Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Why is that? Are you suggesting Tim Cook isn't smart, or something?

Nobody said Tim Cook isn’t smart

He’s very intelligent… I have zero doubt about it!

He’s just of different specializations and talents than Jobs, which is the spirit of what that user was getting at I think.

It hits differently when he talks product and development is all




Edited to reflect the reply in the next post from @CarAnalogy that corrects the record of what was meant
 
Last edited:
Why is that? Are you suggesting Tim Cook isn't smart, or something?

You may not know that Cook, with a BS degree in engineering from Auburn University, and an MBA from Duke University, was hand picked by Steve Jobs to be CEO of Apple (before that he was Apple'a COO since 1998).

Over the last 13 years as CEO he's lead Apple to becoming one of the most successful tech companies in the world.

I am not suggesting at all that he is not smart. I am well aware he was personally chosen by Jobs.

I was mostly joking and making a reference to Ballmer’s infamous “developers” chant. That is what I can’t imagine him doing.

Can you link me to a technical talk and / or highly enthusiastic public speech he has given?

Every word I’ve ever heard him spoken has clearly been pre-written and very carefully chosen. About as off the cuff and animated as he ever gets is earnings calls.

It’s not his intelligence, but his personality I’m talking about.
 
  • Love
Reactions: turbineseaplane
I am not suggesting at all that he is not smart. I am well aware he was personally chosen by Jobs.

I was mostly joking and making a reference to Ballmer’s infamous “developers” chant. That is what I can’t imagine him doing.

Can you link me to a technical talk and / or highly enthusiastic public speech he has given?

Every word I’ve ever heard him spoken has clearly been pre-written and very carefully chosen. About as off the cuff and animated as he ever gets is earnings calls.

It’s not his intelligence, but his personality I’m talking about.

I'll go with how he currently engages with the public. 1+ Billion active and repeat customers, and Apple being one of the most successful tech companies in the world speaks volumes.


"Every word I’ve ever heard him spoken has clearly been pre-written and very carefully chosen. About as off the cuff and animated as he ever gets is earnings calls."

Of course Cook prepares well and chooses his content and words very carefully. He's a professional. As an aside, I've done the same when making presentations to customers.

Seems you're unhappy simply because his approach and personality is different than Jobs'.

Again, Apple's massive success and customer base size speaks volumes. I wouldn't change a thing regarding presentations.
 
I'll go with how he currently engages with the public.

C'mon City ... give a little bit of ground where it's obvious, no?

Tim is far from charismatic or engaging and is a bit flat ... a bit boring if being honest
Public speaking is quite a talent and some are simply more natural at it, and Tim just isn't.

He prepares well, is informed and capable -- he just doesn't have "it" when engaging, especially off the cuff.
People have strengths and weaknesses -- it's totally ok

It doesn't mean he's bad at his job - not at all!
 
  • Like
Reactions: CarAnalogy
I am not suggesting at all that he is not smart. I am well aware he was personally chosen by Jobs.

I was mostly joking and making a reference to Ballmer’s infamous “developers” chant. That is what I can’t imagine him doing.

Can you link me to a technical talk and / or highly enthusiastic public speech he has given?

Every word I’ve ever heard him spoken has clearly been pre-written and very carefully chosen. About as off the cuff and animated as he ever gets is earnings calls.

It’s not his intelligence, but his personality I’m talking about.
Can you be more specific about what you mean by “technical talk?” Are you expecting him to talk about Apple Development Frameworks, hardware or software technology, AI systems design, material sciences, operations technology, or something else?

I suspect that Tim Cook can give a better technical talk on supply chain logistics and optimization (operations technology) than any other CEO today because that is arguably more important to Apple’s success that what most people consider “technical.”

This is more important than Apple Silicon, software frameworks, AI technology or any other technical underpinnings of Apple’s business because of Apple’s billions of units scale (which encompasses device manufacturing plus producing, developing and maintaining software and support services for users at this scale). This is Tim Cook’s expertise and genius and the reason that Jobs chose him to lead Apple (“Real artists ship”). But I’m not sure if that would satisfy your definition or expectation.

And what’s wrong with his personality — the guy is a decent, humble, thoughtful, demanding but respectful person who speaks mindfully — what’s wrong with that?
 
C'mon City ... give a little bit of ground where it's obvious, no?

Tim is far from charismatic or engaging and is a bit flat ... a bit boring if being honest
Public speaking is quite a talent and some are simply more natural at it, and Tim just isn't.


He prepares well, is informed and capable -- he just doesn't have "it" when engaging, especially off the cuff.
People have strengths and weaknesses -- it's totally ok

It doesn't mean he's bad at his job - not at all!

So what and who cares? Whatever he's doing it has been working extraordinary well for Apple over the last 13 years.

I wouldn't change a thing.
 
And what’s wrong with his personality — the guy is a decent, humble, thoughtful, demanding but respectful person who speaks mindfully — what’s wrong with that?

Spot-on.

Sadly... many people just don't give a hoot about that. They live for the on-stage razzle-dazzle. Cook also gives very generously to charities.
 
That’s not good at all. It just goes to show that we’re in a second gilded age worse than the first one

When are we going to say enough is enough? No company or person should have as much power as Apple does

Right?
Like how far can this go...

Will people be praising them for being the first TEN TRILLION dollar company?
TWENTY TRILLION?

GA-JILLION!?


This is totally off the rails out of control
 
C'mon City ... give a little bit of ground where it's obvious, no?

Tim is far from charismatic or engaging and is a bit flat ... a bit boring if being honest
Public speaking is quite a talent and some are simply more natural at it, and Tim just isn't.

He prepares well, is informed and capable -- he just doesn't have "it" when engaging, especially off the cuff.
People have strengths and weaknesses -- it's totally ok

It doesn't mean he's bad at his job - not at all!
You want charisma.

Many people say they want Craig Federighi as the leader. It’s because he has charisma, not because he could do the CEO job as well as Cook. Cook has done an outstanding job on one of the high pressure jobs in the world. Balancing US v China, EU versus democracies, countries with different health regulations, taxes in sooooo many countries.

What you see on stage is a business man first, who cares enough to continue the legacy of Jobs by starting a presentation, even though he’s not a turtle neck wearing bare footed hippie like Jobs. It may not be something he is comfortable with, but geez, he can’t be all things to all people.

How many CEO's actually set aside time every morning and go through emails (probably curated for him) from actual people who have been positively impacted in their lives by Apple… every day?

Because he lacks the charisma you crave, you talk him down.
 
Last edited:
Also...

Many here so easily forget that over 2022-2024 while many tech companies were laying off tens of thousands of employees (Meta, Oracle, Qualcomm, Lyft, Yahoo, Salesforce, Nokia, Vodaphone, Microsoft, LinkedIn, eBay, T-Mobile, Amazon, Google, PayPal, IBM, Spotify, Sony, Cisco, HP, Intel, etc), Apple/Cook kept its people employed.
 
That’s not good at all. It just goes to show that we’re in a second gilded age worse than the first one

When are we going to say enough is enough? No company or person should have as much power as Apple does

On one hand, people love to point out how Apple has only a very small market share in every industry they compete in and that they are constantly one flop away from irrelevancy.

On the other hand, they are accused of earning too much money and power.

This ends when people decide that Apple no longer makes products good enough to justify paying a premium for over the alternatives.

That’s the beauty of the free market.
 
That’s not good at all. It just goes to show that we’re in a second gilded age worse than the first one

When are we going to say enough is enough? No company or person should have as much power as Apple does
is it that you don't want Apple to be the first or you don't wan't any company to be the first?

The valuation is driven by financial analysts who have their own well-being in mind and make you invest in "stuff" so you can retire at age 50 ...

and as for Apple, past performance, current offerings are such that Wall Street is excited and does what I said above.
 
  • Like
Reactions: I7guy
I would like to know why Cook being CEO of Apple affects so many people here so personally.

Anybody care to weigh in on that?
I’ve often wondered that myself. He gets way more vitriol than would be expected for someone who is, from all I’ve ever read, an incredibly decent human being who clearly loves Apple, and one of the greatest CEOs in history of all corporations to boot. I ultimately think it’s because Steve was a product guy and Cook isn’t.

Anyone who came after Steve was going to be considered a downgrade by a lot of the Apple faithful, and Tim is certainly not Steve (and refreshingly doesn’t try to be). When this is coupled with Apple turning from scrappy underdog to corporate behemoth, Tim is a convenient scapegoat for all the stuff about new Apple people don’t like.

I suspect had Steve not been taken from us so early a some of his luster would have worn off too - a lot of the decisions Tim gets attacked for are honestly obvious business decisions that Steve would have made too.

It’s a lot easier to say “Steve would have never done that” and forget all of his negatives than to recognize things like “Apple exists to make money for its shareholders” and “Nerds like me with excellent design taste are no longer Apple’s main target demographic”.
 
Apple is on the brink of becoming the first company in history to surpass a $4 trillion market valuation, Fortune reports.
[sarcasm]
That is such wonderful news! I really hope Apple and it's excellent CEO Tim Cook continue to work to fulfill the interests of shareholders instead of customers like me. Cook is the best CEO Apple ever had because he gives customers like me less for our money than previous Apple CEOs. I love how all of the current Macs don't have user-upgradable memory and user-upgradable storage because that way, when I need more memory or more storage, instead of buying cheap third-party RAM or a cheap third-party SSD, I'll have to buy a new Mac. That will hurt me financially, but it will help shareholders, and that's the most important thing because I'm less human than shareholders. Cook, shareholders, and other wealthy people are more human than non-wealthy people like me.

Steve Jobs was a horrible CEO because he cared more about customers than shareholders. However, Jobs did do one thing right: He chose Cook as his successor. And Cook is the greatest thing that ever happened to Apple. I'm so glad that idealistic good-for-nothing hippie Jobs did not choose Scott Forstall to be CEO. Forstall was a visionary like Jobs who cared most about making the most user-friendly products for customers. What a loser! If Forstall was CEO, Apple would have made the highest quality, most reliable, and most user-friendly products, but shareholders would not have made as much money. We can't have that! Shareholders must be the top priority, and Apple should continue giving customers like me less for our money in order to maximize profits for shareholders.
[/sarcasm]
 
Last edited:
[sarcasm]
That is such wonderful news! I really hope Apple and it's excellent CEO Tim Cook continue to work to fulfill the interests of shareholders instead of customers like me. Cook is the best CEO Apple ever had because he gives customers like me less for our money than previous Apple CEOs. I love how all of the current Macs don't have user-upgradable memory and user-upgradable storage because that way, when I need more memory or more storage, instead of buying cheap third-party RAM or a cheap third-party SSD, I'll have to buy a new Mac. That will hurt me financially, but it will help shareholders, and that's the most important thing because I'm less human than shareholders. Cook, shareholders, and other wealthy people are more human than non-wealthy people like me.

Steve Jobs was a horrible CEO because he cared more about customers than shareholders. However, Jobs did do one thing right: He chose Cook as his successor. And Cook is the greatest thing that ever happened to Apple. I'm so glad that idealistic good-for-nothing hippie Jobs did not choose Scott Forstall to be CEO. Forstall was a visionary like Jobs who cared most about making the most user-friendly products for customers. What a loser! If Forstall was CEO, Apple would have made the highest quality, most reliable, and most user-friendly products, but shareholders would not have made as much money. We can't have that! Shareholders must be the top priority, and Apple should continue giving customers like me less for our money in order to maximize profits for shareholders.
[/sarcasm]

It does also show that one does not run a successful business by giving customers everything they want, because everyone basically wants more of something for less cost.

Rather, Apple continues to leverage on their control over hardware and software to create a sufficiently differentiated experience that users are willing to pay a premium for.

I might be more sympathetic if this were insulin or some other life-saving medication we were talking about, but really, Apple products are discretionary purchases. At the end of the day, Apple does not owe any of us anything. They put out a product, priced at a point they feel represents the value it provides, and the market will decide.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.