Seven Years Ago Today: Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple, Tim Cook Named His Successor

[69Mustang]

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

7 years and a trillion dollar valuation later...

"I was right!!"
-smug ghost of Steve Jobs

 

[TheShadowKnows!]

Biblical.

Seven years of fat, and healthy cows (very creative!); followed by seven years of apologetically bulimic cows (non too creative, but yet, profitable).

The transformation of "be different" to "be fanciful" is complete -- all in seven years.
Who would have guessed?

 

[Dave245]

Tim Cook was the right man for the job, he had a big role to fill and he’s done it really well. People like to highlight failures far too much, sure there has been some mistakes (even under Job there were) but what about the BIG successes such as the Apple Watch? the best smart watch on the market, the iPad Pro and lets not forget the Airpods and iPhone X with Face ID.

Nothing is perfect and Apple really need to sort out the Mac laptop line up (update the Air please for general consumers as is rumoured) and a redesigned iMac would be nice along side the new Mac Pro for 2019.

 

[tallscot]

Steve would have never approved of the notch.

 

[weup togo]

Steve’s greatest mistake. Anyone who conflates stock price and sales volumes for making the best products is too young, too naive, or just too dumb to speak about what Apple is or isn’t.

 

[MRrainer]

In fairness to Tim, that picture is from 2007, four years before he became CEO.

Still a bit shocking.
But ISTR Tim Cook claiming that he's lost some weight with the help of the Apple watch. That usually makes people look older.

As for the "He ain't no Jobs" whiner-crowd: I'm also sad that Apple doesn't produce a 3.5" phone anymore.
Also, it's kind of sad that the MacMini languishes around and hardware-refreshes come at ostensible snail-speed.
But I'm not convinced it would be much better under Jobs.

If you want to believe the Issacson-biography, projects he didn't have his finger on languished around with no progress.
And the day only had so many hours.
Cook can at least delegate better (reportedly).

 

[SweetKiddo]

The sad thing is, seven years later, Apple is selling almost the exact same line up of products as when Steve Jobs was CEO. The only difference is bigger or smaller screens. There has been ZERO innovation at Apple since Steve Jobs left.

 

[Dawizkid]

I think as a computer for design the PC is finally catching up to Apple. Which is worst than bad. Because I loved being the only one with a Mac. Now I see Apple devices everywhere and the quality is, meh... So, with painful reluctance; I am considering a PC but it has to be totally bug free, reliable, fast and reliable. Did I say bug free, reliable, and fast? I really need my tools to be bug free, fast and reliable.

From a business and a shareholder perspective, Jobs' recommendation was spot on, Cook has done amazing things, and made Apple into the cell phone giant that it is today.

From my perspective as a long time Apple fan, he is no Jobs, and my love for Apple has diminished to the point that for the first time since the mid-90's, I am strongly looking elsewhere for my electronic needs.

 

[MRrainer]

Steve would have never approved of the notch.

Is that irony?
He approved the iPhone 4, the "you're holding it wrong" phone - against the advice of his engineers.

He also was against the iPad Mini. These days, people complain because there's no new iPad Mini.


People forget so easily.

 

[StellarVixen]

"I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it"

The biggest mistake Steve Jobs ever made.

Complete lack of innovation.

Poorly designed Hardware.

Shoddy after sales service.

The shareholder is doing well though.

And yet, the Board of Directors still do not think that there is anything wrong with that.

As long as the cash is flowing, and the shareholders are happy, the chairman will not touch Cook. And the chairman is the only one who calls the shots.

 

[Juicy Box]

I disagree. What are your reasons for thinking so?

I don't have the time to give a long list of things, but one quick thing to mention is the iPhone 6.

Every iPhone prior was very unique when compared to the competition. The competition would sometimes copy certain features of the iPhone, but the iPhone alway stood out from the others.

I remember being excited on the day of the iPhone 6 event, I waited until after it was over to get all the info at once from one of the live feeds. When I was scrolling down the screen on my iPhone 5s to see the new iPhone, I thought I couldn't find it or I scrolled over it.

But, I did see it, I just didn't recognize it as an iPhone.

I thought the iPhone 6 was an android phone from another manufacture. I thought Apple was comparing their phone to the competition during the keynote, but I was mistaken, it was the iPhone 6.

The the iPhone 6, 6s, 6ss, and 6ss+glass, Apple lost their uniqueness and originality that I have grown to love.

I guess another way of explaining, if there was a pile of smart phone in the center of a table in 2013, it would not be very hard to pick out the iPhones quickly, an iPhone could be easily recognizable even at a distance. Fast-forward to a few years later, and they all look alike now.

Today, a statement that I hear often from one person to another standing right next to them while holding their iPhone is "do you use Android or iPhone?" A few years ago, most of the time you didn't have to ask.

So, that explains my issue with the iPhone 6 event.
And then, iOS 9 happened....

 

[MRrainer]

The sad thing is, seven years later, Apple is selling almost the exact same line up of products as when Steve Jobs was CEO. The only difference is bigger or smaller screens. There has been ZERO innovation at Apple since Steve Jobs left.

I'm glad they didn't "innovate" too much.
The black cylinder "trash can" MacPro was enough experimentation in that department for my taste - and I'm glad I never really was in the market for one.

 

[AppleFan91]

Those that are always so critical of Tim, while always remembering Steve through rose-colored glasses, just remember that Steve chose Tim. They are both incredibly qualified and gifted leaders. Obviously they had their strengths and their weaknesses, but they both know what they are doing.

 

[Scooz]

Thanks to Tim for keeping the company alive.

Still, would be nice if he wouldn‘t promote entertainment over leadership skills and vision when it comes to the VP roles.

 

[Juicy Box]

And then there's the even smaller contingent of people like me who were there since the late 70s and still there because we believe Apple's mission hasn't changed at all

I think the Job's from the 70's would strongly disagree.

 

[centauratlas]

True. The company was never this prosperous under Steve Jobs.

I think the difference is that Cook is more of a technocrat businessman who is quite good at executing. He doesn't have the vision and attention to detail that Jobs had on the design side. Jobs was great because he was good at seeing what people wanted and creating it even when they weren't sure they needed it - e.g. the Lisa and Mac. Or the iPod or iPhone.

Did people running MSDOS think they needed Lisa or Mac (or Sun or Apollo or Alto for that matter)? Or the iPod when there were other MP3 players? Or the iPhone when Blackberry ruled? No, no, and no.

I don't think Cook and Ive could have come up with them. Sure, Cook was good at getting the manufacturing done. Ive was good at some of the design elements (not over-thinness). I don't think that until or unless Cook finds people with similar vision and the authority to implement that vision that we'll see huge changes like that. Incremental, sure, look at HomePod and recent iPhones. They are definite improvements, but it is the difference between an upgraded Apple ][ with DOS 3.3 or IBM PC with MSDOS and the GUI interface.

 

[tallscot]

Is that irony?
He approved the iPhone 4, the "you're holding it wrong" phone - against the advice of his engineers.

He also was against the iPad Mini. These days, people complain because there's no new iPad Mini.


People forget so easily.

You mean sarcasm?

Yes, Steve Jobs made a lot of choices of beauty over functionality over his career. How long did it take for him to put the ports on the front of the Mac Pro? LOL What a pain that was, having to go behind the thing just to plug in headphones or a USB thumb drive.

But he would have never, ever accepted that notch in the screen interfering with what is really important, the content.

I'm looking forward to a modular Mac Pro next year, something else Steve would have never approved of. ha ha!

 

[PlayUltimate]

Still a bit shocking.
But ISTR Tim Cook claiming that he's lost some weight with the help of the Apple watch. That usually makes people look older.

As for the "He ain't no Jobs" whiner-crowd: I'm also sad that Apple doesn't produce a 3.5" phone anymore.
Also, it's kind of sad that the MacMini languishes around and hardware-refreshes come at ostensible snail-speed.
But I'm not convinced it would be much better under Jobs.

If you want to believe the Issacson-biography, projects he didn't have his finger on languished around with no progress.
And the day only had so many hours.
Cook can at least delegate better (reportedly).

I still remember the languishing while waiting for advances in the Power PC chip.

 

[Dave245]

There has been ZERO innovation at Apple since Steve Jobs left.

Apple Watch for one!

 

[Baymowe335]

And here are just a few facts to support Cook's leadership of Apple:

• Cook has taken the stock from an adjusted $50/share to $215.
• Cook has created around $700 BILLION in shareholder value.
• Cook has over doubled total revenue from $100B in 2011 to $230B in 2017.
• Cook has taken iPhone from 70M units/yr to well over 210M.
• Cook has introduced the best selling Watch in the world.
• Cook has taken "other products" with Watch, Airpods, HomePod, etc to $20B/yr business.
• Cook has made Apple the undisputed leader in Mobile Silicon
• Cook has pushed Services into a 30% growth, $30B/yr business.

 

[Mike MA]

I really wonder, if rumors are true, if we would have seen an Apple Car under Steve Jobs. We will never know...

 

[Baymowe335]

I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it"

Jobs couldn't have been more correct.

Everything you mentioned is based on your feeling, not facts. If anything you said were true, the company wouldn't be doing so well. Period. End of discussion.

If you reply, come back with facts you can support with data.

 

[tallscot]

I think as a computer for design the PC is finally catching up to Apple. Which is worst than bad. Because I loved being the only one with a Mac. Now I see Apple devices everywhere and the quality is, meh... So, with painful reluctance; I am considering a PC but it has to be totally bug free, reliable, fast and reliable. Did I say bug free, reliable, and fast? I really need my tools to be bug free, fast and reliable.

Yeah, I've been hearing about how Windows PCs have caught up for a couple years and then I recently spent 3 weeks using Adobe CC and Powerpoint on Windows 10. It hasn't caught up! LOL Windows is still garbage.

Believe me, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to build my own PC using nVidia's brand new GPU. But the OS is just garbage.

You know how in OS X you can grab a JPEG and just drag it onto the Photoshop icon in your dock and it gets launched into Photoshop? Forget about doing that in Windows.

You know how if you have a Photoshop file open and you go to the Finder and you decide you want to move that file to a different folder, or you want to rename it? Forget about doing that in Windows. You will get an error message. You have to close the file first, then you can move the file or rename it. And if you want to rename or move files on the company network, you'll have to do that in the middle of the night because if one employee has one file open on that network, you get an error.

The open/save dialogue in Windows is the same as it was a decade ago. You know how in the Finder you have a sidebar with your favorites and that sidebar shows up in the open/save dialogue? Not in Windows! In Windows, you will be browsing your file system ALL THE TIME because it doesn't have a list of recent places like OS X, and it doesn't give you your favorites from your sidebar.

And just switching between open apps in Windows requires more steps. It doesn't switch between apps, it switches between WINDOWS. So if you have a few open in Photoshop and you click on the Photoshop icon in the taskbar, it brings up every open document as a thumb for you to pick. Insane!

I could go on and on. Windows is still garbage. Believe me.

 

[citysnaps]

And here are just a few facts to support Cook's leadership of Apple:

• Cook has taken the stock from an adjusted $50/share to $215.
• Cook has created around $700 BILLION in shareholder value.
• Cook has over doubled total revenue from $100B in 2011 to $230B in 2017.
• Cook has taken iPhone from 70M units/yr to well over 210M.
• Cook has introduced the best selling Watch in the world.
• Cook has taken "other products" with Watch, Airpods, HomePod, etc to $20B/yr business.
• Cook has made Apple the undisputed leader in Mobile Silicon
• Cook has pushed Services into a 30% growth, $30B/yr business.

And I bet Mr. Cook accomplished all of the above milestones while not once feeling so privileged and entitled with his position, to park his car in the handicapped parking spaces near the front door.

 

[DJMarty]

I hope they have a succession plan for Jony Ive