Report: Tim Cook to Step Down as Apple CEO 'as Soon as Next Year'

[JohnC1959]

Just going address that last point since it is related to what I work on in the geospatial end of things: map routing optimization is usually not designed to repeat the same route backwards, it’s designed to get you the best possible route. So it is very likely that given the map layers and data sources Maps is using to pick that route it probably does have very valid reasons for why it’s not the same route in both directions, and that will happen with any mapping tool albeit in different ways depending again on the underlying data and whatever priorities the routing model is using

Strongly agree. I think modern routing algorithms even factor in such things as right vs left turns and such. I myself, when going to vs coming back will intentionally choose different routes where I know the turns and traffic lights will favor me. Making a left turn from a side street onto a busy street without a light can take forever in heavy traffic. I think you'll also get different results based on time of day due to changes in traffic patterns.

 

[smulji]

Two things can be true at once:

1. PHENOMENAL run by Cook.
2. It's time for some fresh leadership and direction.

Nailed it

 

[turbineseaplane]

Yes this is true. Some would argue that Apple is playing the long game. Apple TV was always going to struggle to compete against Netflix, Hulu, Disney and the other bigger streaming service. Apple has to rely too much on original programing and sports. But Apple probably sees and end game where they will start to become more of a sports hub, MLB, MLS, NHL and that will start to allow it to turn the corner.

That's a very hopeful take.
Color me skeptical.

In the meantime, it's a cash inferno.
My only point is that new leadership may look to cut there first.

 

[Abydos]

ok, at this point will we see less than stellar products lines quietly disappear or just a change in emphasis initially

 

[OverTheHill]

No, because neither did Steve Jobs.
I feel like this is a well-known fact already that people like to ignore, but, Apple has never really been the company to *invent* things. Even the iPhone was a bunch of technology that already existed compiled together, it wasn’t even the first touchscreen phone, an apple at that time, even didn’t create the majority of technology put into it.
However under Cook we have seen…
The first iPad, MacBook, iMac and external display with retina quality resolution. When Jobs passed away outside of the iPhone, the highest quality display you could get on a mobile Apple product was sub-1080P.
The first Apple created CPU and GPU. While Steve Jobs saw the introduction of the A4 and A5, these were modified Samsung chips with PowerVR GPUs. The first truly designed by Apple CPU was the A6 in the iPhone 5, and Apple didn’t design its own in-house GPU until the A11 in 2017, over half a decade after jobs’ death.
The Apple Watch. Let’s not forget that the Samsung Galaxy gear introduced in 2013 set records for being one of Best Buy‘s most returned products in history, the Apple Watch was truly the first successful modern smart watch.
AirPods. Wireless headphones existed before it, but not quite in the same way. The AirPods were the first main stream truly wireless headphones, and even though it’s been forgotten over the years, they had features that we take for granted these days like a case that could recharge them on the go and automatic device pairing and switching.
The Neural Engine first used in the A11 Bionic. Despite Apple’s struggle with large language models, they were putting neural engines in their products five years before anyone knew what a LLM was.
FaceID. It’s level of security still hasn’t been matched, all of the competitors can still be fooled with photographs. As far as I know, it’s still the only facial recognition technology in a smart phone or a tablet that uses dot projection and has that level of security.
The M1 chip. Do I even need to elaborate? So, so much skepticism for something that ended up working out so, so well.
The Apple Vision Pro. Love it or hate it, it certainly isn’t a rehashed Jobs product, it is very much its own thing.

And this isn’t even barely scratching the surface of the moves that Apple has made within the last 15 years.

Let’s not forget how iTunes has morphed into the best digital video content delivery system for movies short of Kalaidescape. AppleTV+ programming costs drain is a different matter, but video to home content is unmatched. Could use DTS though now that it’s available. I think they missed the mark bailing out of Sunday Ticket competition. Trying to bundle it to AppleTV+ was a non starter.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

You know you can just go buy one, right? The 100s of millions of ipods in existence didnt get bricked when Apple stopped making them, ebay is flooded with ‘em, and Apple’s software still supports them. I still use a gen 3 iPod around the house

The complete irony about the iPod comment the original poster made is that 20 years ago, in 2005, the top-of-the-line iPod 4th generation was $599 for 60 GB.
Pop that into an inflation calculator and what do you get?
$996.19. You can literally buy an iPhone 16e with 8.5X the storage for close to the same price today. Don’t connect it to a cellular plan and leave it off Wi-Fi and you’ve got yourself a modern iPod.
You could even still synchronize it through a Mac or PC.

 

[turbineseaplane]

The complete irony about the iPod comment the original poster made is that 20 years ago, in 2005, the top-of-the-line iPod 4th generation was $599 for 60 GB.
Pop that into an inflation calculator and what do you get?
$996.19. You can literally buy an iPhone 16e with 8.5X the storage for close to the same price today. Don’t connect it to a cellular plan and leave it off Wi-Fi and you’ve got yourself a modern iPod.
You could even still synchronize it through a Mac or PC.

That's not what made an iPod .. an iPod.
I would say the same about the iPod touch line FWIW.

 

[DJC631]

Roll Tide to that. Hoping for a better direction for the VR tech.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

That's not what made an iPod .. an iPod.

Then what made an iPod an iPod exactly?
And don’t say the click wheel, the nano, Shuffle, and touch all didn’t have click wheels at the time of his death and the iPod classic hadn’t had a refresh in almost half a decade at the time of his death.
And also don’t say anything philosophical and meaningless like “ an iPod can only be an iPod if it has soul” or some nonsense like that.

 

[OverTheHill]

ok, at this point will we see less than stellar products lines quietly disappear or just a change in emphasis initially

I’m hoping they give the soundbar business some competition. Imagine a soundbar with an AppleTV built into it, a camera for FaceTime and remote surround speakers and subwoofer. They could offer it as a 3.1 product for places like a bedroom, 3.1.2 product with Atmos where you can add rear speakers, perhaps a new home pod with upfiring speakers. It wouldn’t be a dedicated system to be sure, but for people looking for a decent system for an apartment, condo or second viewing area they could give the likes of Sonos a run for their money.

Base System: 3.1
Atmos Base System: 3.1.2

Options:

Subwoofer
Home Pods (takes system to 5.1 or 5.1.2)
Atmos Enabled Home Pods (takes system to 5.1.4)

 

[turbineseaplane]

Then what made an iPod an iPod exactly?
And don’t say the click wheel, the nano, Shuffle, and touch all didn’t have click wheels at the time of his death and the iPod classic hadn’t had a refresh in almost half a decade at the time of his death.
And also don’t say anything philosophical and meaningless like “ an iPod can only be an iPod if it has soul” or some nonsense like that.

With that kind of tone to your question, I'm not even going to spend time on this, sorry.

 

[digimc]

That's a very hopeful take.
Color me skeptical.

In the meantime, it's a cash inferno.
My only point is that new leadership may look to cut there first.

Why would they cut it. They just extended their deal with MLS for another 8 years. Since the successor to Tim is likely to come from someone in his inner circle, it would be surprising to see Apple cut a service that exists inside a market that has enormous projected growth.

The reason it is losing money now, is the up front costs that Apple has had to spend to get the initial rights to all these non original content, like the sports leagues it has invested in.


Then you have people who get Apple TV for free as part of a bundle with their wireless carrier.

Apple has been spending very aggressively in the last couple of years to invest in MLB, MLS, F1 racing and other content. I can't imagine that they would go in this direction and then bail out in a year or two.

In any event Apple's other broader service lines are making up for Apple TV loses. So I am sure Apple is looking at the bigger picture.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I’m hoping they give the soundbar business some competition. Imagine a soundbar with an AppleTV built into it, a camera for FaceTime and remote surround speakers. They could offer it as a 3.1 product for places like a bedroom, 3.1.2 product with Atmos where you can add rear speakers, perhaps a new home pod with upfiring speakers. It wouldn’t be a dedicated system to be sure, but for people looking for a decent system for an apartment, condo or second viewing area they could give the likes of Sonos a run for their money.

I absolutely love this idea in concept.
In practice though? Idk, I feel like for a product that should reasonably last a decade or more like a home theater sound system, maybe it isn’t such a good idea to throw everything into it.
You end up with the same problem as the iMac, eventually the computer Ages but the display, camera, speakers, and everything else still works flawlessly.
Especially knowing Apple, it would be like, the best sounding coolest sound bar on the planet… with no optical input, no HDMI input, AirPlay or apple‘s proprietary connector only.
I’m basically having that exact problem with my HomePod mini today, the touchscreen is completely broken and the thing gets stuck in a reset loop so it isn’t exactly usable, but the actual speaker works flawlessly. And yet because one tiny component fails, the entire thing is pretty much garbage.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

With that kind of tone to your question, I'm not even going to spend time on this, sorry.

Hehe because you were going to say “the iPod had soul dude” weren’t you?

 

[OverTheHill]

I absolutely love this idea in concept.
In practice though? Idk, I feel like for a product that should reasonably last a decade or more like a home theater sound system, maybe it isn’t such a good idea to throw everything into it.
You end up with the same problem as the iMac, eventually the computer Ages but the display, camera, speakers, and everything else still works flawlessly.
Especially knowing Apple, it would be like, the best sounding coolest sound bar on the planet… with no optical input, no HDMI input, AirPlay or apple‘s proprietary connector only.
I’m basically having that exact problem with my HomePod mini today, the touchscreen is completely broken and the thing gets stuck in a reset loop so it isn’t exactly usable, but the actual speaker works flawlessly. And yet because one tiny component fails, the entire thing is pretty much garbage.

I don’t know man. If they did it right….Yamaha just dropped a $3500 5.1.2 soundbar system. They already allow connection with a BD player via the TV through ARC with the Home Pods with an AppleTV 4K. We have this setup in the bedroom. BD player connects to the TV and sound comes through the Home Pods. The HomePods are less than optimal because they take up so much space. A soundbar would be better below the screen. We made this change recently when the soundbar died.

 

[vantelimus]

What’s right for your stock or what’s right for the customers? I believe Steve cared about the customers and building innovative products in which case Crook has failed the customers and only cared about the shareholders and building out the anti-competitive behemoth that is AAPL.

Notice that no where in what Jobs said did he imply "right according to what I would think is right". That would have been contrary to what Jobs was saying.

For all the b*tching I do about Apple not adhering to its previous design philosophy, it still does better than any other company in any market. It's not even close. Maybe you shouldn't be a customer if you don't find the value. Go put together your ideal pastiche of Samsung, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and open source products that meet your requirements better than Apple. Get what you want. No one is stopping you.

 

[JohnC1959]

I absolutely love this idea in concept.
In practice though? Idk, I feel like for a product that should reasonably last a decade or more like a home theater sound system, maybe it isn’t such a good idea to throw everything into it.
You end up with the same problem as the iMac, eventually the computer Ages but the display, camera, speakers, and everything else still works flawlessly.
Especially knowing Apple, it would be like, the best sounding coolest sound bar on the planet… with no optical input, no HDMI input, AirPlay or apple‘s proprietary connector only.
I’m basically having that exact problem with my HomePod mini today, the touchscreen is completely broken and the thing gets stuck in a reset loop so it isn’t exactly usable, but the actual speaker works flawlessly. And yet because one tiny component fails, the entire thing is pretty much garbage.

I agree. In general I'm not a fan of "all-in-one" devices (with some exceptions) because you may well want a better version of some portion of it at a later date. But in certain budget cases or where someone values simplicity over other factors they can fit a market.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Apple needs a Satya Nadella.

Noooo! Nadella was great for pivoting Microsoft from B2B and B2C to just B2B and more specifically Business-to-Enterprise and now, AI. Balmer was, strangely enough, great for trying to get MS into the hands of consumers: Under him we got Xbox 360, WP, Zune, Surface, Band, Popup stores, headphones, probably tons more that I'm forgetting. Note: I'm not saying they did well, but that they existed and MS was chasing them.

Nadella is an Azure and Enterprise guy, 100%.

Apple could make the same pivot, but we the consumer would be utterly screwed over.

 

[F23]

Tim will finally have free time to do what he loves, Cooking.

 

[Abazigal]

I never said Tim or any CEO (of any company)oversaw the creation of any device. CEOs, as you mention, just don't do that...they're not that deep in the weeds.

You can't sit here and tell me (us) that Tim has overseen, as a CEO, grand new inventions in his almost 15 years as CEO . You say my comment about new products under Tim is laughable. I said under his watch we got Airtags and Beats. So what other products (that didn't completely fail like the Homepod and Vision) did he release (oh, again, in his ~15 years)? Please don't name the newly-introduced iPhone Pocket.

iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, smart / Magic Keyboard.

AirPods / AirPods Pro.

Apple Watch.

Apple silicon.

And I own them all, in addition to AirTags.

All tied together with Apple devices to form one very formidable and sticky ecosystem (Apple One, Apple Card).

 

[turbineseaplane]

Why would they cut it. They just extended their deal with MLS for another 8 years.

The sports stuff is different than the OG content, where I think all the losses are.

All I'm saying is... expect the unexpected with new leadership, particularly if it ends up coming from outside the company.

Anything is on the table here.

 

[MichaelAdam]

I think it is indeed time to step down and be thanked for his glorious service. He has taken one of the biggest challenge to replace Steve Jobs. And he has, I think succeeded until recently.
Thank you Tim.

 

[platinumaqua]

IMO not just Apple Intelligence but pretty much every LLM out there is kinda lame. These LLMs are frequently wrong. They're hyped-up a lot.

They learned from the bad PR of Siri being ridiculed because it admits it doesn't know something and search the web

 

[digimc]

That's not what made an iPod .. an iPod.
I would say the same about the iPod touch line FWIW.

The iPod touch was a compromise introduced by Apple for those who did not or could not get a cellular plan with AT&T. The iPod was Apple's effort to give people a mobile device, minus the phone and cellular data for those who either did not want to to do business with AT&T or for those who got very poor service or no service from AT&T.

It was never going to see major investment beyond its initial short intended life span.

The iPod lineup, in general, became more or less an accessory device after the iPhone became the enormous success it would eventually become.

 

[vantelimus]

Macrumors comments in 2030: John Ternus sucks, I miss Tim Cook, Tim Cook would never do this, etc.
But seriously Apple needs a product person at the helm ASAP. Tim did a great job optimizing everything and making Apple really efficient but its time for new exciting things. Time for a shake up.

You will, more likely, get the third-CEO syndrome as you will a product person. Even if you get a product person, will you get an Apple product person or someone with a completely different ideas? There's uncertainty in the future. Even if Ternus were to turn out to be a great product person, is he really a great product person who understands Apple holistically or is he like so many hardware executives, focused on selling iron to maximize P&L in his corner of the business?

I'm not positing an opinion on Ternus or anyone else. I'm just saying be careful what you wish for.