Dark_Omen
macrumors 65816
Hopefully security takes Tim’s stuff, puts it in cardboard boxes, and tosses it out the front door for him.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Tim Cook Comments on His Final Day as Apple CEO
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Dark_Omen
macrumors 65816
I doubt it. The board isn’t that heavily involved in the first place.
As long as Apple keeps making money, the CEO can do pretty much whatever they want. If Apple stops making money, there will be investment firms that make the board force Ternus out.
As for the day to day operations, products, and innovation — you couldn’t be more wrong.
R2FX
macrumors 6502
Good riddance Tim! As a shareholder I'd say 'thanks!', as a user 'freaking finally!!!' and as someone from Europe 'let's hope the G.E.B. activism era is over...and maybe we'll get live Keynotes back?'
2 big question marks - what is Apple going to do with supply chain dependency on China & who's stepping into the shoes of old leadership guard? Phill is just one example, Cue, Jos, that female head of HR ... all old, tired and uninspiring as leaders
2 big question marks - what is Apple going to do with supply chain dependency on China & who's stepping into the shoes of old leadership guard? Phill is just one example, Cue, Jos, that female head of HR ... all old, tired and uninspiring as leaders
I remember the Steve to Tim transition and reading at the time how Steve wanted to instil as much “Apple DNA” with Tim for the future of the company.
Does anyone think Tim succeeded in keeping Steve’s belief, ideas and logic in the last 15 years?
Also do you think the same conversations happened between Tim and John or do you think Steve’s apple dna is already lost?
Does anyone think Tim succeeded in keeping Steve’s belief, ideas and logic in the last 15 years?
Also do you think the same conversations happened between Tim and John or do you think Steve’s apple dna is already lost?
Luftkopf
macrumors 68000
visualseed
macrumors 65816
Succession planning is literally the primary fiduciary duty of Apple's board of directors. They do not just hand over the keys and look away. They deliberately groom and select candidates who will protect their specific vision of the company.
Furthermore, the idea that an Apple CEO can do "whatever they want" as long as the cash flows is a fantasy. At Apple's scale, a CEO is heavily constrained by multi-year hardware roadmaps, complex global supply chain realities, and a deeply entrenched corporate culture.
John Ternus has been at Apple since 2001. He helped build the exact system that exists today and oversaw the hardware engineering under Cook. You do not spend over two decades successfully executing inside a highly disciplined, conservative hardware machine, get promoted to the top spot, and suddenly turn into a radical wildcard. He is a product of the exact system he is poised to inherit.
capamac
macrumors 6502a
Jobs from an early age had an appreciation for good design and aesthetics. His appreciation of the Eichler homes of his youth; that he took calligraphy class in college. I don't see this appreciation at Apple now. Look at Liquid Glass.
There's an increasingly strong focus on making money the past several years. Sure, Jobs wanted to make money. But Apple is overly focused on money now. It seems Apple has become financialized. The mindset that focuses on profits and financialization is not the same class of mind Jobs had.
opeter
macrumors 68030
Tim is a smart guy. He leaves the CEO position at the peak, Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world right now. So no one can point a finger at him and say: look, what have you done! No, he did the right thing at the right time. And shareholders are also very happy.
SalisburySam
macrumors 65816
Current sitch post Tim: happy shareholder, abhor Liquid Glass, never even considered VisionPro, don’t wear a watch, mothballed the HomePods after “musicgate,” genuinely like Car Play on both vehicles, don’t use AirPods/AirTags, loved Airport Extreme, love Sequoia on my equally-loved M4 Mac mini, and my somewhat aging AppleTV4K works just fine thank you very much. Don’t see much of a change to my situation with Ternus at the helm, could be wrong.
Dirk Pieters
macrumors 6502a
Could not agree more. People who say Tim Cook did nothing have no idea and should not start their own company.
I'm going to add that bumping Services revenue and making Apple less dependent on the success of iPhone alone was massively important. There is nothing good about a single product being responsible for the majority of your profits.
Ternus has big boots to fill because - for all we know - he may bring back "innovation" but if that "innovation" does not sell then Apple will have problems.
Dirk Pieters
macrumors 6502a
Products should exist before you make them better. The fact that they already exist means that there is a market for them.
The real risk lies in releasing products that never existed before, for which no markets exist. We could argue that iPad was one of them, but - at the same time - iPhone and Android phones existed with touch tech when iPad was released so it was a calculated risk. The hype at that time was ideal as well.
Apple is best when it stands on the shoulders of giants and makes existing things better. Apple doesn't always do so well when they release something that is radically new.
Steve Jobs and Tim Cook are going to be legendary figures for Apple's history.
I have just as much optimism for what the new CEO will bring us.
I have just as much optimism for what the new CEO will bring us.
It just seems like a weird thing to pinpoint as being difficult. If you're a security guard for a billionaire, it's assumed you won't be home that often already.
I7guy
macrumors Westmere
A basic fundamental truth that many Apple critics fail to realize is profits come from customers buying profits and services.
To being a better version of themselves.
Nonsense.
Because customers bought products and services.
Unsubstantiated poppycock.
Since the above is ridiculous, this is just as ridiculous.
Sorry, just a lot of pretzel logic in the above.
It took 15 years and yep he stepped into a new role.
Steve picked him and he forked forstall. A good move from him.
He wasn’t equipped and Apple would have sunk under him, imo.
He didn’t have what it took as he was fired.
A visionary that screwed up.
There were several "stinkers" under Jobs too including:
- Apple III
- Lisa
- Macintosh Office
- Puck Mouse
- Power Mac G4 Cube
- iPod Hi-Fi
- iTunes Ping
It happens.
For a company the size of Apple, the amount spent on "Project Titan" (Apple Car) was pretty insignificant. Plenty of resources still went to iOS/macOS/iPadOS and many, many other things.
According to the SpaceX (X/Twitter is under SpaceX) S-1 IPO filing, X/Twitter has around 550 million monthly active users.
Luftkopf
macrumors 68000
Given how strongly some here hate him, it’s plausible that there are others who hate him even more, but don’t post about it. Add the fact he lead one of the biggest and most visible companies in a time of rising inequality, and a bodyguard wasn’t such bad idea.
Nice numbers, how many are bots? It was already a farce when I left ages ago. Friends who still check in from time to time say it’s gotten even worse now. I don’t miss it at all.
