TC seems more focused on all his social concerns. Apple is just a hobby 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 in Memo to Employees: 'There Has Never Been a Moment of Such Great Potential As This One'
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
At least for his western media PR veneer he is. You don't see him push his social justice narrative to China or Russia, because money talks differently there. He's a machiavellian bean counter through and through, who's discovered early on that virtue signalling to the right audience is another successful form of corporate marketing.
Last edited:
I can’t speak for the negative responses, but I can guess they’d rather see substantive movement on things like stagelighting screen problems, bending/unresponsive-screen iPads, dock issues on M1 laptops, etc rather than flowery rhetoric that doesn’t actually solve any of the issues Apple steadfastly ignores that’s adversely affecting their users all the time.
Sounds like a phrase that could have been uttered by the managers of Egypt‘s pyramids.
Well, his words MIGHT mean something if he backed it with a bonus or an offer of a bonus for good work.
Funny how those.. just don't happen though, huh?
And what, you worship him as though he can do no wrong?
I mean come on, he says something basically every other CEO says. He does some same hyperbole nonsense. "Never a better time" is the same as "best iPhone ever". It means absolutely nothing.
He's not a strong motivator.
And, what's strange, is people like you seem to think criticism is discontent. So, you probably think Apple is perfect. If you don't, then the very moment you throw out criticism then you're the very thing you are attacking. Or you worship Apple. Pick one.
I'm sure you would've picked a better successor than Steve Jobs did.
It's true that he doesn't take big risks on the product side but he definitely takes risks on the services side and takes huge risks on the corporate culture/political side everyday.
Let's be real, Steve wasn't great at picking successors. See: Sculley.
What exactly is risky about those?
Not the memoji conversation in a different format. Either emojis or fix bugs. Either flowery rhetoric or fix unresponsive ipads. Either or situation?
Nothing is totally binary. That being said, the fact remains that for a tech CEO of the largest tech brand right now, he's remarkably disenfranchised from tech itself and only talks social stuff. I used to follow his twitter for a while and it was a wall calendar quote/ global public holiday wishing/ social affirmation generator. I don't think he ever did take a stance or show thought leadership on anything tech related (other than privacy). Is it too much to ask from the CEO of Apple to show actual interest, grasp and commitment to the nitty gritty of tech instead of rehearsed tangents, platitudes and pipeline abstractions?
Ever work for a company, where at corporate wide meetings the ceo provides an impassioned, flowery, empowering speech? Yet, there is no bonus attached to the words.
He's the boss. Us here in our glass houses can say what we want. But there he is, he's ceo and we're not.
It may not mean anything to those who sit in a glass house and can lob critical bombs that way, but to some employees maybe it does mean something.
He doesn't have to be.
Apple isn't perfect, but then again, it's better than some of the criticisms leveled by posters here.
Hence the post. It felt like the MacRumors emoji conversation again, which was actually funny at the time, that someone would post either emoji or fix software.
You're entitled to your opinion of him. I don't share your opinion, as I like the "rehearsed tangents, platitudes and pipeline abstractions." He is not Steve Jobs and seemingly that is good for Apple at this point.
I know we come from different schools of thought, but what I'm saying here is less opinion and more fact. Have you seen or read TC actually provide thought leadership on technology, as the CEO of the most reputable tech brand on earth? Wouldn't it be something to expect from someone in his role?
Steve didn't pick Sculley to run the company when he was gone. He picked him so he could run the company through him while he was still there and it backfired. He didn't trust Sculley like he trusted Cook.
Until recently, Apple was only known as a hardware company. Analysts thought it was corporate suicide for Apple to let iPhone plateau and now their services are seen as a revenue savior while iPhone recedes into the background more each year. And we all know how politically divided the country and world can be so taking a firm stand on one side can cut your customer base in half. I don't see any other CEOs making regular statements about equality and justice unless they are being called before congress.
Crises are good for solid companies since they have the best probability to survive through a crisis.
It may have backfired eventually but he didn't know that when he was picking him.
Let's unpack the rest for a second.
1) Apple is still known as a hardware company. Their experiments in services are mostly catching up in the US and leaving people indifferent elsewhere
2) Analysts will always catastrophize about things, it's part of their job. At the same time Apple seems to be virtually letting all of its hardware plateau or make cosmetic changes without as much as a North Star or future product roadmap. If it wasn't for the M1, plenty were wondering if there's even any future left to the Mac. Consider Apple's C-suite only seemed to react when criticism had become too much, revealing the lack of any advance vision.
3) Let's please not even go there with the politics. Because, behind the lip service, TC has been in total politicking mode fundraising for the GOP, working hand in hand with the Trump administration, and calibrating his narrative to not anger authoritative regimes (you'll never hear him talk about equality and justice in China). It's ALL business with TC, and his superficial virtue signalling is part of great values-based marketing.
Whoa! Such an insightful and perfect analysis. Well done!
I don't think thats true really, i think a lot of people don't see enough change.
It would certainly be more intertesting than milking the same smartphone designs for years on end adding an extra camera lens every year.
You realize it's the company that intentionally slowed down their processors, right? The one that deplatformed Parler, right? With the exception of the M1 processor, which is a truly Innovative product, all they do for decades is to market yesterday's technology with tomorrow's design.
I'd say they're people who are unhappy with where they are in life. And lashing out at a successful company or person gives them a sprig of short-lived power.
Definitely not tomorrows design.
Apple will go to a hole punch display years after everybody else, even the M1 Macs, perform great but the actual harware design is starting to look a bit dated.
Instead of writing memos, how about Apple have events and get products out the door.
Apple buys commodities on the open market and would never have any operations of their own.
If you look at mining of metals very little is mined in western countries, with the exception of gold. And even for gold, China is the biggest producer.
If you look at aluminium, the largest producer of bauxite (the main raw material) you'll find that Australia is the largest producers with China being second. However the largest producers of aluminum is China although Canada, Australia and Norway are also large producers.
It would probably make most sense to buy Chinese aluminium produced from Chinese bauxite since the production of the aluminum bodies for Apple products probably happens in China.
And yet, Apple is supporting and buying aluminium from Pittsburgh. This facility is a joint-venture between Alcoa (Canada) and Rio Tinto (Brazil), two of the largest producers of aluminium in the world.
Also, Apple has for the last three years moved more and more of their aluminium use from recycled aluminium reducing their need for bauxite mining.