Eddy Cue: Steve Jobs Would Be 'Extremely Proud' of Apple's Current and Future Products

[TallManNY]

Best pipeline in 25 years? Well that certainly seems to be promising quite a bit. Of course, since all products get iteratively better each year, perhaps this is basically true every year. I mean this year's iMac should be better than last years. This year's iPhone should be better than last years. Of course if this is what he means, I will be disappointed.

Apple is spending vastly more money every year on R&D. It has more engineers and programmers and infrastructure every year. So it should be able to produce more every year. Last year was actually pretty good. The highlights being iOS 7, the A7 64-bit chip, TouchID, and the iPad Air/mini Retina. If Apple can beat that list, I'm going to be really impressed. Between the Watch and an AppleTV evolutionary product, I think they can.

Throw in my crazy prediction about Virtual Reality goggles (which I feel like the technology is ready), and then the Pipeline would be insanely great.

 

[kiwizoo]

Apple brand from here to...where?

I wonder what Apple knows. As someone who has spent the past 24 years in branding and marketing (including, now, some 30 of the top 100 global brands) I cannot fathom this decision. We've been scratching our heads in the agency for a couple of days, analysing markets and trends, and nothing (and I mean NOTHING) of substance has come up to justify the purchase price or predict the plus-side to this acquisition.

Apple are brilliant at seeing the road ahead, no doubt about it. But this one just ...draws a blank. Steve Jobs' magical ability to see into the future was legendary, but this? Even when you crunch the numbers it doesn't add up.

Two ways this can go - there is something TRULY magical in the pipeline in the headphones/streaming space.

Or Apple has run out of ideas.

I so hope it's the former.

 

[Zeb23]

Steve Jobs would be thrashing in his grave if he knew how large his beloved iphone was about to become. And he definitely wouldn't have cared about buying some headphone company with "special audio." he would have had Apple create their own version of "special."

Nowadays it seems companies are content to just buy ideas instead of thinking for themselves.

 

[LordVic]

I so hope this is true!!!! I am bored of hearing "we have great things in the pipeline." I really want to see great things like -- .

I couldn't agree more.

I'm not bored of Apple's products. I"m not of the mindset of "stale". Products that work well, work well, and don't need radical redesign every year.

But, the last couple years now we've been hearing the reality distortion field in full swing. everyone at Apple is saying "we've got great things coming".

But in the last couple years, I don't think we've seen Apple rock the boat with anything truly "great" or groundbreaking or even new.

Great products. Some great revisions to their products. Some added features that are innovative. But absolutely nothing that lives up to the hype that Cue, Cook and the other wizards of oz have been claiming was coming.

I think this is why there's a lot of dissastification at the post Jobs era. Its not that we expect the accountant Cook to be the new Steve Jobs. But don't continuously spout the same "BIG THINGS ARE COMING!" and then constantly not deliver.

its now June 2014. with only 6 months left in the year, if Apple isn't ready to go NOW with one of those "next big things", 2014 will not be kind to them. Especially when Cook promised 2014 would see some big releases from Apple (https://www.macrumors.com/2013/12/2...loyees-reflecting-on-2013-big-plans-for-2014/).

Not to mention, that Apple and Co keep saying things about "taking time to do things right, and not first", then.. well, not doing things right. 2014 has not been kind to Apple for security bugs, glitches, And unexpected cut-off of services to users and very slow product updates.

 

[OtherJesus]

Lots of old men on these forums that can't see the future, making comments as if they have ran their own business before, as if they themselves knew Steve better than Eddy.

Entertaining as always, keeping me youthful.

Good game, macrumors.

 

[sza]

Steve would have turned over in his grave if he had heard this...

 

[LordVic]

Steve Jobs would be thrashing in his grave if he knew how large his beloved iphone was about to become. And he definitely wouldn't have cared about buying some headphone company with "special audio." he would have had Apple create their own version of "special."

Nowadays it seems companies are content to just buy ideas instead of thinking for themselves.

I'm not sure how you came to this conclusion.

Apple has always been in the business of buying ideas that they decide they want to incorporate into their devices.

heck, the multi-touch technology in the first iPhone wasn't Apple invented. it was purchased from a company called Fingerworks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Apple

here's a big list of Apple's acquisitions over their life. you can see a good indication that Apple has not historically always "done it themselves", but often buy the technology, then tweak and modify it for their ideas and uses.

Nothing wrong with it. This is business and how it operates.

What Job's likely would have done, was not buy beats, but buy some other new startup headphone company who was developing some new headphone technology. Apple would buy that company and continue the development then release that "new technology" as an exclusive Apple innovation

 

[Rodster]

Eddy, I actually think he'd be throwing chairs at you guys right about now. What fresh new ideas have you guys offered after his passing other than slimmer and thinner?

And now you guys are betting the farm with Beats?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/29/us-apple-beats-iovine-idUSKBN0E90NN20140529

 

[PatriotInvasion]

I wonder what Apple knows. As someone who has spent the past 24 years in branding and marketing (including, now, some 30 of the top 100 global brands) I cannot fathom this decision. We've been scratching our heads in the agency for a couple of days, analysing markets and trends, and nothing (and I mean NOTHING) of substance has come up to justify the purchase price or predict the plus-side to this acquisition.

Apple are brilliant at seeing the road ahead, no doubt about it. But this one just ...draws a blank. Steve Jobs' magical ability to see into the future was legendary, but this? Even when you crunch the numbers it doesn't add up.

Two ways this can go - there is something TRULY magical in the pipeline in the headphones/streaming space.

Or Apple has run out of ideas.

I so hope it's the former.

I too have been in branding and marketing for a decade, and I don't see what you don't get. I'll list 3 easy points that show why this makes sense:

1.) iTunes is losing ground to streaming competitors and its model has become dated. Beats Music is beautifully designed and aligns well with Apple's passion for clever music curation and already has the agreements with labels in place. Combine that with the respect and pull Iovine and Dre have in the record business and you have a powerful combo.

2.) Walk into your local Apple Store tonight - tell me what headphones you see at every single iPhone or iPod Touch docking station --- Beats by Dre. Then walk to the back of the store and tell me if you see Beats Pill bluetooth speakers. You will, so its seems Apple and Beats brands have been playing nicely together for some time in Apple's own retail stores. Those products are also highly reviewed on Apple.com. Why not get a cut of some of that profit?

3.) Apple's primary revenue stream comes from iOS devices now. Every iOS device has significant use-case for headphones. Beats is the leader in the high margin headphone market regardless of your thoughts on whether their sound quality deserves it. They are. They sell. So do portable bluetooth speakers which Beats makes as well. Jony Ive's design team is taking over design for Beats accessories so I think we can expect even better hardware to come at high margin revenue for Apple.

Forget about what they paid. They were sitting on $150,000,000,000. This is a good move for Apple. Most people that disagree simply seem to be uncomfortable with Beats' popularity in hip-hop culture.

 

[arefbe]

its weird to me how they still try to milk the SJ "brand" era. the past is the past lets move on to the future and be proud of your own products without always going back to "SJ would have ..."

stand on your own two feet TC (but let someone else do the keynote cuz his voice literally ... zZz ...)

The most cogent observation I've read on this thread so far.

 

[Chrjy]

Lots of old men on these forums that can't see the future

Lots of kids on these forums thinking they can see the future...

 

[dvoros]

Proud my butt

Of course not. Apple tends to wait until its competition releases all the new innovations before it puts our its old, tired looking devices. Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave with the lack of anything inspiring nor creative from Apple.

 

[kdarling]

Forget about what they paid. They were sitting on $150,000,000,000.

Although "only" $18 billion is available in the US. So it was a pretty good chunk of that.

(Of course, Apple just borrows money in the US when they need it, as that's cheaper than paying US taxes to bring in the overseas cash.)

 

[SusanK]

Naked Emperor

The Emperor is not wearing any clothes.

 

[iBug2]

You realise WWDC is about software........

They almost always announce some hardware at WWDC.

 

[iCore24]

Anyone know where we can watch the whole interview?

 

[iBug2]

They still have the iPod line which should honestly die except maybe the iPod touch,

No, kill the touch, it's just an iPhone without the phone. Keep the nano and the shuffle because they still have the advantage of being used while jogging and other sports while the iPhone is too heavy.

Two iPads and going to increase to a third most likely,

Tell me when that happens.

Macbook air and pro, which is rather unneeded, just make it to one line,

So just like before, when we had the regular MacBook and the MacBook Pro. I don't see more products here but since they killed the 17", less.

IPhone 5c, and 5s which will probably expand to iPhone 6,6c and a monster iPhone

Tell me when that happens.

That's a lot of products. And I only mentioned about half that are getting bloated just like it was with the Pepsi man.

They killed XServe, they killed dual socket Mac Pro and dropped to a single socket single design machine. They killed 3 sizes of Apple displays and are selling a single size. It seems to me that they are running with less products than 10 years ago. I understand that they keep introducing new product categories, which is a fine thing, but among the categories they already have, they are mostly axing products.

----------

Although "only" $18 billion is available in the US. So it was a pretty good chunk of that.

(Of course, Apple just borrows money in the US when they need it, as that's cheaper than paying US taxes to bring in the overseas cash.)

It's mostly irrelevant how much cash is on US soil. Apple spends their cash all over the world, not just in US. It'd only matter if they wanted to buy an American company which costs 150 billion dollars, in which case, they wouldn't be able to.

----------

I couldn't agree more.

I'm not bored of Apple's products. I"m not of the mindset of "stale". Products that work well, work well, and don't need radical redesign every year.

But, the last couple years now we've been hearing the reality distortion field in full swing. everyone at Apple is saying "we've got great things coming".

But in the last couple years, I don't think we've seen Apple rock the boat with anything truly "great" or groundbreaking or even new.

Great products. Some great revisions to their products. Some added features that are innovative. But absolutely nothing that lives up to the hype that Cue, Cook and the other wizards of oz have been claiming was coming.

I think this is why there's a lot of dissastification at the post Jobs era. Its not that we expect the accountant Cook to be the new Steve Jobs. But don't continuously spout the same "BIG THINGS ARE COMING!" and then constantly not deliver.

its now June 2014. with only 6 months left in the year, if Apple isn't ready to go NOW with one of those "next big things", 2014 will not be kind to them. Especially when Cook promised 2014 would see some big releases from Apple (https://www.macrumors.com/2013/12/2...loyees-reflecting-on-2013-big-plans-for-2014/).

Not to mention, that Apple and Co keep saying things about "taking time to do things right, and not first", then.. well, not doing things right. 2014 has not been kind to Apple for security bugs, glitches, And unexpected cut-off of services to users and very slow product updates.

I agree that they should stop with the "great things are coming", but like you said, they don't have to come up with anything like the iPhone every year, or even every 5 years. I don't see anything interesting on the horizon from Apple, or from any other tech company right now. The only actually interesting thing for the future for me is graphene right now.

 

[MacrumoursUser]

Why do i get the feeling that Apple just bought two jerks for 3 billions?

 

[MH01]

They almost always announce some hardware at WWDC.

Agreed, just not enough for me to put my foot in my mouth as the poster suggested.

 

[MH01]

About the same as he thought about the iPhone 4's issues. Or the iBook graphics cards. Or the MacBook plastic cracking. Or The G4 PowerMac shipping dates. Or the TiBook's paint flaking. Or the G3 iMac's shoddy 28.8 modem.

and this new category is going to blow my socks of, and my foot in my mouth..... more so than the iPhone when it was first introduced.... interesting. NO!

 

[stuffradio]

That leader-cultish "SJ would"-drum is starting to become a bit creepy.

Steve Jobs would vote your comment down.

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

I absolutely hate Walt Mossberg. He is a terrible interviewer and doesn't give anyone a chance to talk. He is more interested in listening to himself phrase his question than he is in the answer. Put David Pogue there instead. Mossberg is a pain to watch.

 

[LordQ]

I've always liked Eddy Cue. I think he is a great presenter and seems fairly honest and genuine. With that being said, I'm excited for this years WWDC and Apples fall product lineup.

Yeah, me too... Something tells me he might be the next CEO :O

 

[DooDuh]

I've always liked Eddy Cue. I think he is a great presenter and seems fairly honest and genuine. With that being said, I'm excited for this years WWDC and Apples fall product lineup.

I don't know anything about Eddy Cue except that his shirt is unbuttoned WAY too low, exposing WAY too much hairy chest!

From a female perspective... NOT cool, dude!

 

[Millah]

At the end of the day, these guys knew Jobs personally and counted him as a friend for a long time. That's a hell of a lot more than anyone on this forum did, or ever will. So people twisting his words or suggesting that Jobs would otherwise like/dislike what the Apple executives are doing really have absolutely no clue, and should keep their useless vitriol to themselves.

Bravo *slowclap*