Cook is a great CEO, and at the same time is setting Apple on the same course to obscurity as Sony & HP before it.
He's maximizes profits by continuing to sell outdated models and re-packaging others (iPhone 5C.) He won over people by apologizing for Maps and donating to charities. He's aggressively expanding into new markets. You really couldn't ask for a better bean counter.
But all that isn't what made Apple the company I used to admire. I appreciated a simplified product lineup rather than selling anything it could still churn out (like every other corporation.) I was won over by hardware and software that not only looked good with attention to detail, but "just worked." And above all, I respected a company that wasn't out to be the biggest, but the best. They didn't listen to shareholders because they didn't have to: What they did was great and didn't need advice.
Instead, software and hardware are being rushed into mass production without proper testing. Attention to detail is gone. And Cook's obsession with China shows he hasn't gotten a clue from the last three decades of Corporate America failure in the worlds most populous nation.
My favorite lie out of the entire post-Jobs era: "Steve left us five years of product roadmap before he passed on." What a load of nonsense, perfectly crafted to calm stock prices. There is no roadmap. They don't have a clue what the "next big thing" is. And to be perfectly honest, not a soul in Apple's boardroom cares.
And why should they? The billions keep pouring in and they'll all be long gone by the time the revenues dry up.
I think through this reflection, I understand now why Apple, Sony & HP were most successful under their founders. If corporations were people, we'd classify most of their actions as psychotic. But if there's a "human" touch, from a leader that truly cares about their company, people see it in their products and recognize that quality. It resonates with them. And that's what made Steve so special.