How much of Tim's legacy is riding on the success of the VisionPro?

[satchmo]

No argument, Tim Cook has led Apple to become one of the most valuable companies in the world.
He is a logistics god and knows a thing or two about profit margins.

That said, one could argue this is Tim's biggest creative gamble.
He mentioned AR on numerous occasions dating back to close to a decade. It's now clear he was all-in and that this is his baby.

So win or lose, how much of his legacy is riding on the success of the VisionPro?

 

[KPOM]

It depends on how successful Apple Vision is. Clearly this first product is still in the experimental phase. It isn’t priced as for mass production, but the more important part is how this scales down and affects Apple’s other product lines. Just as iOS, iPadOS and macOS have evolved around each other visionOS may do the same.

 

[satchmo]

It depends on how successful Apple Vision is. Clearly this first product is still in the experimental phase. It isn’t priced as for mass production, but the more important part is how this scales down and affects Apple’s other product lines. Just as iOS, iPadOS and macOS have evolved around each other visionOS may do the same.

But that's the crux of my question. So if it fails massively and the VP ends up a very niche product, does it taint his legacy?

Will it reinforce that he was an excellent money guy but not much of a visionary? And of course, Steve Jobs is a tough act to follow.

 

[GrindedDown]

In my mind, this won’t taint his legacy in the slightest. The sheer number of incredible products and the absolutely absurd volume levels of those products that have been released under him are nothing short of remarkable. One of the best performances of an CEOs tenure ever, including Steve himself. Even if Apple Vision Pro ends up being a “failure“, I actually view it as a positive thing for Tim Cook. I’m happy that he was willing to make a creative gamble and introduce a new product category.

 

[jqc]

As a major new product category release,

 

[KPOM]

But that's the crux of my question. So if it fails massively and the VP ends up a very niche product, does it taint his legacy?

Will it reinforce that he was an excellent money guy but not much of a visionary? And of course, Steve Jobs is a tough act to follow.

If it’s a massive success like iPhone, it will enhance his legacy. If it turns out like Apple Watch (moderate success, leads its own category) it reinforces the view that he’s not a ”visionary” but still managed to develop markets beyond whatever road map Steve Jobs left. I think it’s more likely to be like the Watch. It will have a slow start, but Apple will keep plugging away and refine it around what customers actually use it for.

 

[BaldiMac]

I don't think his legacy will be affected by the success of the specific Vision Pro product. But spatial computing is the inevitable evolution of computing devices. What's important for Cook's legacy is how he sets the company to take control of the future of spatial computing.

 

[NT1440]

But that's the crux of my question. So if it fails massively and the VP ends up a very niche product, does it taint his legacy?

Will it reinforce that he was an excellent money guy but not much of a visionary? And of course, Steve Jobs is a tough act to follow.

I mean, the Apple Watch constitutes the biggest watch company on the planet, that was under Tim.

He led the company from nearly a trillion dollar valuation to now almost 3.

He’ll never be a pop culture icon like Steve or Bill Gates, but those days are long dead for the Tech industry anyway.

So I guess it comes down to what angle you consider when thinking about “legacy”? 🤷‍♂️

 

[Bodhitree]

So win or lose, how much of his legacy is riding on the success of the VisionPro?

I think the answer to that is, not much. Under Tim Cook, Apple’s wearables have become a success category, the iPhone’s market share is still growing, and Services are blossoming into a major profit center. If you look at the bigger picture, as things stand the Vision Pro is a minor coda in a much larger legacy.

Every one of Apple’s divisions is growing. That is no small achievement. And really, the success of the Vision line will only be determined once the consumer model comes out. If that is at say 2000 dollars, people will call it a fair price and it will sell.

But there is a lot of technology in the Vision Pro, both in the OS and in the hardware, and how they combine into a strategy.

 

[Eso]

Don’t know about legacy, but it’s very possible that if the Vision Pro fails (according to Apple’s metrics), he’ll probably be ousted as CEO. It’s obvious that the Apple Car project has been a 10-year catastrophe. If the Vision Pro fails as well, that would be 2 for 2 major hardware initiatives that didn’t pan out for the company. Investors and the board would likely see it as a huge misstep that caused Apple to be blindsided by the industry‘s pivot to generative AI. I would definitely imagine that they would be looking for someone else to come in and lead Apple in a different direction at that point. However, Tim has also had huge success with Apple Silicon and services.

All in all it would be a job well done but he’s reached the limit as to what any one person can contribute.

 

[NT1440]

Don’t know about legacy, but it’s very possible that if the Vision Pro fails (according to Apple’s metrics), he’ll probably be ousted as CEO. It’s obvious that the Apple Car project has been a 10-year catastrophe. If the Vision Pro fails as well, that would be 2 for 2 major hardware initiatives that didn’t pan out for the company. Investors and the board would likely see it as a huge misstep that caused Apple to be blindsided by the industry‘s pivot to generative AI. I would definitely imagine that they would be looking for someone else to come in and lead Apple in a different direction at that point. However, Tim has also had huge success with Apple Silicon and services.

All in all it would be a job well done but he’s reached the limit as to what any one person can contribute.

Apple doesn’t usually jump aboard the hype train. Someone is still going to have to explain to me why a car or toothbrush needs chatGPT.

How’s all that blockchain investment working out?

 

[Eso]

Someone is still going to have to explain to me why a car or toothbrush needs chatGPT.

I don‘t think anyone is trying to convince people that your car or toothbrush needs chatGPT. All you need to understand is that 100 technology companies turned right onto AGI and Apple turned left onto AR. Better believe that if that bet doesn’t pay off in a hurry, Apple is going to be looking for someone to make a U-turn in a hurry.

 

[NT1440]

I don‘t think anyone is trying to convince people that your car or toothbrush needs chatGPT. All you need to understand is that 100 technology companies turned right onto AGI and Apple turned left onto AR. Better believe that if that bet doesn’t pay off in a hurry, Apple is going to be looking for someone to make a U-turn in a hurry.

There absolutely is money being poured into Gpt in products that don’t have any use case for it. Volkswagen for example.

There is also no AGI anywhere. Language models are applied statistics to autocomplete, there is no knowledge there.

Apple is clearly working on AI (again AGI is a fools errand/pipe dream) but in true Apple fashion I expect it to be applied towards useful functionality instead of “gee whiz” tech demos to grab investment money. An example of this is the automatic occlusion of people who walk into your AVP session. That’s a hugely impressive AI function but Apple doesn’t *brand* it that way.

 

[Pinterra]

Tim Cook’s legacy is Apple’s supply chain. It always will be.

Not that a failure couldn’t mar that, but it would have to be really nasty. But I suppose operations aren’t as exciting to the average person as product success or failures.

Vision Pro’s legacy won’t be known, long term, perhaps until after Cook is retired.

 

[picpicmac]

how much of his legacy is riding on the success of the VisionPro?

I doubt much, if any.

Cook's "legacy" is about Apple's profitability. However, in the product space, one can point to the moving to Apple Silicon across the product line, as well as positioning Apple as the first user of 3nm and 2nm SoCs, as the big change that kept Apple's computers desirable, at least for the early to mid 2020's.

The real test of Cook, his last test, is how he picks his successors. That includes convincing the Board, as well as grooming the right individuals.

 

[martens]

Tim Cook's legacy is secure, it is all about the staggering profitability and commercial success of Apple that has enjoyed under his leadership. It will have nothing to do with success or failure of any given product. Vision Pro can fail without sinking Apple, obviously.