Your logic is flawed. Serving the customer is how a company like Apple became so successful. So yes, Apple is all about the customer.
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From “think different “ to “Rethink nothing!”. It’s time for Tim to go!
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I don't think so. You are correct in saying that serving the customer is how a company like Apple became so successful. And Apple does need to continue selling to customers to remain successful.
What Apple doesn't have to do now, is serve the customer. Or as you put it, be all about the customer. Angela Ahrendts is a good example of this. In she came and out went the genius bar. Apple geniuses began to focus more on metrics and sales quotas than actually helping the customer.
That may not be evident in all parts of Apple…yet.
But who will replace him? The obvious choice might be Craig but he lacks vision as well. Apple's software might have gotten a lick of paint recently but it's still the same old iOS underneath for better and worse. Phil Schiller would be a shoe in but he suffers from the same problem as the rest of the candidates: they're all too close to retirement.
Apple should being back Tony Fadell.
Apple should being back Tony Fadell.
Three points:
- Siri was introduced by Jobs — not Cook. It was innovative for what was essentially pre-modern rules-based AI. Converting such a massive, monolithic platform to two-generations removed LLM-based Gen AI is only easy to armchair software architects. Pinning that on Cook is sketchy.
- It’s interesting that Apple Silicon is completely ignored when it is arguably the most consequential innovation in Apple history — just because it was delivered on Cook’s watch. I’m using an M1 Max MacBook Pro that was purchased on launch day and that machine still makes me smile every time I use it. It’s the best personal computer I’ve ever used. Period.
- This is the first time I’ve heard that billions of people hate the HomePod and attribute that to Siri. That comment doesn’t even qualify as stretching the truth because there’s zero truth in it.
”Think different” is good. But it can be dangerously close to “Change for the sake of change”. I think Apple has been doing great. Their products are on another level. We’ve just got used to how good they are.
I don’t fully disagree, but… Apple is a victim of its own success - they are no longer that scrappy, risk-it-all, change-the-world company of the past. They are so big that they are under the microscope of customers, shareholders, and now even world leaders and governments. They are almost forced to play it safe. Heck, people criticize placement of menu buttons now! I would advise Tim to create a ‘skunk works’ division with the expertise, passion, creative and freedom to ‘think different again’ and reinvigorate today’s Apple.
Why would or should they replace him?
Just asking chatgpt, it seems Apple's market cap was 350 - 500 billion when Tim Cook took over, versus today when 3.3 trillion (or if you will, over 3,000 billion).
Using any and every metric available, Apple has been wildly successful with Tim Cook at the helm.
Apple is the giant now, and it is enjoying the luxury it comes with, that of having users choosing it out of habit (besides making it more difficult to choose alternatives ).
Became successful, indeed. Doesn't mean it has professionalised and now it's just your ordinary corp.
I really did lol when I read this. I’d like it to be lighter and cheaper but could never conceive of it being underwhelming. I don’t know what people expected.
Are you referring to hardware or software, and if the latter, specifically WWDC? Because this one was the best in quite a long while. So much genuine improvement to all the platforms and a ton of things for developers (it is for them, not really the lay audience) to make more interesting and capable apps.
Very little empty sparkle, though. Were you hoping for more of last year’s empty promises?
Very little empty sparkle, though. Were you hoping for more of last year’s empty promises?
It’s not good enough for what I want out of it but man oh man is it not remotely underwhelming. An impressive piece of hardware! Looking forward to an improved version in the coming years that will absolutely join my stall of (serious) toys.
Rather than hand waving at all of the post and calling it "lots of BS", could you perhaps more constructively share what you disagree with and why?
Losing the Genius Bar sucked.
Turned the stores for techie hubs with decent experiences to boring high-end retail shops.
The non-hardware component (OS X) on your lists is arguably the single most important element. It laid the foundation for everything Jobs envisioned, beginning with iPod. It's difficult to understate the importance of NeXT.
You've also left out another critical Jobs decision, arguably the most important aspect of the iPad: Apple silicon. Jobs, not Cook, should be credited for that critical first step with A4 in 2010.
On the other hand, I think you've left out Cook's most important legacy, an utterly disruptive, transformative, and still-reverberating decision for the semiconductor industry: Apple's partnership with TSMC begun in 2014, but really forged with A10/A10X Fusion in 2016/2017. As a result, you have rightly (in my opinion) credited the ongoing success of Apple's Mac silicon to Cook, because it's built on that strong relationship with TSMC.
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The PC, tablet and phone markets are basically sorted. Whether its an apple device, google device, microsoft device, etc.
What are you expecting?
Are you whining that Microsoft haven't released anything exciting? Because their last "exciting" product developments were the MS Surface (which is a flop pretty much) and Hololens, which has been discontinued because it flopped. Oh and there was also Microsoft phone that flopped. Windows has basically just gotten worse since Windows 2000; 7 was a high note but XP and 8, 8.1, 10 and 11 are all trash.
Google? Tablets are crap, wearables are crap. Netbooks are crap...
Complaining about them as well?
i remember watching the first steps of "VR" on a show called beyond 2000, back in the 90s.
How can a company that is The World’s Most Valuable company, with the highest brand loyalty, and highest CSAT be “ordinary?”
A single superlative makes one “unique” not ordinary.
Three superlatives (that are important and demonstrable) puts one in the Highlander universe where “There can be only one.” Most would consider that extraordinary. 😉
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You seem to forget that many of us are not only enthusiastic Apple users but also stockholders. The two are not mutually exclusive.
My guess is that Apple has a skunk works going already. I certainly hope so. Apple would need to keep its skunk works secret to avoid feeding the trolls; just look at how many people here dis on the AVP, a superb piece of new tech yet some visionless folks expect to have it be an instantly successful pet rock.
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In Tim’s era we got the AirPods, the Apple Watch, the Apple Pencil, the Vision Pro. In addition to that, they dared to switch to their own silicon. That didn’t come from nothing. They try new stuff, they dare, they make great products.
Issues with Tim are mostly due to developer relationships and being restrictive about many policies, but that has nothing to do with what you’re saying here.
This is a really good answer. The OP’s premise is wrong.
