Tim Cook Discusses His Job, Apple's Long-Term Future, AI, Virtual Reality, and More

[smacrumon]

Agree if you are a teenager or twenty something acting like a teenager. If you need to use real computers, not so much.

Maybe a little eggagerated, but I get Apple has been neglecting Pro customers.
[doublepost=1471245440][/doublepost]

When was that pic taken? Ives has not been that skinny for years......

Really, you're making a dig at Ive's weight?

 

[wimdows]

Breadth of Siri "unbelievable"?!?

What's unbelievable is that Siri requires Internet access to play my music. Pathetic more like.

A small subset of the voice recognition engine could easily be baked into iOS.

 

[MH01]

Really, you're making a dig at Ive's weight?

I sure am. Quite a few of them seem to have put on weight......like execs waiting for retirement !

 

[RamGuy]

I do feel to a degree that Apple is behind the ball lately. Part of the problems are chip issues but just looking at the competition when it comes to phones one can see the tick tock mentality is going to have to end.

The next big iphone is not the one coming out this fall but the the one coming out next year with oled ok. So really there is nothing to be excited about, worse look at the rumored Samsung flagship phone specs for next year. 4k as a standard ( for google vr) while we are at 1080p. No 4k content on the itunes even though we were the first to the market with a 5k imac. You cant even watch 4k content on the imac via netflix or amazon prime which would seems like a common sense move. The ball was dropped on that.

The ipad pro with keyboard seems like a rip off of the surface yet lacks the simple understanding of not having a track pad? Instead we need to pay 100 for a pen? yes the pen is good but when you are trying to sell less is more yet need to carry more things just to come back to the original concept of a portable laptop like the commercials are showing something is fundamentally wrong.

This is not ment as a rant because i do love Apple but there are things that do need to change.

Going beyond 1080P on a phone is simply stupid. It requires more power for the backlight on the display, and it puts much more demand on both the CPU and GPU for no real reason.

Anything beyond 1080P on a devices smaller than 10-inches is just pointless. At least at this in this day and age of technology where there is no real gain of having higher density pixels on the display for end users and we are currently in urgent need for a battery revolution so wasting precious battery on running a higher density display that gives no real advantages for the users is just stupid.

The only advantage of going beyond 1080P is just the "bragging rights" of having it on the specification sheet of the phone. And sadly, many vocal customers out there that trick themselves into believing they are "smart" and "into technology" starts convincing themselves and starts telling others that they "need" 4K on their phones for some reason that makes absolutely no sense.



The only real advantage of having anything beyond 1080P would for VR. But Apple is not into VR, at least not at this date so why would they bother? And judging by the market, VR has yet to be taking off due to the fact that even 4K is simply not high-res enough for such usage. I suspect we need to go to at least 8K before we are able to start eliminating the "screen-door" effect on VR and that's simply not feasible for mobile devices at this stage due to battery limitations and the insane amount of processing power needed to power it in any meaningful way.

And those of us that are really into VR, we all know that VR powered by mobile phones are simply a joke at this point. The phones are not capable to run anything meaningful in terms of VR at this stage. And having your phone locked instead a VR case is a rather stupid idea in terms of usability. If you are interested in VR, you are looking at the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, and not the Gear VR.


So again, going beyond 1080P at this stage doesn't really make much sense. Other than simply bumping the specification sheets on the box in the hopes of that generation more sales. And I really hope Apple won't drop to those levels in a desparate hope to sell additional phones. Make the phone and it's software better, don't just bump specifications just cause without it having any meaningful improvement for end-users.

 

[Menneisyys2]

I like Tim Cook. I would like to see apple do some VR for sure though. Maybe waiting for 4K screens?

They need to hurry up a bit - Samsung will be coming out with a 4K screen in the S8. The S7 (Edge / Note7) already offers excellent VR experience (great games, quality Gear 360 camera etc.), significantly bumping the resolution of next year's models will make their VR even more engaging.

 

[MillieWales]

If Apple simply released updated laptops year after year that would be wrong. If they innovate that's wrong. They have never been Samsung - churning out endless products in the hope that some are good enough and some get bought by the public. Throughout Apples history there have been gaps between new products, sure there may have been regular product announcements but if you look back they were mostly a small speed bump or slight change, nothing dramatic.

I don't want to see a small bump now and then, I want new stuff that makes me want to buy it, and that takes time. There isn't anything I feel is missing in my life right now, I'm happy to wait for the 2017 iPhone as I have no need for a new phone every year, my iPad is 18 months old and just fine. I do want to buy a new AppleTV but in reality I'm not sure I'd use it, I really don't need it, I have one that's a couple of years old and I don't use that much.

People need to realise Apple is a tech company, he fact there are fans who will only by their products is a bonus, but they don't exist to please those people. Steve Jobs is gone, and Tim is here for now, if and when he goes he wont be replaced by Steve Jobs, he will be replaced by someone who wants to put their own mark on the company and take it to somewhere it probably hasn't been before. It's very unusual for a CEO to come in and try to rewind a business so they are copying what someone did in the past, especially when the guy hey would be emulating had such a bad reputation for managing people. Jobs ruled by fear, that's not how it's done these days unless you are the President of Russia, Turkey, North Korea or Donald Trump.

Tim Cook can't please most on here simply because he isn't Steve Jobs. There's nothing to say if Jobs was alive today and running Apple that they wouldn't be in the same position, you don't know he wouldn't have stopped churning out endless speed bumps and concentrated on new products, you are all just guessing. It's fanboy stuff, and deep down you all know it.

Apple has possibly the biggest R&D dept of any tech company, they invest more in R&D than many of the other big tech companies stacked together, they are not spending tens of billions on thousands of people across dozens of sites all to make watch bands. Sure, it's funny, but it's also not happening. They will be making products that Jobs would have been proud of - stuff that people want, that is built better than the rest of the market, and does its job better than the competition. That takes time. Anyone can churn out endless garbage - just look what's being made, I don't want, need or desire 99% of it.

Apple isnt doomed, it's just the 'fans' need to take a breath and realise Apple doesn't exist to make them happy. It exists to make huge profits and ensure continued growth for many years to come. The companies that purely build stuff to make a quick sale and please people e moment with a product everyone else is making all die off - just look at the companies we've lost in recent history.

You don't have to like Tim Cook, but he isn't trying to harm Apple and he isn't going to see its downfall, he just isn't telling you what they are doing - and you just don't like that.

 

[Menneisyys2]

And those of us that are really into VR, we all know that VR powered by mobile phones are simply a joke at this point. The phones are not capable to run anything meaningful in terms of VR at this stage. And having your phone locked instead a VR case is a rather stupid idea in terms of usability. If you are interested in VR, you are looking at the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, and not the Gear VR.

Let me disagree strongly. Have you ever tried for example Gunjack on Gear VR? Or Quake VR? They offer fantastic experience, even on today's ("low-res") screens. And let's also not forget that Gear VR has a significant(!!!) advantage over Oculus Rift / HTC Vive, in addition to the somewhat better resolution: mobility. No cables needed - that's VERY important in a 360 game like Quake VR.

 

[RamGuy]

As a owner for the Oculus Rift DK2, and the owner for a Galaxy S7 Edge with Gear VR I got a fair bit of experience with VR. I have not yet purchased the release version of the Oculus, nor the HTC Vive simply because I feel the technology is not quite there yet. The screen-door effect is way to obvious and most of the games and applications are more or less tech demos than anything else. The whole VR market has a really long way to go before it becomes anything close to mainstream in any meaningful way.

I have no doubt that VR will prove to be a huge and great thing in the future. But I'm not convinced that current technology is able to push it to where it's need to be in order to really take off. And I know a lot of people who have invested heavily into VR, and barley any of the uses their Oculus Rift or their HTC Vive on a regular basis anymore.

When it comes to the Gear VR, Samsung has pushed it heavily so basically any customer who got the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge in my country also got the Gear VR. Yet I have never talked to anyone that has been using it beyond the very first week or so.
[doublepost=1471256400][/doublepost]People leaving comments about how Elon Musk would be the perfect CEO for Apple can't be serious? Elon Musk is a really great guy, but he is a guy that try to push is own beliefs and ideas to improve the world.

If Apple were to purchase Tesla, which would make a lot of sense considering how Apple seems to be investing a lot into entering the car business. There is no way Elon Musk would be staying at Apple

Making Elon Musk as CEO would be a huge mistake, because he is a person that is really passionate about what he does and what he believes in. And his passion and life goals does not align with Apple's, not at all. So he would either be a CEO that did not put his heart and soul into the job, or he would use Apple's position in the market and it's huge stacks of cash to push his own agenda and Apple would become something completely different that wouldn't really have anything to do with consumer electronics.

 

[MillieWales]

On the contrary, everything points to them desperately trying NOT to be so dependent on the iPhone... or Macs, for that matter. I think they want more diversity.

I think that's why they've been getting into services, the Watch, medical sensors, and even the Car. And it wouldn't be surprising if they jump into VR glasses, etc.

Recent history shows us what happens to a company stuck to one product. As soon as the market changes they company can't keep up. People here just want the same products again and again, Apple is run by intelligent people who know if you don't have an innovative pipeline stretching many years into the future and invest massive amounts in R&D your company will not stay ahead of anyone for long and is destined to fail.

Sony used to be an innovator, but today if you took away their games console when does anyone ever talk of Sony or ask for a Sony product? They've forgotten how to innovate, today they just follow everyone else into the market. They then make quality products at a high price point for the average high street and sell relatively well. It's a very safe way of doing business, but if Apple did it they would be and should be called out. Sony is unlikely to fail but it's best days are over unless it changes direction.

Apple quadrupled under Tim Cook. He's doing fine. Everyone's a critic these days, but how many of you currently run one of the world's largest and most profitable companies?

This is important. Not how much Tim Cook has changed the headline profits, but to realise that to be successful any CEO had to focus on the profit first. If they made great products that the fans loved and the profit wasn't there the company would be in trouble and the CEO removed. Their job is not to excite you, dear reader, it's to make money, and lots of it.

This Saturday, I spent about 2 hours at Apple store getting my aunts iPhone replaced (that is the price to be a walk-in). I counted several dozens of macbook air's and pro's that people were buying along with the beats headphones during that time. As much as I care about latest and greatest, I do not believe the general population gives a damn about it which is pretty sad and could explain why Apple is not really in the rush to replace or update any models.

So if products are selling well, an expensive update that costs huge amounts to implement and leaves aged stock on shelves and would only see a relatively small blip on the figures is pretty pointless - no?

If they instead put a lot of effort into a serious update that may take a couple of years to bring in but could see huge sales, surely that's the better route? They know that they don't have to update their range every few months to keep,selling their products, so they don't waste money doing it. Car companies have changed in recent years to work a similar way, some minor updates will come along but nowhere near as often as before, then every few years or so there is a huge update to a model and they see a hike in sales. If they add a small update every few months sales stay pretty consistent, so as long as there isn't a fault or quality issue they tend to leave the models alone, unless by missing off a feature will lose them sales and adding it is easy. LED lighting upgrades is a recent example of this, suddenly everyone wanted LED lots on their cars, they were not about to release a new model, but to ignore the trend could lose sales.

The point is the products are still selling, not as well as they did but the revenue coming in would still be bigger than most companies have ever generated, so why stop selling that product? I KNOW that's not what some people want, but big companies can't and won't sell products for some people, they want mass market sales.

So Tim is lonely, eh? Then leave.

Apple lost it's soul on 10-5-2011. Tim is about nothing other than Market Cap. He has allowed Apple to grow too large too fast...

There's a lot of over inflated opinion in there, but you hit on (and also missed) the key point - it IS all about the market cap. Apple is managing to improve its environmental impact, working ethos, grow its store base, move into more fields and develop new partnerships (health is a huge one) and constantly work on its brand image all the while making huge amounts of money. Most companies struggle to do a lot of that and make a profit. The products will come, like it or not the reality is stuff takes time unless they are just going to copy and follow everyone else's lead - Samsung, Sony and all - and just because you don't know about it today doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Maybe they are managing to keep stories out of Macrumors?

I've always thought that the rumours are too convenient most of the time, people like to think there is someone sneaking a product into their bag and uploading pics when they get home, but I believe the images are subtly leaked on purpose. As long as there are enough leaks it keeps people talking and stops them searching too hard, no way have the spent tens of billions on R&D and all the people involved just to make watch straps. Feeding us the same stories about phone updates that turn out to be true keep people relatively happy and helps build hype for the launch - maybe not for you but for many. It's he stuff we are not hearing about that I'm most interested in and I'm sure we will see when they are ready.

I don't like sheep, or even worse sheep wih photocopiers, I like innovators, and innovation takes time.

Heck, Microsoft tripled under Ballmer. And that was while he threw away their lead in many market categories, from smartphones to tablets to smartwatches, by killing any super cool change that might threaten their core Windows business.

Increasing revenue can be done by lots of people.

Increasing company product coolness takes someone special

Sure, but being cool doesn't make money, too many cool companies die sadly. Revenue is important, the cool bit can come later.

Steve was a fanatic about the mac, he pushed to make the best mac he could think of. That was a feeling Apple users could feel - what the opposition used to call reality distortion field. But the reality was that Steve loved the mac even more than his fans, and it showed in his efforts and hardware. He also cared about the customers..

Sometimes I wonder..does Tim even love the mac computer? Tim's background is in PCs..., from what I recall the Apple watch was his dream as it was known that he was a big fan of smart watches even when Steve was alive... maybe that is why the watch gets all the attention.

But does Tim love the mac?, does he have visions of how much better the mac can be than the rest?.. or does he think of macs as designer toys, favoring the PC as the true workhorse in his mind?.

No I believe Apple have already made it very clear they are no longer a computer company when they changed the name. Computers in the traditional sense of the name are a time-limited product now, instead of removing this port or that device from a computer I believe it's not long before they remove the computer itself from the product range.

Not yet, it has a purpose still and although sales are falling (for all laptop manufacturers, this isn't exclusive to Apple by a long way) people are still buying them and Apple is generating billions. They will continue to milk it, they will bring out new models, but not the regular tiny updates that most of us just ignored unless we were waiting to update our machine. The updates will be less frequent and bigger, hoping to get a big hike in sales every few years from a new model, but over time overall laptop sales will continue to decline and Apple will stop making them. There are bigger market opportunities, and if they just stuck wih phones and laptops they really would be 'doomed'. There may always be a few niche laptops and / or desktops for the professional market and maybe people who want to do things the traditional way, as long as there is a decent amount of profit there. However if the market is in such a decline that nobody wants a product it would be foolish to make it your key focus - I'm sure many understand that, it's common sense.

Ya know....I'm a giant Apple fanboy and I can admit, I'm not impressed at all with what they have been doing lately. The last keynote was so boring it was actually bizarre. Like I can't remember a single keynote in their entire history where I wasn't at least a little bit excited.......I'm just...meh. And I hate feeling like this

Apple has done a lot over the last few years, not the most glamorous and exciting stuff I agree, and not stuff that a lot of people want, but they are doing some great stuff with healthcare for example, and I'm not a developer but many said this last developers conference was he best in a very long time. It's just not stuff you want, but maybe you need to stop worrying and enjoy life a bit more. The fact you feel so bad is bad in itself, there are people out there without clean water or shelter and you are upset about not getting a laptop update. I hate to see people so frustrated over a gadget or something so utterly unimportant, there is so much more to life, get a new hobby or at least buy from a different computer manufacturer.

Perspective is important, I used to dream of toys, now I just wish my child's disability wasn't so severe and that I could live with a little less physical pain every day.

Live life while you can, you don't get two goes at it and these are just things that eventually get recycled anyway

You are incorrect.

iPhone wasn't the first smart phone. IBM has developed a smart phone well ahead of Apple. Palm Treo was also another immensely popular smart phone. Also predating the iPhone. Apple again watched, learned, and launched the best smart phone at the time cornering the market.

iPod wasn't the first MP3 player. Diamond Rio was one of the first successful MP3 players. I even had one! Apple saw an opportunity and a pain point (small capacity) and develop the world's first hard drive based player that changed everything and revolutionized the industry.

iMac wasn't the first all-in-one desktop developed. That title goes to HP and well before Apple.

MacBook Air isn't an invention. It's a laptop that happens to be thin, but Apple didn't establish the category. I believe the first Ultrabook (which is what MacBook Air is essentially) was developed by Intel. Acer and Lenovo both had an Ultrabook well ahead of Apple.

Apple is a close follower and a darn good one.

They may have developed in the strictest sense of the word, but developed doesn't really mean make something that nobody wants. To develop means to grow, these companies launched a product, introduced a new market, but Apple made something of them, Apple made others want to chase them down. In the fuller sense of the word although others were blatantly here first Apple developed the market by releasing products people actually wanted.

Tesla did not develop the electric car but they certainly developed the market as it was pretty quiet and unimpressive before they joined the party.

 

[otternonsense]

Oh, Tim. There's just no getting to you, is there.

 

[anomie]

Critics of Cook don't hate him. That's what you're alluding to but it's just plain wrong. WE want things done the proper way, the Apple way. Not this half-assed lack of vision and focus that destroys Steve Jobs's legacy.

F*** Steve Jobs legacy, he is the one who brought us Antennagate and not deletable apps.

 

[Three141]

I don't mind Tim but I think Apple fans want a leader that is more eccentric, Tim Cook comes across as someone very calculated and logical which seems to make it difficult for people to warm to him.

 

[S.B.G]

Increasingly, Siri understands things without having to memorize certain ways to say things. The prediction of Siri is going way up. What we've done with AI is focus on things that will help the customer.

I'm really interested to see where Apple ends up down the road with AI and Siri. Are we talking science-fiction AI becoming more real, in a good way, or just better improvements to Siri, a digital assistant?

Perhaps I need to take another, and closer look at what Siri can do now because I rarely use it. Maybe its because I rarely use it that I've not found a way to incorporate it into my daily life.

 

[zhang96]

So... no mention about the Macs, cool.

 

[2013.1]

Apple could build an easy to use 3D-copier

 

[macbookhair]

"Eddie Cue, tell us about your role."

"MY ROLE IS TO MAKE SURE ALL APPLE SERVICES USE THE BIGGEST POSSIBLE TYPEFACES TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS WHAT THE DIFFERENT BITS MEAN"

 

[Macist]

I was optimistic when Cook took over but they've really started to look rudderless for a long while now.

They seem to be scraping around for new cash cows like wearables and dreaming of cars but have completely dropped the ball over core products. They also seem to have forgotten the 'halo effect' of flagship products, which may not sell in vast numbers, promoting the overall brand.

The MacPro was a pointless, crappy product that left professional users in limbo or running to Windows as they wonder if it'll be updated at all, let alone return to the expandable tower format. The Mini is horribly stagnant, the MacBook Pro line not much better, and Apple seem to have settled on tweaking rather than reinventing the iPad. The iPhones are still great but Apple seem content for Android devices for 40% less money to have better spec. Apple TV is okay but it's just a 'me too' product in a crowded market.

Apple's Cloud offerings remain anaemic - a huge pie they don't seem to want a big slice of.

If I was Cook I would be focussing on making Macs, Phones and iPads more compelling and the rest will look after itself.

 

[macbookhair]

I was optimistic when Cook took over but they've really started to look rudderless for a long while now.

They seem to be scraping around for new cash cows like wearables and dreaming of cars but have completely dropped the ball over core products. They also seem to have forgotten the 'halo effect' of flagship products, which may not sell in vast numbers, promoting the overall brand.

The MacPro was a pointless, crappy product that left professional users in limbo or running to Windows as they wonder if it'll be updated at all, let alone return to the expandable tower format. The Mini is horribly stagnant, the MacBook Pro line not much better, and Apple seem to have settled on tweaking rather than reinventing the iPad. The iPhones are still great but Apple seem content for Android devices for 40% less money to have better spec. Apple TV is okay but it's just a 'me too' product in a crowded market.

Apple's Cloud offerings remain anaemic - a huge pie they don't seem to want a big slice of.

If I was Cook I would be focussing on making Macs, Phones and iPads more compelling and the rest will look after itself.

I think that's a very accurate summary of where Apple is at under Cook.

There is no compelling vision for the future, just iteration on existing cash cows. If you analyse Cook's language in interviews and keynotes, he speaks in vague high level platitudes that have little tangible substance behind them. It's almost bean counter invective fused with a sweetening layer of semi-emotive ******** designed to sound like the kind of things SJ said with none of the authenticity.

I think Cook is a genuinely caring and considered person and clearly an operations management genius, but he is not a visionary and not even a product guy. He is a by-the-numbers steady state bean counter.

Apple needs a maverick visionary from outside the company to take over.

Ironically, given their car project, the nearest person to that in Silicon Valley is Elon Musk.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

No, it's not mine "reading comprehension skills", is people distilling hate without even giving a thought.

Clearly it is, because I said nothing about Cook. I said it was about the product, and kept it about the product. ...which was the point I did make.

You misreading or misinterpreting, reading everything else into it you did, and drawing your own off-base conclusion, then positioning it as paraphrasing points I didn't make, indicates that yes, you need to work on your reading comprehension.

Following it with this fine display of illiteracy, and assuming no one who shares whatever your opinion is, is just "distilling hate" (?) and isn't thinking, doesn't help your case any.

 

[Macist]

I think that's a very accurate summary of where Apple is at under Cook.

Ironically, given their car project, the nearest person to that in Silicon Valley is Elon Musk.

Cook is no doubt a great bean counter and was a great partner to Jobs but he needs a vision man to work with again.

Musk is enigmatic where Jobs was charismatic but definitely cut from the same cloth. I think if Musk's enterprises merged with Apple a lot of people would be quite happy. Musk and Cook would probably get on too. Musk may have an sci-fi image but his projects are financially very well run and carefully costed. How he turned Tesla from a start-up that was really just an electric motor in a Lotus to what it is now shows he can do long-term vision, which is exactly what Apple seems to have lost of late.

Also, if you like electric cars and want them to succeed, Apple and Tesla pooling resources rather than fighting it out in the marketplace is probably a better bet.

 

[2457282]

I spent the morning reading the entire interview in the post. Although all the highest up votes here are negative, I would like to give what I hope is a more balanced thought.

First, he is definitely spending a lot on R&D but we have yet to see anything significant outcome from it. The natives are restless. I hope something is announced shortly to support that spending. I think this is why the negativity exists. The watch and ATV were released and nothing since then. Especially on the macs. Sure we got bigger phones and bigger iPads, but mostly incremental advances. The watch was new and I think that will pay off over time. The ATV i think is another thing that will pay off over time. Verdict is still out imo whether the money spent on beats was worth it, but it did bring in revenue so I guess.

Second, over the last 5 years, the company has grown significantly and stayed profitable along the way. Nothing wrong with that. If he can continue the trend there is also nothing wrong with that. It has enough cash to buy anyone it wants including some countries. And it continues to buy back shares and pay dividends. In the numbers, you really cannot say bad stuff. A company of this size doing what apple is doing fiscally is pretty amazing.

Third and my final point. Steve could not have cared less about social issues and invested nothing in the social/political sphere. Tim is totally the opposite. I would agree that a company cannot live outside the community that it sells to. Therefore there is some need to be involved. However, there are times where I think Tim goes beyond what i would consider responsible for a company. He seems to be getting ever closer to running for office. My concern here is that with a world that is so polarized, taking a stand too far in one direction means risking losing a significant portion of your potential customers.

So to sum it up, good job so far Tim, but you better start getting stuff out of R&D soon or you will be in big trouble. And please try to stay out of so many political/social issues or just run for office already.

 

[Apple Corps]

If Apple simply released updated laptops year after year that would be wrong. If they innovate that's wrong. They have never been Samsung - churning out endless products in the hope that some are good enough and some get bought by the public. Throughout Apples history there have been gaps between new products, sure there may have been regular product announcements but if you look back they were mostly a small speed bump or slight change, nothing dramatic.

I don't want to see a small bump now and then, I want new stuff that makes me want to buy it, and that takes time. There isn't anything I feel is missing in my life right now, I'm happy to wait for the 2017 iPhone as I have no need for a new phone every year, my iPad is 18 months old and just fine. I do want to buy a new AppleTV but in reality I'm not sure I'd use it, I really don't need it, I have one that's a couple of years old and I don't use that much.

People need to realise Apple is a tech company, he fact there are fans who will only by their products is a bonus, but they don't exist to please those people. Steve Jobs is gone, and Tim is here for now, if and when he goes he wont be replaced by Steve Jobs, he will be replaced by someone who wants to put their own mark on the company and take it to somewhere it probably hasn't been before. It's very unusual for a CEO to come in and try to rewind a business so they are copying what someone did in the past, especially when the guy hey would be emulating had such a bad reputation for managing people. Jobs ruled by fear, that's not how it's done these days unless you are the President of Russia, Turkey, North Korea or Donald Trump.

Tim Cook can't please most on here simply because he isn't Steve Jobs. There's nothing to say if Jobs was alive today and running Apple that they wouldn't be in the same position, you don't know he wouldn't have stopped churning out endless speed bumps and concentrated on new products, you are all just guessing. It's fanboy stuff, and deep down you all know it.

Apple has possibly the biggest R&D dept of any tech company, they invest more in R&D than many of the other big tech companies stacked together, they are not spending tens of billions on thousands of people across dozens of sites all to make watch bands. Sure, it's funny, but it's also not happening. They will be making products that Jobs would have been proud of - stuff that people want, that is built better than the rest of the market, and does its job better than the competition. That takes time. Anyone can churn out endless garbage - just look what's being made, I don't want, need or desire 99% of it.

Apple isnt doomed, it's just the 'fans' need to take a breath and realise Apple doesn't exist to make them happy. It exists to make huge profits and ensure continued growth for many years to come. The companies that purely build stuff to make a quick sale and please people e moment with a product everyone else is making all die off - just look at the companies we've lost in recent history.

You don't have to like Tim Cook, but he isn't trying to harm Apple and he isn't going to see its downfall, he just isn't telling you what they are doing - and you just don't like that.

So many words and opinions - so little substance. The short rebuttal: show us, don't tell us !!
[doublepost=1471270731][/doublepost]

I spent the morning reading the entire interview in the post. Although all the highest up votes here are negative, I would like to give what I hope is a more balanced thought.

First, he is definitely spending a lot on R&D but we have yet to see anything significant outcome from it. The natives are restless. I hope something is announced shortly to support that spending. I think this is why the negativity exists. The watch and ATV were released and nothing since then. Especially on the macs. Sure we got bigger phones and bigger iPads, but mostly incremental advances. The watch was new and I think that will pay off over time. The ATV i think is another thing that will pay off over time. Verdict is still out imo whether the money spent on beats was worth it, but it did bring in revenue so I guess.

Second, over the last 5 years, the company has grown significantly and stayed profitable along the way. Nothing wrong with that. If he can continue the trend there is also nothing wrong with that. It has enough cash to buy anyone it wants including some countries. And it continues to buy back shares and pay dividends. In the numbers, you really cannot say bad stuff. A company of this size doing what apple is doing fiscally is pretty amazing.

What in the world are you thinking??? The cash is built upon Steve's vision and creativity - not anything Timmy has created. At best he has been a caretaker and implementer of incrementalism. The share buyback has been a huge waste of money, a useless effort to prop up the stock. Cook has overseen one of the largest losses of shareholder value in history. The dividend is low at 2% - meh.

Third and my final point. Steve could not have cared less about social issues and invested nothing in the social/political sphere. Tim is totally the opposite. I would agree that a company cannot live outside the community that it sells to. Therefore there is some need to be involved. However, there are times where I think Tim goes beyond what i would consider responsible for a company. He seems to be getting ever closer to running for office. My concern here is that with a world that is so polarized, taking a stand too far in one direction means risking losing a significant portion of your potential customers.

So to sum it up, good job so far Tim, but you better start getting stuff out of R&D soon or you will be in big trouble. And please try to stay out of so many political/social issues or just run for office already.

 

[Frosties]

First thing Tim must do is put a stop to having presenters that are all old fat men that try to lie to themself by not tucking in their Shirt. You are fat, not tucking in your shirt will not change that. It is not amazing, it's just plain bad image to speak of health apps and devices as the Apple watch and clearely not using it for healthy living.

 

[blacktape242]

just remember, tim cook doesn't care what you think.

 

[Queen6]

I was optimistic when Cook took over but they've really started to look rudderless for a long while now.

They seem to be scraping around for new cash cows like wearables and dreaming of cars but have completely dropped the ball over core products. They also seem to have forgotten the 'halo effect' of flagship products, which may not sell in vast numbers, promoting the overall brand.

The MacPro was a pointless, crappy product that left professional users in limbo or running to Windows as they wonder if it'll be updated at all, let alone return to the expandable tower format. The Mini is horribly stagnant, the MacBook Pro line not much better, and Apple seem to have settled on tweaking rather than reinventing the iPad. The iPhones are still great but Apple seem content for Android devices for 40% less money to have better spec. Apple TV is okay but it's just a 'me too' product in a crowded market.

Apple's Cloud offerings remain anaemic - a huge pie they don't seem to want a big slice of.

If I was Cook I would be focussing on making Macs, Phones and iPads more compelling and the rest will look after itself.

Very much agree, Apple has blatantly disregarded the professional community it once so heavily relied on. As stated not only the "halo" effect of high end products, also the the high end user, often acting as evangelists for the brand, right now there is little worth promoting or recommending, outside of the design appealing.

Should Apple want to regain confidence, they need to step up and deliver, consistently not just when the press is negative, or when some exec has a whim and a point to prove. Apple also needs to get back to industrial design, putting it`s customers needs & usability first not thinnest in class...

Q-6
[doublepost=1471271256][/doublepost]

just remember, tim cook doesn't care what you think.

More importantly less of us "don't" care what Tim Cook thinks or about Apple`s products, that Tim Cook should most definitely be concerned about...

Q-6