Apple CEO Tim Cook Shares '50 Years of Thinking Different' Letter

[theluggage]

Apple has not thought differently for a long time, I’d say the last “first to market” product was the iPad - 2010 (maybe you could argue CarPlay - 2014).

Actually, I'd say Apple Silicon & M-series chips which were a revelation (to the industry) that you could build "proper" mainstream laptop and desktop computers without an x86 chip.

Apple hasn't had many "first to market" products - it's usually more like "first to get the industry's attention".

Even the Apple II wasn't the first "fully assembled microcomputer with a built-in keyboard and TV output" - that would be the Sol-20. Looking at Wikipedia dates, the OSI Challenger 1 and Commodore PET (just to name a few) also pre-dated the Apple II, and the TRS-80 was only a few months behind Apple. Some of the timing was probably due to the release of the 6502 (a cheaper alternative to the 6800 that sparked a bit of a price war) and the Z80 (an easier-to-implement version of the 8080). Not knocking the Apple II, probably it was the best of the bunch, but it wasn't that much more 'revolutionary' than its contemporaries.

What we haven't seen for a long time is Apple revolutionising software and applications. E.g.

It wasn't an Apple invention, but the spreadsheet originated with Visicalc on the Apple II.
Obviously, even though it took cues from Xerox, the Lisa and Mac introduced the GUI concept to consumer products.
The most under-sung Apple product is the Laserwriter (first remotely affordable laser printer) & the way it could be easily networked & shared by a workgroup (which was the key to being affordable).
...which really led the way for Apple more or less creating the whole desktop publishing industry.
They were also at the front of video & multimedia editing for a while.
Hypercard. Seriously how did they fumble that?
Apple also pretty much invented the modern "App" and "App store" concept/business model.

Of course, back in the good old days, Apple had the advantage that the godawful IBM PC "industry standard" kept PC technology pinned in the 1970s for a couple of decades & simply wasn't up to the sort of things a Mac or Mac II could do. It caught up - by 2005-2020 Macs were basically PC clones.

The other forgotten bits are Apple under Scully basically defining the modern laptop with the Powerbook 100 series, and also deciding to invest in an obscure British CPU called the LEG or HAND or something, which turned out to be important later on...

 

[Mescagnus]

Beautifully written. Thank you, Tim.

With all the em dashes, it was probably Claude, though.

 

[antmarobel]

Mine is green and I just love it🙂

 

[Naraxus]

Sad. We get a post mentioning arguably the greatest CEO in human history and it immediately devolves into the usual juvenile snark.

 

[boswald]

Sad. We get a post mentioning arguably the greatest CEO in human history and it immediately devolves into the usual juvenile snark.

I know. I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth posting anymore sometimes.

 

[turbineseaplane]

the greatest CEO in human history

I wonder if he'll put that on his tombstone?

Not sure it's a glowing remark honestly.

 

[lolski]

How many years? Make sure to exclude the last 13 years or so

 

[RedWeasel]

Thanks Tim.
Now, please get Liquid Glass fixed.

 

[Jeweller]

So many Apple haters on this Apple forum.

 

[turbineseaplane]

So many Apple haters on this Apple forum.

You misspelled objective realists

✌️

 

[Farquar]

All I can see are the emdashes and think this is entirely AI written.

 

[Naraxus]

So many Apple haters on this Apple forum.

Indeed. There's a number of them infesting MR. There's a few specific posters who've never had anything positive to say about Apple/Cook. Why they frequent a forum for a company they so clearly dislike is beyond me.

 

[routine_analyst]

Great. Now for the next 50 years let new leaders run Apple. You helped grow the piggy bank, give the reigns over to a product person.

 

[Jeweller]

You misspelled objective realists

✌️

I did not. If anything I misspelled subjective absurdists.

 

[Jeweller]

Indeed. There's a number of them infesting MR. There's a few specific posters who've never had anything positive to say about Apple/Cook. Why they frequent a forum for a company they so clearly dislike is beyond me.

Same. Their need to constantly neg all things Apple is wild.

 

[jcwhalley]

This probably tells the whole story…

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things.


They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.


Steve Jobs

 

[diego]

The 2021 iMac colours are the best ever!

 

[ThomasJL]

What a joke! It’s only 35 years (1976–2011) of thinking different. Ever since Tim Cook became CEO, it’s been almost 15 years of thinking same, specifically thinking the same as the corporate advice from MBA degree programs and McKinsey management consultants, thinking the same by copying flat design from Microsoft, thinking the same as other Silicon Valley corporations by focusing on subscriptions, etc.

As for Cook’s letter, it’s an insult. He only gives a nod to Steve Jobs by mentioning that commercial, yet no mention at all about Apple’s two other founders, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The 50th anniversary marks the founding of Apple, and the people who founded Apple are, by definition, the people responsible for the founding. Is that so hard for Cook to understand?

Hey Tim, just let the three co-founders have their moment on that special day, and stop your self-congratulatory behavior for just that one day! You can resume your self-congratulations the following day and for literally every day of the year afterwards.

 

[dollapapacito]

My colleagues at Apple corporate have said it’s very much a heads down / don’t ask questions environment.

So much for the days of “think different”.

It’s more like “think the same” every year just update the existing chips/ other specs.

I mean, just look at their product designs in the last 17 years versus 2000 to 2010. Very sanitized and bland and unexciting.

 

[sevoneone]

So here's to the crazy ones.

The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently
The Profit

The ones who move the line up and to the right. 🙃

In all seriousness though... as much Cook hate simmers here, no one seems to remember that it was Steve Jobs that recruited Cook away from Compaq, promoted him to COO and selected him to be the new CEO. I think he knew Cook was what Apple needed to setup long term success.

We're all ready for Apple to start thinking different again though.

 

[Hank001]

Says here that Steve didn't write that text; the advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day did. Is that true?

 

[svish]

Apple and its products have indeed changed the world. A very happy birthday/anniversary to Apple in advance.

 

[lolski]

The ones who move the line up and to the right. 🙃

In all seriousness though... as much Cook hate simmers here, no one seems to remember that it was Steve Jobs that recruited Cook away from Compaq, promoted him to COO and selected him to be the new CEO. I think he knew Cook was what Apple needed to setup long term success.

We're all ready for Apple to start thinking different again though.

Or any company really. Doesn't have to be Apple. Maybe there's a smaller, more nimble company that we have yet to know out there, that isn't yet weighed down by the needs typical of big corps. Any company that can bring the innovation and excitement of 1990s and early 2000 Apple can take my money!

 

[citysnaps]

Sad. We get a post mentioning arguably the greatest CEO in human history and it immediately devolves into the usual juvenile snark.

Spot on assessment. As an aside... it's also interesting so many here conveniently forget about Jobs' dozen+ product flops.

People seem to forget that Apple's 1+ Billion happy/active/repeat customers are the final arbiters of Apple's massive success. And not tech forum pundits.

 

[lolski]

People seem to forget that Apple's 1+ Billion happy/active/repeat customers are the final arbiters of Apple's massive success. And not tech forum pundits.

I don't think anyone denies that Apple is very successful in terms sales / mass appeal. I believe those of us who complains do so because we think they lack innovation. Mass appeal and innovation doesn't always correlate. In fact they're often the opposite.

Granted Apple still innovates in some categories - for instance the M chips. But we feel it's relatively few and far between compared to the day when they came up with the Macbook, iPod, iPhone and iPad all within a decade. The prime Apple where were able to strike that sweet spot between innovation and mass appeal where they gave us something they didn't know we wanted.

It's definitely a very non-quantifiable trait that is quite easily dismissed with quantifiable metrics and KPIs like total sales, something Tim Cook is undeniably very, very good at.