Tim Cook Might Not Fully Retire After Stepping Down as Apple CEO — Here's Why

[seek3r]

To be fair, the Apple Silicon transition was not a small incremental upgrade. Apple made it look easy but that was a monumental decade-long effort that should be applauded. Tim tried to pull a Steve with the AVP, and to a lesser extent the Apple Car Project Titan. Unfortunately, no one was able to replicate Steve’s magic. It isn’t fair to say that Tim didn’t try, or that he only stuck with small incremental upgrades.

The MacBook Pro and entire Mac lineup for that matter is arguably better today than at any point in Apple’s history including under Steve. The Apple Watch and AirPods are both multi-billion dollar class-leading companies on their own. But there is some truth that Tim’s approach was more focused on incremental upgrades and certainly emphasized growing Apple’s services revenue, and did so very successfully.

I mean there’s also the fact that the desktop computing industry as a whole, and even the smart phone end of things these days, are much much more mature platforms than they were for most if not all of Job’s tenure. Most changes are going to be incremental, it’s the nature of a mature platform.

and, given that, successfully pulling off a major architecture change with huge boosts to, well, pretty much everything, computing-wise is *huge*, in many ways bigger than almost anything under Jobs

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I liked it when Jobs was unapologetically stubborn, told you thinks were crap and refused to budge on them.

Except he wasn’t? He would frequently say one thing in the media, only for Apple to turn around next year and do exactly what he said he thought was stupid.
IE: a video iPod…

Steve Jobs says it again: no video iPod

We really don't want to believe him, but in yesterday's press conference for the first anniversary of the iTunes Music Store Steve Jobs insisted that there isn't a video iPod in the works: Mr. Jobs addressed the issue of video on iPods when asked by Mike Wendland of the Detroit Free Press...

www.engadget.com

“Mr. Jobs addressed the issue of video on iPods when asked by Mike Wendland of the Detroit Free Press whether or not Apple was looking to add features to the iPod. "We want it to make toast," replied Mr. Jobs. "We're toying with refrigeration, too." While intended to get a laugh, which it did, Mr. Jobs also offered a more substantive answer as to why Apple had heretofore not added too many features to the iPod. "One of the things we say around Apple, and I paraphrase Bill Clinton from the 1992 presidential race, is 'It's about the music, stupid.'" Mr. Jobs says that there is a big difference between the way people listen to music and other activities like watching videos. Specifically, he said, you can listen to music in the background, while movies require that you actually watch them. "You can't watch a video and drive a car," he said. "We're focused on music."”

18 months later…

New iPods - Video Support, TV Episodes, Music Videos

Apple finally did release a new iPod capable of playing videos. (press release). The new iPod supports MPEG4 and h.264 video formats and features a slightly wider screen design to accommodate the video playback. 30GB. $299 60GB.

www.macrumors.com

Or his thoughts on E-Books (said no one wants to read books anymore in 2008, then introduced the iBooks Store in 2010), third-party apps on the iPhone, the entire Intel transition…
There are so, so many examples of things that Steve was resistant to that he was eventually talked into doing or changed his mind on.
I don’t think Steve would have necessarily ever completely stuck 100% to the comments he made offhandedly about a touchscreen Mac in a quarterly earnings call almost 2 decades ago.
Especially since when he made those comments, putting a touchscreen in a laptop wasn’t exactly a cheap and easy affair. Today it’s basically nothing, doesn’t add thickness, doesn’t add bulk, doesn’t add much cost. It’s very possible he may have changed his mind.

 

[TimCrapple]

great numbers guy, literally 0 vision

 

[seek3r]

I don't agree with Gruber on this to be honest. I think the last 4 years have seen some of the least "Apple like" design decisions despite still being well made products.

I think there's a lot Jobs would have ruled out on the last few years iPhones, the latest MacBook Pro line and the Apple Vision Pro.

I also think doing a folding phone is a bad idea for Apple and the rumours of putting a touch screen on a Mac are horrific. We're slowly seeing everything that shouldn't be Apple happen to fit in. I liked it when Jobs was unapologetically stubborn, told you thinks were crap and refused to budge on them. Now it feels like we've got designs by committee.

I seem to remember several major patents for folding phones filed by Apple under Jobs

 

[Imperial926]

what a sad run of a CEO. Sure apple made a bunch of money, but the magic is gone. nothing pushing the boundaries or inspiring. Just safe, small, incremental updates.

I would say that the products I've purchased during his tenure have been better made and longer-lasting. That's hardware but I think software is more debatable. Put together, my present iPhone and the silicon Macs I own are all so much improved on their predecessors. Maybe not exciting but more reliable. Perhaps it's just me.

 

[progx]

Interesting, I think the MacBook line is the best in years. We’re finally back to having real ports.

I agree. It is a welcoming return to have a functional MacBook Pro with ports rather than a design that constantly throttles performance.

Touch screen doesn’t bother me, but I wouldn’t use it. I see several residents younger than me try to touch screens all day long at work, that are not touch…and are annoyed that it isn’t.

I think the ghost of Steve Jobs will keep MacBooks touchscreen free for a long time. Most laptops have the touchscreen feature, but it still is unclear how many people use them. My interaction with young people with laptops shows they don’t seem to use it; unless for some particular case.

AVP is straight-up nonsense.

The AVP isn’t for me at this point either, but I think how we interact with our tasks will evolve. This is one option. I don’t think the desktop and laptop format will be around forever. Hell, the laptop was laughed at when it first came out in the 1990s and they were very inferior to their desktop cousins. My dad had a black and white Toshiba laptop with Windows 3.1 on it, I still remember the monochrome screen pretty vividly.

 

[Ramchi]

Effectively Super CEO without any responsibilities but more stocks, profits and dividends. He earned it though! I pity the new CEO who will have to take orders!

 

[Osxguy]

"HI, we the next generation would like to do like you did and start moving up the ladder."
Naw us boomers need to keep our hands on the reigns..
"Are you sure.. like the generation before you retired and are enjoying life.."
Yeah but we just dont trust you to do the right thing.
"Oh.. ok.. Well we'd like to buy a house too. "
Oh no no .. I am selling my third home for 5x what I bought it at to a mega corporation you can rent it from them at 10x the amount I pay in mortgage on my second home.
Umm thanks........

 

[Zeus2018]

There has been a lack of real innovation, along with a couple of big mishaps under Cook. I agree that he will sit on the board to stop a negative valuation slide, then he will disappear a couple of years later. I hope they replace him with an innovator.

 

[BabyBoii]

To be fair, the Apple Silicon transition was not a small incremental upgrade. Apple made it look easy but that was a monumental decade-long effort that should be applauded. Tim tried to pull a Steve with the AVP, and to a lesser extent the Apple Car Project Titan. Unfortunately, no one was able to replicate Steve’s magic. It isn’t fair to say that Tim didn’t try, or that he only stuck with small incremental upgrades.

The MacBook Pro and entire Mac lineup for that matter is arguably better today than at any point in Apple’s history including under Steve. The Apple Watch and AirPods are both multi-billion dollar class-leading companies on their own. But there is some truth that Tim’s approach was more focused on incremental upgrades and certainly emphasized growing Apple’s services revenue, and did so very successfully.

100% agree. There were sparks of apples past (apple silicon, vision pro, apple car). I think my comment came off too negative. Love my apple products and at the same time wish the limits were pushed further.

 

[HiFifreak]

Hè has some more stock to dump first?

 

[gbc204]

Here's another reason: He'll have a bunch of unvested stock that he'll lose if he retires.

 

[xyz01]

Think it might be wise for Tim Cook to stay on until the end of the Trump presidency.

It's completely corrupt and "pay to play", in addition to handling the ego of a narcissistic ignorant, so staying on until that not longer is the case might be wise.

 

[User 6502]

They should put it as anti-advisor: basically listen to what he suggests and then do the exact opposite. Apple would thrive.

 

[wilhoitm]

"As Apple's Chairman I can run the entire company using a single plane of glass!" - Tim Cook 🤣

 

[Jeeve Stubbs]

"A director may not stand for re-election after age 75"

But the rule doesn't say he can't "sit" for re-election…

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Also BabyBoii, on the AVP, which is the biggest boundary pushing device Apple has made in quite a while, a device that has literally been described in reviews as magical to use in how well it works:

...and then same people sell it 6 months later because they can't find any use for it.

At least that is what happened to the two people I know that bought it.

 

[maxoakland]

Ugh no. Just go, Tim, when it’s time

 

[Neil J. Squillante]

If he fully stepped down, perhaps Scott Forstall as CEO?

This is the only kind of "outsider" who could handle the job. Forstall worked at Next/Apple for about 20 years. Jony Ive is not available. Tony Fadell didn't put in enough years at Apple. A current insider is more likely. Does John Ternus want to run a company and deal with public policy instead of managing hardware? What seems most likely is that Tim Cook gets a 3-5 year contract and Apple announces the next CEO at the same time, thus beginning a long apprenticeship and transition.

 

[UliBaer]

Is this a threat probably? 🤔

 

[Kr0019]

Looks like there'll be a new CEO before there'll be a new Apple TV.

 

[RMMediccc]

The guy who buys already existing companies like Tesla or Space X with daddys money and pretends to be the founder and brain behind all of it??? LOL! Letting him do the design of the Cybertruck instead of the actual designers is why it looks like the way it looks. It's like letting Homer Simpson design a car. This dude would destroy Apple from within.

They're just trolling. I wouldn't take them as a serious person. Stay healthy and don't feed the trolls.

 

[warriors2017]

Does Apple have the balls to bring in someone from the outside? Someone with expertise outside Apple.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Does Apple have the balls to bring in someone from the outside? Someone with expertise outside Apple.

Hopefully not.

 

[seek3r]

...and then same people sell it 6 months later because they can't find any use for it.

At least that is what happened to the two people I know that bought it.

I mean it’s pretty clearly aimed at being a developer focused device right now 🤷‍♂️