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The one thing about Apple I’ve never liked is that their products always look identical for at least four years, if not longer. Other manufacturers make their products look a little different every year even if the changes are minimal. But with Apple, each year’s product is practically indistinguishable from prior years. That’s what a supply chain guy does, like Tim Cook. It’s time for a product person to be in charge. Cook was good for his time, but it’s time to pass the torch.
 
That Gurman quote firmly pegs him as at least one standard deviation below the norm.
 
AVP is a flop, apple car cancelled, car play ultra is being dumped left and right, and Apple missed AI and is no where being close.

Apple’s biggest risk is that like 60% of profit comes from the iPhone. If something else better comes along, that could Apple to struggle.

Anyways, Tim has done a lot right. He hasn’t gotten a lot right recently. I would call this phase strike 1. If he has two more big misses, I think it’s time to call it.
 
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It's time. There's no denying what the stock has done during his tenure but logistics and and supply issues are not what made the company great in the first place. They need to get back to what DID make them great to begin with, and Cook seems ill-equipped to lead in that fashion or to surround himself with people who can.

For me, the AI fiasco was panicking over Wall Street nonsense like this and announcing something they shouldn't have to appease Wall Street morons. AI is so far from ready for a company like Apple and announcing work in progress half-baked products as Google, Open AI, Anthopic, Meta and X isn't what Apple should be doing. Sure, mate do with their services until they have something ready, but not rush anything out because clueless analysts pontificate.

One area where I do see Apple late to is server chips for their cloud products. They should have owned a good chunk of this market instead of buying the services of MS and Amazon. And they should have pushed harder in the GPU space to reach parity with Nvidia, not just for AI, but for gaming, scientific and graphics functions. The M4 MAX is a great step forward in GPU performance and I believe they could have wiped the floor Nvidia by now if they focused on their core business of computer components and chips instead of foolish things like cars. Pulling the plug on the car project was the best thing they ever did, getting involved with it was the worst.

Maaan you don’t know that. Apple car may’ve been JUST what they (Apple) needed for us (consumers). Who knows what sort of knowledge they obtained /experienxe. Uhh man. Apple is so awesome :)


This is madness. Tim Cook one of the greatest CEOs off all time in any industry. He has guided tons of new products without killing the old ones. His ability to keep the quality of hardware, software, stores, employees, at the highest quality. And the way things work just today listening with AirPods Pro 2s I was watching a show on my iPad and needing to listen to videos on my iPhone. Simply tap back and fourth and it flawlessly changes sound source from iPad to iPhone. This may not be Tim’s team but it is the culture that Tim has built that makes the team perform with these amazing magic tricks. And yes I believe that Steve Jobs was a genius and hand picked Tim Cook to carry on. He has grown the company beyond what I ever imagined as a pre cool investor. His ability to walk the minefields between politics qmd
Cultures is amazing.they way he has built the supply chains with Chinese made quality that rivals anything the Swiss Japanese or Germans could build. Long live Tim Cook. Never retire.

I believe in Cookie cuz I believe in Stevie Wondakid…preach it.


The same people that want Cook out now will be complaining about the next CEO no matter what they release. Guaranteed.

Unless that person adds massive iCloud storage for same price and does other things to appease customers over the boards etc. guaranteed.


The products now are fantastic. I just replaced an older iMac with a Studio Display and an M4 Max Mac Studiio. It is fantastic; fast, silent, reliable. The M4 iPad is fantastic. I’m planning on upgrading from an iPhone 14 to an iPhone 17 this fall. How can you do much to change the design of an iPhone? It is a slap of glass. Since Ive left it has improved with better battery life and the MacBook finally ditched the butterfly keyboard.

People keep complaining that Apple hasn’t done anything since the iPhone, ignoring that the iPhone isn’t just one thing, like a diamond. It is a platform that changes all the time. The first iPhone didn’t even have video. Now we have much larger displays, higher resolution displays, fantastic graphics, machine learning built-in, Secure Enclave, 4K video in slo-mo, portrait mode, RAW mode, the wallet for credit cards and more, dedicated radio for purchasing, getting train tickets and more. I’ve probably skipped over a bunch. Five years from now the iPhone will have gained all sorts of new features and be quite different from today’s. Even so, today’s iPhone will still be useful because Apple is intentionally building them to last a long time.

AI seems to be great for businesses because they can use it to replace workers. I don’t have anyone working for me so it is not that useful. I have tried it a few times but don’t have much use for it.

Also, which AI should Apple use? It seems like the best AI keeps changing month by month. This week Grok seems to be good. Maybe another will replace it next week. Read Gary Marcus to get an idea where this is headed.

For those who don’t like Tim Cook the way is clear. Get together enough people to control 51% of the stock and vote him out. Year after year he gets voted back in with ~99% yes votes. MacDaily News and some people on Seeking Alpha consistently dis Tim Cook to no avail. I guess they don’t own stock.

Gary over at MacMost just put out an interesting video. He showed how to use a shortcut to make a chat interface to Apple’s LLM. There are three options, ChatGPT, Apple Intelligence on Apple servers, and the on-device LLM. This ships with macOS Tahoe. It takes about 4GB.

Thanks for selling me on the iPhone o already have. You are a part of this company. : )


I mean, under Cook we ditched the super thin, super hot, and under powered products like the iPhone 8 and under, the pre Apple Silicon macs that were/are hot trash into the era of fatter product design. Which has been a blessing to performance. This new direction also led to an industry giant of design who was stuck in his ways to be let go from Apple, which only Cook could have signed off on.
He also ushered in the biggest change to the personal audio industry with Airpods, probably one of the most popular Apple products of all time.
So yeah, he's not batting 1000, but his leadership is what brought us out of the "Let's be super thin just cause it looks cool and only focus on 3 products" Apple of the past, to batting 900 and actually delivering usable products.

Maaan. I have a feeling aloy of ppls opinions of cookie would change if they simply saw how he moves. I bet he’s got some serious manooviz. Why else would Stevie wundakid vouch??

Apple too cold!!! Ugh Apple is so awesome!
 
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Research firm LightShed partners says Apple should consider replacing Tim Cook as CEO, but the change is unlikely to occur any time soon.

Tim-Cook-WWDC-2024.jpg

In a note to clients seen by Bloomberg, analysts Walter Piecyk and Joe Galone say that "Apple now needs a product-focused CEO, not one centered on logistics."

Bloomberg notes that Apple shares have "badly lagged" behind rivals like Microsoft and Meta this year after losing ground in the race to deliver compelling artificial intelligence features. Apple shares have fallen 16% in 2025, compared with gains of 25% for Meta and 19% for Microsoft. The note added:



It is worth noting that this year's slump in Apple shares is a comparative blip in the company's long-term performance with Cook at the helm. Apple shares have gained over 1,400% since Cook started as CEO, compared to 430% for the S&P 500.

The comments come after Apple announced that Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams will step down from his position this month. He will be replaced by Sabih Khan.

Williams was once thought to be Cook's most likely successor. Now, senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus is believed to be the frontrunner. LightShed says "Tim Cook was the right CEO at the time of his appointment and unquestionably has done a great job," but in the wake of Williams' departure, "it's time for more disruptive change, not less."

However, Cook is unlikely to step down anytime soon. In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that "there's no immediate successor ready to take the helm. There also haven't been signs internally that Cook is getting ready to leave or begin the process of grooming a replacement."

More significantly, "the board doesn't feel the need to make a change. Apple's directors are Cook loyalists like Arthur Levinson, Susan Wagner and Ronald Sugar." Gurman says:



In fact, Cook's influence at Apple may grow. Gurman believes he could become Apple's chairman, in addition to his role as CEO:



Nevertheless, Apple apparently recognizes the need for change at the company. Senior executives such as services chief Eddy Cue have warned that Apple risks becoming the next BlackBerry or Nokia if it doesn't adapt quickly.



Article Link: Apple CEO Tim Cook Should Be Replaced, Research Firm Says
blah blah blah ... AI missteps ... blah blah blah.

Just another article from a group that hasn't come to an understanding of how much more important and advanced Apple's approach - providing private, on-device AI that does useful things is, than the other companies that are building bloated cloud AI services that are soon going to need their own fusion reactors to run their chatbots.
 
We all agree that it is time for Tim to go. He has to be thanked for all his good services and keep the magic alive but it is time for a new vision to manage some real innovation and bring back the One more thing each and single time … Vision Pro timeline is not acceptable, the Apple car drop too, the HomeKit, the ridiculous Apple intelligence (for some part), and so many one less thing is not sustainable …
 
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I think we need someone who wants to push the envelope again. Tim Cook is great at supply chain but it feels like too many sales guys are at the top instead of engineers.
 
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This can actually be some exciting news. This may be the wakeup call Tim and Apple need to start making some radical changes to products instead of drip feeding upgrades.

Doesn't mean Tim needs to go it just means that they may put the foot on the accelerator more. To prove that Apple are where they are for a reason.
 
Are there any companies in the tech industry right now actually innovating? AI Chatbots are nothing new, they’re just better than they were in the past.

The closest thing I can think of to tech innovation is Foldables, and that category is already stagnating before Apple even gets there.
AI is more than chatbots. People who aren’t studying the advancements aren’t going to understand. LLMs are just the beginning. AI will be bigger than computers or the iPhone/smartphones.

And yes, Windows PCs have advanced incredibly compared to what they used to be. Microsoft actually tailors their offerings for enterprises.

The reason AAPL is down is stagnation with innovation. Been a long time since Apple truly innovated. Even Apple SoCs were built using other technologies which is why other chips are catching up fast. Nvidia is blowing everyone out of the water.

Tim Crook wants to own every bit of the technology vertically so Apple can lock in via anticompetitive methods and economies of scale in operations. It’s all based on money and greed not to innovate. This is why Apple needs a leader with some foresight into advancing product technologies. Not just let’s capitalize on services and the ecosystem we can payoff people to not rein us in everywhere except Europe - the one place that cares about consumers and SMBs.

Edit. Oh and the Vision Pro proves just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should if you aren’t in touch with the tech and reality of consumer purchasing power.
 
No company the size of Apple doesn't know exactly who would replace Tim Cook if he were unavailable tomorrow. These stories are always so bizarre.
 
I will no longer argue against demands for Cook to step down. Not because I think he should though. I will just no longer entertain any demand that does not include a serious suggestion for a contender for his replacement.
 
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But the question isn't why you don't want to go back to Microsoft, but why Apple isn't managing to expand its market share.
Except Apple IS expanding it’s market share.
Why, for example, is window management in Windows 11 so simple and convenient, as we have come to expect from Apple, while Apple itself hides a range of options under its green button?
Irrelevant, for the same reason you just pointed out.
And besides, who really cares about our environment?
Certainly not the readers of a website that reports every other day on rumors about why the latest Apple devices are a must-have.
True, which is why it is so important for the leadership of the companies (and/or governments) to care about our environment, because each individual end user is not going to. And we need to care about our environment.
 
The general rule of thumb is a CEO is never a CEO at a publicly traded company longer than 10 years and typically averages about 7 years. Tim's been there 14 years and it feels like an eternity since something actual fresh and new and successful came out of Apple. Same old product announcement pre-made videos since Covid (5 years ago). Same old iPhones since the iPhone 7. Same old headphones. Same old Macbooks. Zzzzzzz if you ask me. Sure, the stuff may work and may get a small spec or feature bump from time to time...but it's the same old thing...nothing really exciting for a long time if you ask me. Tim and Apple have been riding the iPhone/iPad gravy train for far, far too long.
 
AI is more than chatbots. People who aren’t studying the advancements aren’t going to understand. LLMs are just the beginning. AI will be bigger than computers or the iPhone/smartphones.

And yes, Windows PCs have advanced incredibly compared to what they used to be. Microsoft actually tailors their offerings for enterprises.

The reason AAPL is down is stagnation with innovation. Been a long time since Apple truly innovated. Even Apple SoCs were built using other technologies which is why other chips are catching up fast. Nvidia is blowing everyone out of the water.

Tim Crook…
Using slurs is a disqualification from serious debate.
 
He has done pretty good so far. Just the thing i don't like is bloating of product line. But they know the math well.

I like the current, slight tilt towards function-over-form then form-over-function of Steve-Ive era.

AI is one area they are lagging and its not fine but i want them to tread it carefully, last i want is AI sucking up all my privacy for auction.
 
Except Apple IS expanding it’s market share.

It's relatively easy to expand your market share (Mac) when you're typically, on average, for DECADES hovering around 8% market share. The latest story last week about Apple's Mac market share increase is a blip on the radar...which has happened before and inevitably falls right back down to 5-8% market share. I and others like Macs, but for a lot of reasons they ain't gonna get above 20% market share. Even when Apple was known as Apple Computer their market share paled in comparison to the Wintel world.
 
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We've gotten some of the best Macs in over a decade and they want to throw a hissy fit over AI?

This is what tears me in two directions. At the end of the day I need to make money, and the primary machine driving my business is my Mac. It’s nearly perfect. They have done so much to improve the Mac in recent years and I don’t want that to change.

On the other hand, whoever controls AI will control the future. Apple has to compete as a tech company and doesn’t have a choice or they will get buried. It’s that disruptive, despite everything Apple has added thus far being mostly superficial. And that’s the problem. I also trust they’ll handle my data more securely with better privacy than the competition. Layer on top of that the iPhone is really falling behind these foldables, and how poorly their design team handled Liquid Glass, and it’s not exactly a rosy picture. At least the AirPods Pro are amazing. I swear that and the Mac are just where it’s at right now! Promote who is in charge of those.
 
It's relatively easy to expand your market share (Mac) when you're typically, on average, for DECADES hovering around 8% market share. The latest story last week about Apple's Mac market share increase is a blip on the radar...which has happened before and inevitably falls right back down to 5-8% market share. I and others like Macs, but for a lot of reasons they ain't gonna get above 20% market share. Even when Apple was known as Apple Computer their market share paled in comparison to the Wintel world.
Apple doesn’t aim for high market share though. It is not a sign of failure. Their aim is high profit, which does not necessarily mean high market share. Apple has a much higher market share at the most profitable end of the market.

Significantly growing their market share means lowering the cost of entry, which inevitably lowers the average profit per sale, as many would shift to a cheaper version just because they can. So it’s very likely that attaining a market share of 20% would result in lower overall profit.

Last time Apple aimed for market share above profit, it nearly bankrupted the company. In contrast, aiming for profit over market share made them the biggest company in the world. If you are arguing that conventional wisdom is that higher market share is good, then conventional wisdom is wrong, and Apple is proof.
 
I hate the fact that everything in large corporations is now about pumping up the stock at the expense of long term success.
This is caused by the financialization of the economy, which in turn was caused by the adoption of fake fiat currency. If we still used sound constitutional money we wouldn't be $37T in debt and companies wouldn't have to resort to financial engineering to prop up their stock price. Instead they would be more focused on their "long term success" by innovating and providing great products and services to their customers at reasonable prices.
 
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I feel like Cook needs to stop hoarding so much cash and start using it to make acquisitions . Like, buy Perplexity for gods sake.
 
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I completely agree with your thoughts on the disruptive nature of Generative AI. But, two questions: 1) how does firing the person who assembled and led the team that collectively solved the most complex challenge in the company’s history address AI disruption? 2) which living person should replace him?
1) firing a person won’t. But finding another CEO that can address AI disruption could. Before that happens, Tim Cook will continue to be CEO. Now with the chairman possibility, he can just step down from the CEO but retain as chairman instead if he wants.
2) that’s not me to answer, that’s the problem for the board.
 
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