Apple's Evolution Under the Leadership of Tim Cook

[Apple Corps]

I'm happy for the changes. Steve Jobs was a brilliant visionary, but he was also a mean ******* who didn't listen to anybody, including customers...."

Well, your response shows a near complete lack of understanding of what has made Apple great - and it was not an operational efficiency guru as CEO.

The nasty comments regarding Steve would suggest that you look in the mirror when defining a "mean *******".

 

[OXO]

Apple's best days are probably behind it, and everyone will downvote this because no one wants to believe it

No, we will downvote it because you are a geordie tosser.

 

[Duckypoos]

So if Apple doesn't release something that impresses YOU at WWDC, you are declaring that Apple's run at the top of the consumer electronics world is over.

OK then.

Not at all , but in my opinion it will shake confidence if anything less than truly impressive is announced .. sorry if my opinion on a public messageboard isn't the same as yours , c'est la vie

 

[theSeb]

Well, I agree with you there. Steve Jobs, as a CEO, had made the right decisions and enforced them properly, but the designs were not his.

----------

I understand what you meant better now.

We're on the same page.

 

[BMNB1tch]

Nobody is invincible, look at Sony or Nintendo. Samsung are catching up.

Sony is nearly bankrupt, when was the last time you bought a Sony Walkman? or a Sony TV? or Sony Phone? the late 80s? the late 90s?

Nintendo wont port any of its game catalog to smartphones, they are the Facebook of this situation, popular product with little to no mobile business model

Samsung is running a copying machine and will be competing not only with Apple but with Google/Motorola (who own the OS samsung using)

 

[weing]

designers should be leading meetings

not supply guys

else you will get "no, we cant get that"

rather then

"yes, lets figure out a way to make it"

short term I'm not worried

however 5 years from now

" Five Years from Now " is so 20 years ago . Development and manufacturing are cycles are now about four times faster than that. The Job's DNA is already almost two generations away from whats in the pipeline and will soon be fully grandfathered out of any part of Apple.

"designers leading meetings" - Yeah ,Right!

 

[ivladster]

Psh... Tim is going to bring something that Steve couldn't, Apple that is more friendly and open. CEO sets the tone for the whole company. Steve saw that in Tim and that's why he's the CEO. With new campus, product line Apple is gonna be just fine. They have strict goals, great ideas, amazing designers and engineers. The company I would worry about is Microsoft where sales mentality hasn't left the building in over 10 years.

 

[BMNB1tch]

" Five Years from Now " is so 20 years ago . Development and manufacturing are cycles are now about four times faster than that. The Job's DNA is already almost two generations away from whats in the pipeline and will soon be fully grandfathered out of any part of Apple.

"designers leading meetings" - Yeah ,Right!

let me guess you work at IBM...

 

[mdelvecchio]

The "New iPad" (iPad 3)

why do some people and news sources call it this? the "New iPad". thats not the name...its the new iPad. the iPad, but the new one (third-generation). thats it. its not the New iPad -- because when the next iPad comes out, you wont be calling *this* one the New iPad, because...well, it wont be.

 

[andys53]

From reading their report, one can only hope Mr Cook does too/

 

[Shrink]

Whether you want to be or not, is anyone else really uncomfortable with all this? :/

No, not uncomfortable at all. I don't see Apple going into the hopper because Cook is not Jobs. As many have mentioned above, Jobs did not create everything single handedly. Cook needs to make sure, as it appears he is, that the development teams have a supportive environment in which to work.

No, we will downvote it because you are a geordie tosser.

What's a "geordie tosser"??

(Just another dumb American)

 

[QCassidy352]

This worries me. ...

Priority needs to remain on innovation, no matter what other changes Cook makes with how Apple operates in general.

totally agree, and well said. The guys with MBAs should not be steering the ship, just making sure it sales efficiently in whatever direction the creative types want it to sale.

 

[mdelvecchio]

designers should be leading meetings

not supply guys

you misread the article. nobody said PM or supply was leading meetings:

"I've been told that any meeting of significance is now always populated by project management and global-supply management,"​

...populated, not leading. and of course theyre at the meetings -- they likely want a jump start on planning and sourcing. since Cook became supply chain extraordinaire apple's warehouse stock has dropped dramatically, which is a good thing. JIT supply chain management isnt easy.

 

[iapplelove]

Apple's best days are probably behind it, and everyone will downvote this because no one wants to believe it

People will probably down vote it mainly because it's a bold statement with no facts or back ups

 

[crawdad62]

I think Apple will do well under Tim Cook. He was at Steve's side for over a decade so Im sure he fully understands Apple's philosophy.

Steve was brilliant and a great salesman so I would assume he didn't entrust the Apple empire to just anyone.

This. Everyone just assumes Cook took over. From what I understand he was groomed by Jobs for quite some time and Steve had every confidence that he'll carry on.

 

[carlgo]

Cook is the adult when one was needed. It is unlikely that he is screaming at terrified employees he meets in elevators.

Is he too "corporate"? He seems more connected to the product than most CEOs are. Many could be in charge of soup or toasters, they don't care.

All products so far are SJ's and will be so for a year or so. Cook cannot run over to China and make the next iPhone something different.

The elephant in the room is China and off-shore banking. We will see how that plays out. Cook is clearly in damage control now.

 

[ppilone]

I don't think it spells doom for Apple to have supply and management people in meetings now. This is where Time comes from and his area of expertise. I'm sure there were issues Tim saw before he was CEO and now he has the power to bring those people in and help fuel intelligent discussions between engineering and other departments.

I think Tim possesses some great qualities that Steve lacked. What still remains to be seen is if Tim can make headway in areas where Apple was weak while still maintaining (and improving) on the qualities that made Apple Apple. After nine months I'd say things are going well.

 

[entatlrg]

This worries me. If the bean counters are coming in early to guide the process of innovation, it's does not bode well for new products. Apple has a reputation for not only pushing the envelope, but defining the envelope. From iPod to iPhone to iPad to MacBook Air; they all literally redefined the relative industry they entered, leaving the rest to figure a way to catch up. iPod was not the first MP3 player, but when iPod came out, everyone else ended up going "Oh, THAT's what it's supposed to be." Ditto smart phones. Smart phones were already popular, but when the iPhone was released, the industry could only sigh heavily and scramble to match it. For over a year people were expressing their desire for Apple to enter the netbook market. Instead, they all but decimated the netbook market by redefining the tablet AND the ultra-portable via iPad and MBA.

Priority needs to remain on innovation, no matter what other changes Cook makes with how Apple operates in general. If they are rbinging in the project management and supply management executives in early, it needs to be with the intent to define how they meet the needs of the engineers, not to tell the engineers what is possible. Innovation concentrates on making the not-possible into the possible.

Well said. This worries me too.

Those of us with experience in design or innovation know that when other engineering departments become involved in early stages and worse yet white-collar and bean counter types things can drastically change for the worse.

I'd of thought this amazing design process that's made Apple what it is today is something Tim Cook would of kept guarded and been unwilling to change.

 

[Widashy]

Good to hear the word "open" in this article. Maybe Apple will finally start listening to the general public and start changing some aspects of iOS. Maybe some live widgets in future?

 

[acslater017]

Comparisons to the past are hard because it's almost impossible to visualize just how much Apple has grown.

Are new things different because Cook is in charge? Or are they different because Apple is so incredibly larger than it used to be? With that kind of growth certain things would have to change no matter who was in charge. It's hard to separate the peanut butter from the jelly sometimes.

Exactly. Since Steve's passing, Apple's raked in more money and its stock has risen higher than ever. Whether it is "because" of Steve passing or "despite" Steve's passing is a matter of debate.

People need to take the long view on this - it's been only 9 months. Apple's product cycles are measured in years. Major iPhones come every 2 years, Mac designs stick around for 3-4 years. The iPad, for all its success, is a 2 year old product! Tim Cook is more or less guaranteed to be at Apple for 10 years. Let's be patient and see what happens.

 

[ictiosapiens]

No, not uncomfortable at all. I don't see Apple going into the hopper because Cook is not Jobs. As many have mentioned above, Jobs did not create everything single handedly. Cook needs to make sure, as it appears he is, that the development teams have a supportive environment in which to work.



What's a "geordie tosser"??

(Just another dumb American)

Someone from Newcastle who, well, likes to masturbate frequently...

 

[mdelvecchio]

Cook is the adult when one was needed. It is unlikely that he is screaming at terrified employees he meets in elevators.

you misunderstood the stories of Jobs in the elevator. it wasnt that he "screamed" at employees. its that he questioned them...very efficiently. he could detect BS and pick it apart. many managers can not do this. he could, and that worried those stuck in the box with him.

 

[acslater017]

Now that Tim Cook is CEO, not only will the complaining about every new product continue, we'll also get the "Apple is going downhill without Steve!" comments as people conveniently forget that there was just as much complaining under Steve.

"just a re-hashed iPad 2"

Yeah, because nobody complained about the iPhone 3GS being a "rehashed iPhone 3G" when it was Steve in charge.

This. Apple had many flaws under Steve - it could be stubborn and closed (in a bad way, not the good secret product kind of way). Flaws were often ignored, because Steve willfully ignored them. Let's not forget, he also gave the green light to the G4 Cube, iPod Hi-Fi, MobileMe, and Ping...

Unfortunately for Cook, any lemons that slip by will receive the "never woulda happened under Steve" treatment from those with memory loss...

 

[davidinva]

Apple's Cooked.

Don't think so, but you get points for that one.

 

[Tigger11]

I don't think that has much to do with Cook. Apple has gotten so big and ships so many devices you have to included those people. Logistics is of major importance to Apple.

Exactly right, if you are planning on shipping a million units a year, they arent such a big deal, when you are planning on shipping millions of units a month, its a very big deal and you need your production people involved much earlier. The first full quarter of Iphone sales, Apple sold 1/3 million a MONTH, last quarter Apple sold more then 1/3 million iphones a DAY. Sir Jonathan Ive newly knighted designer for Apple said in the interview after being knighted that his best products were coming, personally I am excited to see what he has been cooking up.
-Tig