Yep. I'm a shameless Apple fan but something about his attitude rubs me the wrong way. I hate to say it but he has a real slimy, snake-oil salesman way of carrying himself.
It's personally bothersome because I don't like to be judgemental, especially if I don't know the person. However I've seen a lot of pro-Apple fans (yourself included) who have been saying the same thing. So it's a little reassuring that I'm not alone. Maybe there is something off about him.
I don't like him either. He comes across as a slob to me. Other executives seem pretty put together, but he comes across like he doesn't care. However, none of that would matter to me if the departments and products he oversees were great. But they are not. Services might be Apple's fastest growing segment, but the quality of said services is still subpar.
I've been bitten too many times by Apple syncing issues to trust any of their iCloud services. iCloud Photo Library nuked about 800 photos before I realized what was happening and disconnected the network. iCloud Music Library consistently messes with my purchased music, changing tags and genres and filenames. I had issues with iCloud Drive years ago, back in the iDisk days, so I haven't trusted it for anything meaningful since.
My biggest complaint is Apple Music, however. Given the huge installed base of iOS devices, they should be cleaning up, but they're very far behind Spotify, even if you ignore Spotify's free tier. Why? Because the Apple Music app sucks. I stopped using it because I couldn't manage my own library and still use the service. One must cede all control to iCloud Music Library. I tried several times and it made a mess each time. Forget it. Apple Music should operate independently of one's purchased/ripped library. Beyond that, however, the app just looks terrible and is not very intuitive. Sad, coming from Apple.
And let's not forget the joke that is Siri. Doesn't understand context. Half the time it ends up doing a web search when I ask it something simple. It's fine for the most basic tasks, but has fallen woefully behind other offerings. Given the crazy head start Apple had, Siri should be far more sophisticated by now.
Apple Maps is still weak compared to Google Maps. Still.
I also think Cue is asleep at the wheel when it comes to original television content, although how much of that is him and how much is Cook is up for debate. Either way, Apple is so far behind. They should have been the first to launch original programming back when the first Apple TV hit the market. Of course, that was when Steve was around and he clearly didn't get it either. But now that Amazon and Netflix have more than proved the model, where is Apple, with its HUGE installed base? Planet of the Apps, that amateurish snooze-fest? Carpool Karaoke, whose moment has long passed? What are they waiting for???
Cue seems very much like a B-player to me who, for whatever reasons, is playing in an A-game environment. While I can't point to any clear disaster on his part, I also can't help but shake the feeling that were another executive in charge of these divisions and products, we'd see much better offerings.