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Tim Cook Discusses His Job, Apple's Long-Term Future, AI, Virtual Reality, and More
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'Here's what I found on the web for "Rich notch hand stood I innervate today":'
Bill Gates did have a vision for his company though. It was Microsoft on every desktop and absolutely kill every attempt by a hardware vendor to deviate from the Microsoft camp. Bill Gates suddenly realized what a money printing machine he had when IBM signed the deal and he could sell MS-DOS to others as well. He protected that monopoly like his life depended on it killing all others around. The wheels fell off after he stepped down, mind you.
Millions of people continue to pay over the odds for this old tech. So, who's the idiot?
For years though?
Washington Post writers need not ask Cook about the state or vision of Macs; they're doing fine with the Surface Pro 4.
You assume apple will launch updates that are superior , they could pull a Mac mini 2014 update on thier Mac range....
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This. Most people don't care about the specs, they walk in and get a new Mac if they need one. With CPU/GPU on any model being able to meet the average users needs, an update will bring very little, the minority of users need more performance
I think he fired PR..and had to take over.Good to know, I always thought his only job is talk to media.
I really like Angela and working with her reminds me a great deal of Jobs as she has great idea's. While CEO of Burberry from '06-'14, she turned a near bankrupt company into a successful brand. She has great idea's but lacks the knowledge to bring them to life. With the help of contracted technology companies, Ahrendts introduced brilliant ideas such as mirrors that show a client wearing the clothing by holding it up in front. She also overhauled and streamlined back of house communications and made it a point to work with everyone she could on a personal, face to face basis, retail and corporate. In essence, she has some great idea's very much like Jobs but with diplomacy
.From what I've gathered Stateside and what's coming my way here, Ahrendts and Ive have spent two years designing various new store layouts with target markets acting as shoppers during various points of an average retail day in order to address many issues with retail.
Before the iPhone, retail and Genius bar associates were required to have at least an Associates Degree and a background in technology/systems. Two weeks training in Cupertino was standard for Geniuses who earned $65k+/year. Retail couldn't maintain demand after the iPhone. 15% new hires every Holiday season. The amount of time floor specialists spent with a client dropped tremendously post-iPhone. POS is crucial for clients to leave with confidence on how to use their new system, eliminating return clients for simple solutions by developing a report via one-on-one client-specialist relationships.
Back of house has become a crowded mess as the bar is filled with mostly iPhone owners with simple solutions. Part-time associates replaced trained professionals, most young and rushing to meet demand. I remember visiting a store in NY for a meeting and a hearing impaired woman was asking for help with her new iPhone 6. I spent an hour with her, answering all her questions, showing her how her hearing aids worked with Accessibility options, getting her contacts back and explaining iCloud features, and much more. At the end, she was crying as she was so ecstatic; she didn't know a fraction of what these devices can do. That's where we're headed and that's one of the reasons I love helping others, bridging the gap between tech and non-tech savvy people while removing the fear many have with their devices so they can freely explore and use them to their full potential. I'm amazed that many don't know how to search on their iOS devices. Basic functionality that needs addressing.
The new retail layouts have been a success and are rolling out in North America with a few already opened. Dedicated sections for each platform/device allow specialists to spend as much time with clients as needed, lessening back of house congestion and improving flow and client experiences. The difficult part is rolling out the new changes in EU locations as we have to maintain strict exterior and interior historical guidelines. Each location is a reflection of the local country/culture mixed with Apple's well recognized retail architecture. It’s a fun challenge.
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It can be created when the parasites are gone. Keep in mind, Steve came back when Apple only had six months of operating capital and the lampreys has no more blood to suck. He turned it around just like Lee Iaccoca did to Chrysler in the 80s by cutting out the fat and firing those looking for a safe job. I lost a friend over telling him to put everything he had in Apple stock when Steve Jobs came back. He mocked my advise, broke off out friendship and to this day is bitter towards me.
One great thing about Corporate America is that most of it is all performance based with less than 20% of the companies in some form of tent-pole economics. My take is that the new mother-ship campus is going to be very quite and under occupied in the next few years with a shake out of fat. Then someone will come in and make the Next Great Thing happen.
A story I keep on hearing is that before Steve Jobs died, he wanted an Apple outsider to lead the company. This was rejected by the board keeping the "old boys" in charge. Apple has come to the end of Steve Jobs product plans and the well is getting dry. I'm sure there are hundreds of very talented and imaginative people with great product ideas that are not getting any headway into the Cupertino board room over lack of politics and right connections.
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That is her shortfall, being too nice. She is not in fashion anymore. In tech you need to chainsaw your way through the Bozo Parade to make things happen. I hope Angela had a sit down with Judy Owen of (Chips and Technologies fame) for a talk to learn this town.In essence, she has some great idea's very much like Jobs but with diplomacy
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iOS before Tim Cook: iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad
iOS after Tim Cook: iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad
Yeah, right... "too many products"... right!
Exactly! And the same people who are currently complaining about no innovation and new products will then complain about too many changes. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
A few things happened to Microsoft compromising its position. While him stepping down removed a lot of aggressive marketing of the company, upcoming technology overall obsoleted their business model.
Moving from Desktop/laptop to Mobile Devices never happened due to an encampment of millionaire engineers with now high school kids and their attention off the cutting edge. While there was massive marketing rhetoric about going mobile, the resources placed into Windows Mobile never eclipsed their desktop engineering efforts.
They had a brief opportunity between Palm imploding and the launch of the iPhone they never took advantage of properly. By the time the iPhone came out, it was too late. Buying Nokia was a last ditch effort that totally tanked.
To use an old medieval line, "The prince won the rule of the castle but the merchants cut them off the trade routes."
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More like, iOS after Tim Cook: iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad, tvOS, watchOS and larger size iPad.
Supposedly there is an experimental, ARM based, Mac Mini prototype in the bowels of Cupertino running an experimental desktop iOS. Who knows if that will ever see the light of day.
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My take is the latest technology wave is passing by the Apple board. Look at the average age of the Apple board, you see them approaching 60 and out of the cutting edge. I expect to see a heavy Apple board turn-over in the next four years. If Trump gets elected, expect it happen quicker.
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Wow, reading these comments reminds me of how loud soccer (european football) fans tends to react and behave as soon as their team is underperforming for a few matches. Everyone starts to scream about how the trainer / manager needs to get fired because he is doing a horrible job with the team and how the team needs to replace pretty much the entire team with new and better players.
Two months later, the team is back on track and noone is complaining anymore. But as soon as you lose a few, the ********* starts all over again...
There is no point in firing Tim Cook at this stage. He has not done anything wrong after taking over as a CEO of the company. When we look at Apple's overall market value and profit, Tim has managed to make the tree grow even further into heaven something that in and of itself is impressive considering he took over a company that as already at an all time high.
But that's Tim Cook's biggest problem. He took over a company that was already skyrocketing towards heaven. And he took over for what must be the most popular CEO of any company of all time? The status that Steve Jobs had within the company was next to none, and I don't think the world has ever seen a CEO of a consumer products company like Apple having a CEO with such a enormous amount of fans out there.
There is simply no way Tim Cook could ever "deliver" what people want as a successor to Steve Jobs. No matter what he does, there will also be a large number of people complaining.
With that said, he has yet to really prove himself as a visionary. Apple has yet to release anything new after he took over as CEO of Apple. The only thing we've got so far is the new MacBook 12-inch and the Apple Watch and that's pretty much it. Both are great devices, but none of them are any marvels of the industry.
The Apple Watch is a great devices and arguably the best smart watch on the market. And it became the most popular one right away. The problem for Apple is that smart watches a market does not seem to be taking off, so having the best product in this category is always nice but it won't really give Apple much of anything in the long run unless something fundamental changes and smart watches suddenly become a thing that most consumers want to have on their wrist.
The MacBook 12-inch is a great notebook, it's my personal favorite of the whole line-up at the moment and it's yet again Apple delivering something that is perhaps the best on the market in its size and weight category. But it's nothing really that special, it's just a really great looking and well-built notebook that is really thin and lightweight due to the Intel Core M not requiring active cooling.
All the other products have not seen much of an improvement other than spec bumps. We still have the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro line-up that has yet to see any re-design for a couple of years now. They still look and works great, but the Air really needs to get better displays and the Pro's did take a awkward turn when they never got updated to Intel Skylake and Apple suddenly decided to ditch NVIDIA graphics for AMD in a time where NVIDIA is simply superior in every way. Both in terms of performance and power usage.
The iPhone did see a real upswing in sales with the iPhone 6, and that's a model that got released under Tim Cook. But the release didn't bring anything special other than increasing in size, something the market was demanding resulting in a huge spike in sales. And now rumours has it that we are going to get the third iPhone release with basically the same design, so that's two years with simply a spec bump and nothing else done to the phone.
People are asking for Apple to reinvent the wheel. And that is just not going to happen anything soon. It's not like new, revolutionary products and new groundbreaking product categories are created every few years. When looking at Apple's past, it's not like Steve Jobs walked on stage every two or three years and revolutionised the world.
So why people seem to expect and demand that Tim Cook should bring forth the "next-big-thing" already is beyond me. That's not how it works, and that's not how Apple did it under Steve Jobs either.
But it might seem like Tim Cook is being too much of "that nice guy". Where Steve Jobs was known to be ruthless, it seems like Tim tries to be a "buddy". If he lets all the others go rampant and do whatever they want it will cause a mess down the line. And he seems to be taking this "nice guy" approach towards the board as well, focusing on maximising profits of each product line.
Decisions like sticking with 16GB iPhones and iPads doesn't really make much sense. It starts hurting Apple when consumers gets frustrated by the lack of space on their devices. And tossing a "Pro" name onto the new iPad 9,7-inch just to be able to increase its price even though it features the exact same hardware as one would expect a iPad Air 3 to feature just feels dumb.
And the prices for Apple's first-party accessory have also increased to hideous levels under Tim Cook. Take that charing cryb/stand for the Apple Watch. Or the prices for case and smart cover for the iPad Pro.
Two months later, the team is back on track and noone is complaining anymore. But as soon as you lose a few, the ********* starts all over again...
There is no point in firing Tim Cook at this stage. He has not done anything wrong after taking over as a CEO of the company. When we look at Apple's overall market value and profit, Tim has managed to make the tree grow even further into heaven something that in and of itself is impressive considering he took over a company that as already at an all time high.
But that's Tim Cook's biggest problem. He took over a company that was already skyrocketing towards heaven. And he took over for what must be the most popular CEO of any company of all time? The status that Steve Jobs had within the company was next to none, and I don't think the world has ever seen a CEO of a consumer products company like Apple having a CEO with such a enormous amount of fans out there.
There is simply no way Tim Cook could ever "deliver" what people want as a successor to Steve Jobs. No matter what he does, there will also be a large number of people complaining.
With that said, he has yet to really prove himself as a visionary. Apple has yet to release anything new after he took over as CEO of Apple. The only thing we've got so far is the new MacBook 12-inch and the Apple Watch and that's pretty much it. Both are great devices, but none of them are any marvels of the industry.
The Apple Watch is a great devices and arguably the best smart watch on the market. And it became the most popular one right away. The problem for Apple is that smart watches a market does not seem to be taking off, so having the best product in this category is always nice but it won't really give Apple much of anything in the long run unless something fundamental changes and smart watches suddenly become a thing that most consumers want to have on their wrist.
The MacBook 12-inch is a great notebook, it's my personal favorite of the whole line-up at the moment and it's yet again Apple delivering something that is perhaps the best on the market in its size and weight category. But it's nothing really that special, it's just a really great looking and well-built notebook that is really thin and lightweight due to the Intel Core M not requiring active cooling.
All the other products have not seen much of an improvement other than spec bumps. We still have the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro line-up that has yet to see any re-design for a couple of years now. They still look and works great, but the Air really needs to get better displays and the Pro's did take a awkward turn when they never got updated to Intel Skylake and Apple suddenly decided to ditch NVIDIA graphics for AMD in a time where NVIDIA is simply superior in every way. Both in terms of performance and power usage.
The iPhone did see a real upswing in sales with the iPhone 6, and that's a model that got released under Tim Cook. But the release didn't bring anything special other than increasing in size, something the market was demanding resulting in a huge spike in sales. And now rumours has it that we are going to get the third iPhone release with basically the same design, so that's two years with simply a spec bump and nothing else done to the phone.
People are asking for Apple to reinvent the wheel. And that is just not going to happen anything soon. It's not like new, revolutionary products and new groundbreaking product categories are created every few years. When looking at Apple's past, it's not like Steve Jobs walked on stage every two or three years and revolutionised the world.
So why people seem to expect and demand that Tim Cook should bring forth the "next-big-thing" already is beyond me. That's not how it works, and that's not how Apple did it under Steve Jobs either.
But it might seem like Tim Cook is being too much of "that nice guy". Where Steve Jobs was known to be ruthless, it seems like Tim tries to be a "buddy". If he lets all the others go rampant and do whatever they want it will cause a mess down the line. And he seems to be taking this "nice guy" approach towards the board as well, focusing on maximising profits of each product line.
Decisions like sticking with 16GB iPhones and iPads doesn't really make much sense. It starts hurting Apple when consumers gets frustrated by the lack of space on their devices. And tossing a "Pro" name onto the new iPad 9,7-inch just to be able to increase its price even though it features the exact same hardware as one would expect a iPad Air 3 to feature just feels dumb.
And the prices for Apple's first-party accessory have also increased to hideous levels under Tim Cook. Take that charing cryb/stand for the Apple Watch. Or the prices for case and smart cover for the iPad Pro.
did he announce new MBPs?
I guess not, so the rest doesn't matter much anyway, if at all
I guess not, so the rest doesn't matter much anyway, if at all
This was a good list, but I think your wrong about the resources. I remember the stories about products being left to linger as resources were shifted to other projects and devices. Apple I think lacks resources, it needs more engineers etc, perhaps it's a cost saving exercise? Who knows.
I'm not sure if Apple has lost its mojo, I mean I think the iPad Pro is a wicked device, I bought one! Or maybe I should say it's lost it's mojo with some products, boosted it with others?
I certainly don't think the leadership team is as clear thinking and directional as it was under Jobs. I'm also not certain jobs came up with the Apple Watch and hiring fashion experts either. Maybe he wanted to build a car? If that's what their doing.
I think next years iPhone and this years MacBook Pro, if they launch one, will be pinnacle devices in their respective markets.
Well done. The disdain of Apple to the Mac line up infuriates me. I am a professional designer and most of my gear is outdated. I am ready to buy a new MP, displays and all. Apple could make a profit there and from all folks that rely on their gear. Get your act straight Apple.5 Years of Tim Cook — The Condensed Summary Version:
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+ Apple Watch bands
Realistically, Apple would probably have to go through its next 1000 CEOs before finding anybody who could be half as good as Steve Jobs.
One clear example of that is Xbox. Last generation the 360 nailed it and rulled in sales and popularity, now with this new gen and no Gates, they messed up the Xbox Ones launch big time with DRM talk and always on Kinect etc. At least they fired the man in charge and Phill Spencer has done a cracking job as the new boss getting it back on track, but it's taken 3 years mind.
TouchWiz has become very good.
Although I have a Galaxy Note 7 on pre-order, I'm still enjoying my Nexus 6P which has been my primary and favorite smartphone since it's release.
Most of the reasons people cite for avoiding Android are issues that no longer exist. Reading their comments reveals it's been a long while since they tried Android... Or that they're pro iPhone.
Choice is good.
It's funny when I read people's comments thinking Apple are giving up on Mac. No wonder you don't run a successful business yourself (just a hunch).
I regularly visit the Google offices in London and let me tell you, almost every employee I see has a MacBook. Same at my work, same st any design or digital agency.
Macs may not be their most profitable or biggest product, but they certainly won't give up on the laptop / desktop market. If they did, Microsoft would start making headway again.
Apple is a computer company foremost and always will be. Even if it's a small market, having employees across the world use Macs equals a bigger picture. It's the bigger picture you need to think about when developing products.
I regularly visit the Google offices in London and let me tell you, almost every employee I see has a MacBook. Same at my work, same st any design or digital agency.
Macs may not be their most profitable or biggest product, but they certainly won't give up on the laptop / desktop market. If they did, Microsoft would start making headway again.
Apple is a computer company foremost and always will be. Even if it's a small market, having employees across the world use Macs equals a bigger picture. It's the bigger picture you need to think about when developing products.
I'm extremely curious about the Nexus 6P and Galaxy Note 5 ( well 7 now ). But the Note 5 has my attention if the Apple options diminish.
Cracking job? It's got even further behind PS4 and they've messed up their messaging again around Scorpio and the new slim model.
I've owned and enjoyed every single Galaxy Note model since the original... They've been Terrific!
Agree if you are a teenager or twenty something acting like a teenager. If you need to use real computers, not so much.