Apple CEO Tim Cook Taking Substantial Pay Cut in 2023 After Earning Nearly $100 Million Last Year

[The-Real-Deal82]

More and more people in these forums complaining about prices.

Apple has kept prices similar in the US, if you’re in the US that’s great. Outside, everywhere else they’re increasing prices and an unsustainable level. It will snap back and hit them soon. People won’t be wanting to pay £2000 for an iPhone in the UK.

Here in the UK phones are not actually subsidised at all now. The cost is spread over 24-36 month contracts and you usually end up paying slightly more.

Until Americans see the same sort of price hikes we’ve had here in Europe, they wont get our frustrations I’m afraid. In the US the iPhone is the dominant smartphone in the market, whereas it has a much lower percentage in Europe. As prices rise further I’m sure we’ll see this percentage decrease further. I can’t be the only person noticing lots of my friends and family are upgrading to Android phones from iPhones. It’s a buyers market and the deals for other smartphones are more attractive than the £150 price hikes Apple have slapped on their phones this year.

 

[jdoyle]

Great to see he's taking one for the team during the current cost of living crisis. I hope he can afford his groceries and pay all his bills with his meagre $49million.

 

[Queen6]

Is fair given the current economy where wages are stalling and prices escalating. Always liked Steve Jobs approach were he was paid a nominal fee and the rest delivered by stock on performance. Then again he was some boy, both positive & negative all the same he very much delivered as has Tim Cook albeit in differing ways...

Q-6

 

[UK-MacAddict]

In light of Apple’s current financial success, are you willing to entertain the possibility that Apple’s current business strategy of segmenting their products, while not to your benefit, is also what works for Apple and is what works for the majority of Apple’s current user base?

In the past, Apple had way fewer supporters, and their computing needs were likely way more closely aligned to the extent that Steve Jobs was able to address them with only a few product variations.

Apple today serves a far larger user base, with way more divergent needs, and so requires a wider variety of SKUs to meet them. Not just that, but the proportion of Apple's userbase today that are true believers is far smaller.

In this new reality, that original core user and investor base.. those true believers.. they don’t matter anymore. They got to enjoy the ride from the start, but now their secluded island has been inundated by a population of visitors that outnumbers them by a couple of orders of magnitude.

This new population sets the tone for what kind of company Apple will be, because they have the power in this new relationship.

For example, there would be people who don’t need all the functionality that comes with an iPhone Pro, which is why the base model exists - to avoid over-serving this segment of users.

That’s my takeaway at the end of the day. Steve Jobs did what made sense for Apple then (given they had extremely limited resources to work with), just as Tim Cook is doing what makes sense for Apple today. I wouldn’t call it “losing their way”, though. Circumstances changed, and the company changed, and that’s just the way she goes.



People here have been predicting Apple’s demise since time immemorial. I did a search of older posts once upon a time and the negativity and pessimism towards Steve jobs when he first unveiled iPod and iPad were equally bad. So the track record when it comes to reading Apple has always been bad.

And then now that Steve Jobs is dead and Tim Cook has taken over, they suddenly pretend they had always been supporting Steve Jobs when in reality, they are simply latching on whatever is convenient in order to bash the current incarnation of Apple.

It feels like too many people here are focused on being contrarian (for the sake of being contrarian) rather than being right.

Unfortunately I am from that true believer base you refer to, which is probably why it annoys me more to see what they have become. As Apple was Steve’s company he had passion for it nobody could replace.

In terms of more selection to suit different needs, fewer SKUs with higher specs would serve both the high end user and your everyday student.

The example of the iPhone isn’t a very good one since a phone is a phone and my main gripe is that nobody does anything Pro on an iPhone. The split of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro is solely money driven. A business tactic to try and drive the Pro sales. Oh it’s only x amount more I may as well get the Pro.

Also it wasn’t a very good strategy as they sold poorly because people want the best tech in one device at a reasonable price which the iPhone used to be when they sold just one model. Also people are starting to realise this is Apples game.

Steve Jobs was always about making the best product possible with intuitive usability whilst making reasonable profits. You can find old interviews online where he clearly states it.

Now Tim has totally gone against that philosophy by deliberately gimping products. By that I mean deliberately leaving out features on one device for no other reason than to put it on another device to charge more for it. For instance if Apple adds a periscope camera to the iPhone and creates a third tier iPhone Ultra range at an even higher price point than the Pro Max. There is no sense in this at all. They could easily add it to the Pro Mac range and keep prices the same no increase needed.

 

[UK-MacAddict]

Until Americans see the same sort of price hikes we’ve had here in Europe, they wont get our frustrations I’m afraid. In the US the iPhone is the dominant smartphone in the market, whereas it has a much lower percentage in Europe. As prices rise further I’m sure we’ll see this percentage decrease further. I can’t be the only person noticing lots of my friends and family are upgrading to Android phones from iPhones. It’s a buyers market and the deals for other smartphones are more attractive than the £150 price hikes Apple have slapped on their phones this year.

Rumours are prices will increase even further this September for iPhone 15.

That £160 increase this year was on top of previous increases the year before that the US didn’t get. But you’re right the US needs to see prices increase across all products before they understand.

I wonder how some defending Apple would react seeing $500 increases on their iPhones and Mac products.

 

[I7guy]

]…].

I wonder how some defending Apple would react seeing $500 increases on their iPhones and Mac products.

I defend your right to the death to buy products that meet your requirements. Meet your price points. We make these buying decisions everyday. As the real-deal says, if apple gets too expensive I’ll get a cheap android phone that lets me do what I need to do:
- emails
- make and receive phone calls
- gps
- Facebook

 

[I7guy]

[…]

Now Tim has totally gone against that philosophy by deliberately gimping products. By that I mean deliberately leaving out features on one device for no other reason than to put it on another device to charge more for it. For instance if Apple adds a periscope camera to the iPhone and creates a third tier iPhone Ultra range at an even higher price point than the Pro Max. There is no sense in this at all. They could easily add it to the Pro Mac range and keep prices the same no increase needed.

Steve Jobs is dead and has been for almost 12 years. Tim as CEO is entitled to run the company as he wants. Most likely the decisions apple has been making has his approval but comes from a cross-section of manager. Times have changed.

Those who don’t like the new apple should be happy that competition exists in abundance.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I defend your right to the death to buy products that meet your requirements. Meet your price points. We make these buying decisions everyday. As the real-deal says, if apple gets too expensive I’ll get a cheap android phone that lets me do what I need to do:
- emails
- make and receive phone calls
- gps
- Facebook

I wouldn’t get a cheap one, I’d probably get a Pixel flagship as the build quality and interface is pretty solid. It’s certainly not the Android I left behind in 2011, and it’s no surprise the hardware on the Pixel 7 is now being directly compared to iPhones. It’s about £350-£400 cheaper than a 14 Pro Max too and apparently has a better still camera. I’ll be watching with interest for 2024 when my current contract is up on my 13 Pro Max.

 

[leicaman]

So, he's one of the folks who can still afford to live in the Bay Area?

 

[leicaman]

Did a quick search and found out this guy got paid more than $46M in 2019 and still takes his Trapper Keeper to work:

(CEO of Pinterest)

Amazing how such a garbage website can make such people rich these days.

 

[tranceme]

A $1 salary with no other compensation except for some free devices would be a more meaningful gesture. He already has more money than he will ever spend in his remaining time. At this level these people aren’t driven by money anyway.

He does have enough money. But, someone working the line in factory in China might think the same of you or me, rigth? It's all relative.

The truth is that he was a bit part of making Apple what it is today. Before he was CEO, we laying the ground work for the monster Apple is today.

But, I hear ya. He doesn't need the money.

 

[UK-MacAddict]

I defend your right to the death to buy products that meet your requirements. Meet your price points. We make these buying decisions everyday. As the real-deal says, if apple gets too expensive I’ll get a cheap android phone that lets me do what I need to do:
- emails
- make and receive phone calls
- gps
- Facebook

This may be true but still doesn’t hide the face Apple are using scummy business strategies that do not hold true to the values Apple was built on.

 

[UK-MacAddict]

Steve Jobs is dead and has been for almost 12 years. Tim as CEO is entitled to run the company as he wants. Most likely the decisions apple has been making has his approval but comes from a cross-section of manager. Times have changed.

Those who don’t like the new apple should be happy that competition exists in abundance.

Running it poorly yes.

In your eyes can you give me an example of something Apple has done that you don’t actually agree with?

 

[torontotim]

This may be true but still doesn’t hide the face Apple are using scummy business strategies that do not hold true to the values Apple was built on.

LOL the 'values' Apple was built on were simple - make as much money as humanly possible and squeeze suppliers and employees as hard as you can.

You can try to ascribe romantic nostalgic 'values' into the story of two scrappy guys, one a hard/software nerd and the other a charismatic marketing type, but at the end of the day Apple has always been about selling products and earning money.

The 'values' you think they have are the result of careful advertising campaigns and our collective rose-tinted perspective on the past.

 

[Abazigal]

This may be true but still doesn’t hide the face Apple are using scummy business strategies that do not hold true to the values Apple was built on.

Like blatantly telling people to pirate their music.

Oops, make a mistake. That was the OG iPod advertisement.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Except bill gates is a moron who doesn’t want to pay higher taxes despite his wealth being imperceptible to him.

I just heard him state a week ago that taxes on extreme wealth should be higher, and capital gains should be the same rate as income.

 

[I7guy]

Running it poorly yes.

Imo, it’s being run well. Two people two opinions.

In your eyes can you give me an example of something Apple has done that you don’t actually agree with?

I don’t really keep a scorecard of things I don’t like from companies who I do business with.

 

[9594864]

There ya go, both he and his ex wife oh Colbert a few years ago stating that they are ‘biased’ about taxing the rich. Pathetic, unintelligent morons is what they both are. They got unimaginably lucky, that is all.

If you want to see intelligent people go to NASA research institutes like the Jet Propulsion Lab, etc.


Engineers and scientists are the intelligent humans. Gates was an average intellect who was in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. It would’ve been done by literally millions of other people had he not been there.

 

[Abazigal]

Engineers and scientists are the intelligent humans. Gates was an average intellect who was in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. It would’ve been done by literally millions of other people had he not been there.

The counterpoint is that nobody else has done it, even if you want to argue that there are people way smarter than Bill Gates, or with access to better opportunities, or any other combination of factors.

Of the billions of people on this earth, Bill Gates was the one to capitalise on this unique combination of factors, and so I feel he does deserve his current financial success.

It doesn’t matter how many other people “could have done it”. The only thing that matters right now is that only one person did end up doing it, and that’s all there is to it.

 

[9594864]

The counterpoint is that nobody else has done it, even if you want to argue that there are people way smarter than Bill Gates, or with access to better opportunities, or any other combination of factors.

Of the billions of people on this earth, Bill Gates was the one to capitalise on this unique combination of factors, and so I feel he does deserve his current financial success.

It doesn’t matter how many other people “could have done it”. The only thing that matters right now is that only one person did end up doing it, and that’s all there is to it.

Lmao. If you honestly think any human deserves that wealth then you need to seriously rethink everything.

It is an objective truth that wealth being distributed far far far greater would see a world far far far more advanced.

Right now, this very moment in time, 2023, there would be a cure for aging if wealth had been more distributed throughout time and especially the last 150 years. Because he has that wealth he doesn’t have a cure for his aging. He will perish before aging is cured and all his money was useless to him beyond about 100 million dollars. All of his luxuries he has enjoyed in life could’ve been had for about that much money which is a minute fraction of his total worth and no human is worth even 100 million. When wealth is far more distributed humans in totality have far more opportunities to become educated and therefore far more humans would be in STEM fields advancing civilization.

Humans who really made huge change were scientists and inventors such as Edison, Newton, Einstein, etc. things that wouldn’t have been easily done by millions of other people.

Gates was also one of many many many people working on all of that too, and his contribution was a fractional part of the totality; he was just in the position to reap all of the rewards and accolades.

Find a better hero

 

[Abazigal]

Lmao. If you honestly think any human deserves that wealth then you need to seriously rethink everything.

On some level, I agree that in this world that we live in today, it’s not always hard work that gets rewarded but the exploitation of hard work.

However, I still believe that it’s a better system than saying “it doesn’t matter how much you work or what your accomplishments are. I am still going to take a portion of your earnings and give it to other people, some of whom may not even have done anything to deserve that”.

It’s not about whether said person deserves that wealth or not (because whether anyone truly deserves anything is a subjective value judgment). This is the system, I made my money this way, I didn’t break any laws, I should keep the money, and what I choose to do with it ultimately is really nobody’s business.

 

[9594864]

On some level, I agree that in this world that we live in today, it’s not always hard work that gets rewarded but the exploitation of hard work.

However, I still believe that it’s a better system than saying “it doesn’t matter how much you work or what your accomplishments are. I am still going to take a portion of your earnings and give it to other people, some of whom may not even have done anything to deserve that”.

It’s not about whether said person deserves that wealth or not (because whether anyone truly deserves anything is a subjective value judgment). This is the system, I made my money this way, I didn’t break any laws, I should keep the money, and what I choose to do with it ultimately is really nobody’s business.

Obviously work has to be rewarded and harder work rewarded more, that’s necessary to drive ambitious advancement. However, advancement is majorly hurt when wealth is massively unevenly distributed. It’s not about taking money and giving it to everyone, it’s about capping wealth and bringing up everyone so that more humans have opportunities.

The rich are too stupid to understand that their lives would be better if they were unable to have their current wealth, by law. They don’t understand that if wealth were more evenly distributed, society would be 30-50 years or more, farther advanced. That is to say that right now, those ultra-rich could be enjoying a far better reality than they do today, because today’s money can only purchase what humans have advanced to the point in time. If on the other hand humans were 30-50+ years more advanced, those same ultra-rich would be living a far better existence.

They moronically shoot themselves in the foot because they’re all too stupid to understand that increasing human collective education and opportunities equates to a more advanced civilization. Only time will tell how long it takes humanity to realize this. They have a pretty number in their net worth but it doesn’t get them a cure for aging. That comes decades from now, but it could be today had they never been capable of that wealth.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Lmao. If you honestly think any human deserves that wealth then you need to seriously rethink everything.

It is an objective truth that wealth being distributed far far far greater would see a world far far far more advanced.

Right now, this very moment in time, 2023, there would be a cure for aging if wealth had been more distributed throughout time and especially the last 150 years. Because he has that wealth he doesn’t have a cure for his aging. He will perish before aging is cured and all his money was useless to him beyond about 100 million dollars. All of his luxuries he has enjoyed in life could’ve been had for about that much money which is a minute fraction of his total worth and no human is worth even 100 million. When wealth is far more distributed humans in totality have far more opportunities to become educated and therefore far more humans would be in STEM fields advancing civilization.

Humans who really made huge change were scientists and inventors such as Edison, Newton, Einstein, etc. things that wouldn’t have been easily done by millions of other people.

Gates was also one of many many many people working on all of that too, and his contribution was a fractional part of the totality; he was just in the position to reap all of the rewards and accolades.

Find a better hero

Bill Gates created a company/product that changed the modern world more than any other I can think of. Windows computers were and are used in just about every industry, school and home across the developed world and created a platform for the technology were see today. Even Apple would acknowledge Microsoft are important to the development of their own success. Not to mention Gates has been putting huge amounts of money to good use over the years by giving much of it away to good causes and funding medical development. I don’t think it was ever about the money with Gates and more about the drive to make a difference.

 

[Abazigal]

Obviously work has to be rewarded and harder work rewarded more, that’s necessary to drive ambitious advancement. However, advancement is majorly hurt when wealth is massively unevenly distributed. It’s not about taking money and giving it to everyone, it’s about capping wealth and bringing up everyone so that more humans have opportunities.

The rich are too stupid to understand that their lives would be better if they were unable to have their current wealth, by law. They don’t understand that if wealth were more evenly distributed, society would be 30-50 years or more, farther advanced. That is to say that right now, those ultra-rich could be enjoying a far better reality than they do today, because today’s money can only purchase what humans have advanced to the point in time. If on the other hand humans were 30-50+ years more advanced, those same ultra-rich would be living a far better existence.

They moronically shoot themselves in the foot because they’re all too stupid to understand that increasing human collective education and opportunities equates to a more advanced civilization. Only time will tell how long it takes humanity to realize this. They have a pretty number in their net worth but it doesn’t get them a cure for aging. That comes decades from now, but it could be today had they never been capable of that wealth.

You seem very convinced for some reason that if everyone on this earth had access to more money, we would somehow have found the cure for cancer and aging and solved global warming by now. I have nothing to say to that, save that it’s all hypothetical, so I find it hard to argue for or against it either way.

 

[9594864]

Bill Gates created a company/product that changed the modern world more than any other I can think of. Windows computers were and are used in just about every industry, school and home across the developed world and created a platform for the technology were see today. Even Apple would acknowledge Microsoft are important to the development of their own success. Not to mention Gates has been putting huge amounts of money to good use over the years by giving much of it away to good causes and funding medical development. I don’t think it was ever about the money with Gates and more about the drive to make a difference.

Hahaha not about the money. That’s comical. The man literally has shorted companies just to make profits. He’s a piece of garbage and nearly useless to the world.

Everything he did would’ve been done by millions of other humans. It was all already happening… you all are very very confused because you think he personally was a world-changer. No, he’s a guy in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing.

Albert Einstein changed the world. Issac Newton. Edison… etc.

And LOL you can’t think of anything more world-changing? The automobile is miles and miles beyond computers. Without automobiles the world might not have computers yet in 2023. It increased production an incalculable amount.

Also electricity beats all of course.