Jobs, or if its down to the decline of Microsoft. There has always been an acknowledgment that if it weren't for Microsoft, Apple would not have been so innovative. It's the same for Microsoft. They needed each other.

Catalina is looking like an operating system that I might not actually end up upgrading to, as there don't seem that many features worth upgrading for. The new design for Apple TV software is hideous, from what I've seen. They seem to be trying to box people in to buying or subscribing to their services rather than supplying their own media or using free streaming services.

Apple seems to be becoming a company infatuated with subscriptions rather than hardware. I don't believe this is where they will find much success.

I say all of this with love. I love Apple, but at the end of the day, they're just not hitting the notes they used to, for me.
 
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Feyl said:
Tim is basically calling WSJ fake news even though they told us they’re the best and we can trust them.
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Tim is calling this article inaccurate, but makes no claim about the WSJ in general. Who is this "they" who told you the WSJ is the best? It's just another Murdoch media asset, though somewhat more reality based than Fox.
 
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Abazigal said:
That’s Macrumours in a nutshell. Their loathing for Apple now is so great that they can’t resist the siren’s call of an Apple hit piece, even though it’s clearly fake news.
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Uh no. We don't "loathe" Apple as you put it. Quite the contrary we LOVE Apple and hate the way it's being run into the ground by a bean-counter who care more about making himself known in parades and the SJW-circut than he does about making great products.
 
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Glockworkorange said:
I don't think the WSJ article said the design team was not talented.

I think the article talked about how Ive had basically checked out over the past few years.

Cook's comment is misdirection--it doesn't address the true point of the article.

Leads me to believe the WSJ article was largely accurate.
Click to expand...

This comment is a misdirection. No where did Tim say that WSJ said the design team wasn't talented.
 
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Naraxus said:
Uh no. We don't "loathe" Apple as you put it. Quite the contrary we LOVE Apple and hate the way it's being run into the ground by a bean-counter who care more about making himself known in parades and the SJW-circut than he does about making great products.
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Times change and a smart company changes in keeping with the times.

I think what you all really cannot accept is that Apple is no longer making the products you love, even though their products (like Airpods and Apple Watch) are clearly resonating with the mass consumer base. Apple has seemingly decided that mobile and wearables represent the future and not the Mac and it unsettles the old guard.

Apple seems to have ended WWDC 2019 on a high note, but we will have to see just how sustainable that is.
 
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