To be fair, I may have been overstating the case - I don't actually know his qualifications for CEOshipI like John, he seems to be a very capable engineering leader; but I don’t know much more about him. What do you feel are John’s qualifications for CEO?
Apple has always been a product company from inception. Their mission was (and still is) to ship product. The quote “Real artists ship” was coined during the original Macintosh product development and directed at the Macintosh Product Team — not to some abstract “team of developers.” The context and motivation for the discussion was repeated Macintosh product delays.In the world of a team of developers, like the one he was an addressing when he reportedly used the quote. He also said “It’s not done until it ships.” The term “shipping” has been used in this context within development teams for as long as I can remember (35+ years as a software developer) to mean “release”. Of course logistics and supply chain are important, but trying to use that particular quote out of context to prop up Tim Cook is, at best, disingenuous.
I’ve never said, or even implied, that Cook was not great at those aspects of the business. We’ll just have to disagree on the meaning of the term “shipping” in the context it was used.Apple has always been a product company from inception. Their mission was (and still is) to ship product. The quote “Real artists ship” was coined during the original Macintosh product development and directed at the Macintosh Product Team — not to some abstract “team of developers.” The context and motivation for the discussion was repeated Macintosh product delays.
Shipping that product was Jobs and Apple’s #1 priority. And that was the context for the “Real artists ship” quote — and can be easily confirmed.
Jobs knew that shipping product was essential to Apple’s success then and in the future.
Cook decisively and undeniably solved that problem for Apple for the long term and cemented Jobs desire as an institutionalized capability. That is an extraordinary accomplishment and a bedrock for Apple’s growth and sustainability. And that is why Jobs chose Cook to succeed him as CEO.
So, claiming that Jobs comment was somehow focused on software release and not physical product is a mischaracterization. Using that mischaracterization to withhold credit from Cook for his extraordinary achievement is something else.
I think Tim’s tenure is coming to a natural close anyhow. As far as lagging behind in AI, nine of the companies mentioned have a viable ai product on a phone, that’s actually useful in daily life. I’ll wait for the competition to show up at the doorstep.
Apple has always been a product company from inception. Their mission was (and still is) to ship product. The quote “Real artists ship” was coined during the original Macintosh product development and directed at the Macintosh Product Team — not to some abstract “team of developers.” The context and motivation for the discussion was repeated Macintosh product delays.
Shipping that product was Jobs and Apple’s #1 priority. And that was the context for the “Real artists ship” quote — and can be easily confirmed.
Jobs knew that shipping product was essential to Apple’s success then and in the future.
Cook decisively and undeniably solved that problem for Apple for the long term and cemented Jobs desire as an institutionalized capability. That is an extraordinary accomplishment and a bedrock for Apple’s growth and sustainability. And that is why Jobs chose Cook to succeed him as CEO.
So, claiming that Jobs comment was somehow focused on software release and not physical product is a mischaracterization. Using that mischaracterization to withhold credit from Cook for his extraordinary achievement is something else.
Steve had his share of failures. But the AVP to me is a failure like the HomePod. Something that still exists but is going off in a different direction.Steve also famously said "Good artists copy; great artists steal", and was a mixed bag in many respects. Personally, I try to evaluate Cook on his own merits, and not against Jobs...Steve has been dead for over a dead for almost a decade and a half, and while he is still an important historical figure to Apple, he isn't relevant today.
Cook is fine..boring but fine. I'm fine with boring, and prefer companies where the CEOs aren't celebrities, and prefer to stay out of the limelight and just run the company. Product-wise, though... Apple Car and Apple Vision Pro, AI..all bummers under his watch.
and Apple Silicon.
Scott wasn’t even in charge of the UI necessarily.Scott Forstall wasn't in charge of AI he was in charge of the UI. And whatever "AI" there was in 2012, over a decade ago, wouldn't be anything like what we have today.
And with another CEO, things could go downhill all the more. Apple's image is quite big and important, so you can quickly do irrevocable damage. As long as sales are stable, there is no reason for a change at the top.
AI is not a bubble, and anyone who uses that word in reference to it is just clueless. There may be many "me too" empty AI efforts out there, but those are just the imitators of the big successes.but if/when this AI bubble bursts
The weird thing is, If you watch some of his earlier keynotes, he actually seemed to have a personality back then. The problem is, especially since the post COVID video keynotes, he's clearly been to the same media training school as all the other 55 presenters on the Apple keynote videos these days, and they all look and sound the same. It seems to be the one thing in AI that they've actually pioneered on, making their presenters look AI generated.
You have to wonder why Tim himself wants to still be the CEO of Apple. Surely he's at the age where he himself wants to retire and let someone else deal with Apple now.
Well here’s a few things Tim’s “known” for:
- Apple Watch:
The Apple Watch, released in 2015, was Apple's first new product in the post-Jobs era.- AirPods:
The introduction of AirPods in 2016 marked another successful product launch under Cook's leadership.- M1 Chip:
The development and launch of the M1 chip, which replaced Intel processors, represented a significant step in Apple's vertical integration.- Apple Vision Pro:
The recent unveiling of the Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality headset demonstrates Cook's continued commitment to innovation
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
I think all of them were envisioned by cook. Cook then green lit the final iteration.Honest question…how many of these did Cook actually envision? And how many ideas by others and were simply green lit under Tim’s watch.
You can say cook wasn’t intimately involved or was because we don’t know.I’ve always understood that Jobs for the most part, had a singular vision of the products he produced. Yes, we know he stole ideas from Xerox and of course he worked with Ive and others to get it to where he was happy with it. But whether it was the Mac, iPod, iMac, or iPhone, these were his pet projects where he was intimately involved from materials, to fonts, and every step of the way.
Different skill sets at different times.I don’t question Tim’s ability to ship products and make shareholders money. I just don’t see him as a ‘products’ guy in the way perhaps Steve was.
lmao, Nadella? Microsoft? Look, they're obviously massive and making money, but so is Apple. But as a consumer facing organization, MS is an absolute joke. Windows is as bad as it has ever been, for basically no reason. Xbox is drowning in a puddle despite owning half the gaming industry. They've been run out of nearly every single hardware market they've entered, despite being pretty okay at it. Azure seems to be trucking along, despite being evershifting nonsense from a product and marketing perspective, probably just due to the inertia of their business marketshare.Apple should definitely consider an overhaul. Tim may be a good operation guy but he is far behind the guys like Nadella.
Tim’s milk-customers-like-cow strategy has finally worn me out and I am switxhing to Galaxy Fold 7 after using iPhone from 3G until 15.