Tim Cook Named 'CEO of the Year' by CNN

[Jakexb]

If there's a CEO that's kicking more ass than Tim Cook, I'd like to hear about it.

 

[inhalexhale1]

it might be fine for mom and pop. But for many, MANY people. especially professionals or enthousiasts who use their computers non stop, they have invested in their own display setup of multiple monitors. Often monitor that are far better for their needs than the iMac.

What display (at 1440p, 1080p, or 4-5k) is a better option than the iMac?

And yes, every professional and enthusiast has a multiple monitor set-up. Preferably with vocabulary.com open on one of them, eh?

 

[technopimp]

Only to those who feel it deserves comment.

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Yes, if he moves to one of those countries.

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Where is the big AppleTV update? It doesn't matter if it's ready or tested, and Cook is supposedly being aggressive.

We want transit directions in maps, whether they work or not. Someone said you were pushing. What gives? Are you aggressive or not?

I'm just sick of everyone giving Cook the public reach-around as of late. He's the CEO of the most valuable brand in the world right now. He's clearly a good businessman. Is he a good person? I guess I don't know. People seem to be deifying him for his coming out/etc. I don't get it, I don't like him, and I'm sick and tired of seeing all the sheeplike love for him. That's all.

 

[Piggie]

If there's a CEO that's kicking more ass than Tim Cook, I'd like to hear about it.

Really?

I don't see ANYTHING he's done that's new.

Other than the watch, which is a dubious device to start with, it's just been tweak what's already out there.

Believe me I'd LOVE to see new ranges of new products, but I know we won't.

It will just be a thinner Mac Book, a fiddled with iMac, a different size iPhone.

Where are all the NEW things?

To be honest, The iPad was the last bit of innovation Apple did, and that's stagnated as on day one it was just a blown up iPod Touch really with a BIG screen and years later, they still have done nothing with it, it's STILL just the same device.

All I see, is a total and utter lack of innovation, just tweaking and fiddling with stuff in little ways, to re-sell basically the same items again and again year after year to make more money.

I want to see new ranges of new products to make me want to go and buy new things.

 

[EwanMcTeagle]

Totally agreed. It's not that all the Macs have soldered RAM and aren't user upgradeable, but that there is no choice basically. There's only Mac Pro and the high end 27" iMac that let you swap a few things. The rest of the Mac portfolio feels like style over function - I don’t know what to call the new MacMini, which is soldered all the way through without any reason. It’s just pure corporate evil the way I see it.
When it comes to MacBooks, I can comprehend the way-of-solder, I get it that it's (officially) in the name of progress and so on. The Macs are thinner, lighter - cool. But I feel that Apple should or rather could somehow give customers a choice. Not so long ago, I can still remember, Macs were perceived as computers for the professionals - my aunt, who was an editor-in-chief had one and so did graphic designers or my cousin who is a filmmaker. Of course even 5-6 years ago they were also seen a status statement (especially in a poor country like Poland), but damn was there a huge difference if you were using Windows and then you could sit in front of a Mac. "My first time" was a truly ethereal experience. I remember seeing the Mac Pro and even though it was a huge tower, it looked so elegant, clean and well engineered (especially inside!) than any PC I had ever seen. And it had a lot of ports, most of which were useful unlike the gazillion weird outputs I had on my PC tower. When I got my first business Macbook Pro it was still the pre-unibody version, but damn what an experience that was coming from the world of Sony’s, Acers and Asus. After recreating the OS X experience on a hackintosh I quickly went for the real deal and got myself my own Macbook Pro (unibody). And it felt incredible, slim, compact, sturdy and I could swap RAM, add SSD, thus having two drives inside. My MBP Retina also feels, looks and works great, but I feel like I’, being cheated. Especially since the main reason I got it was because I was afraid that my early 2011 Macbook Pro’s graphics is gonna crap out on me and I’ll be left with a $500 bill for fixing it. That’s why I went for the 13” Retina over the 15” - it just feels that the design, although gorgeous, doesn’t give me that much confidence. It just makes me wonder: “Since it’s so thin, won’t something inside get overheated and fail?”
Now it’s all soldered, so it’s all the more costly to repair. Even a hard drive failure posts a lot of problems and expenses now.
Therefore, even though I still love OS X + Mac experience and wouldn’t trade it for Windows, I don’t have that confidence in Apple’s products anymore. Maybe wrongfully so, I don’t know, but I just get the feeling that the Mac and the iPhone (especially since I had a lot iTunes library issues on my iPhone since iOS7) are just one of many electronics produced in China. It’s not “it just works” anymore, it’s more like “it usually works, but results may vary more than ever”. I could justify using iTunes for syncing an so on, but now that it randomly breaks my iPhone and I don’t have any other way of getting MY stuff on MY phone, it just doesn’t feel good and before moving to iPhone 6 I was seriously considering going Android, which was something I swore off back in the Gingerbread days. How time flies. I just feel that Apple had a nice equilibrium between producing premium, reliable products and selling tons of gadgets (iPhone, iPad). Now I get the feeling that they want to cater two different markets all at once. And I’m afraid that they’re starting to fail.

 

[Mackan]

Is he a good person? I guess I don't know. People seem to be deifying him for his coming out/etc. I don't get it, I don't like him, and I'm sick and tired of seeing all the sheeplike love for him. That's all.

Most CEO:s are psychopaths, so you are probably right not to like him by default. When you hear he sleeps around 3-4 hours per night, you can be sure he is not normal. Humans needs at least 7 hours of sleep to function normally. Science tells you that. People who sleep less usually say "I've gotten used to it, I have trained my body to need less sleep." It only means this person lost himself long ago.

 

[Zxxv]

This is great for him! But that picture, though.

They should have used this one of Tim watching the new Apple flatscreen TV soon to be released in 2015

http://instagram.com/p/w-kpEeuJYB/

Johny Ive will explain why they redesigned the perspective and how height x width = depth x enjoyment - frustration = a breakthrough in shape design which led to xyz property value divided by how we view TV programs = a user experience like no other.

Its going to sell like hot cakes. 2015 the year apple takes us back to the future

 

[Fishticks]

I guess the poorly paid guy will deserve one or two stock options for this prize. Unless the prize costed too much in ads in Time mag already.

 

[Zxxv]

Most CEO:s are psychopaths, so you are probably right not to like him by default. When you hear he sleeps around 3-4 hours per night, you can be sure he is not normal. Humans needs at least 7 hours of sleep to function normally. Science tells you that. People who sleep less usually say "I've gotten used to it, I have trained my body to need less sleep." It only means this person lost himself long ago.

maybe he makes the rest up in naps or maybe he has a nap mid day. Either way I like him. He trys to do good things

 

[NY Guitarist]

Such a weird, badly lit photograph of Tim Cook. It even looks like it was poorly color corrected to look dark with grayish skin tone.

 

[wikiverse]

David Pyott, CEO of Allergen
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Chairman of Solar City
James McNerney, CEO of Boeing

I would also throw John Legere of TMobile in there for trying to shake up the US carrier market.

It really depends on your criteria, because Elon Musk created a market where there wasn't one, and McNeary has seen Boeing enter the space market and take on Airbus with the 787.

But the most successful CEO currently alive would be Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

The company had increased $140Billion in value with him at the helm... Far exceeding any growth at apple under Cook. That is more than 15,000% on share holder returns (industry adjusted) under his reign.

I personally think there are far more inventive, influential and better performing CEOs than Cook. Although this is a CNN story, so it's likely more clickbait than based on anything substantial. Cook is the most well known CEO, but it's hard to identify anything exceptional that he did do warrant such recognition - especially in the last 12 months.

 

[Tech198]

Can't we get a better picture of Tim ??

 

[doelcm82]

Really?

I don't see ANYTHING he's done that's new.

Other than the watch, which is a dubious device to start with, it's just been tweak what's already out there.

Believe me I'd LOVE to see new ranges of new products, but I know we won't.

It will just be a thinner Mac Book, a fiddled with iMac, a different size iPhone.

Where are all the NEW things?

To be honest, The iPad was the last bit of innovation Apple did, and that's stagnated as on day one it was just a blown up iPod Touch really with a BIG screen and years later, they still have done nothing with it, it's STILL just the same device.

All I see, is a total and utter lack of innovation, just tweaking and fiddling with stuff in little ways, to re-sell basically the same items again and again year after year to make more money.

I want to see new ranges of new products to make me want to go and buy new things.

Apple has never had innovation. If you want ranges of new products, you've always had to go elsewhere, or wait until Apple gets around to seeing an opportunity to add their own take on emerging types of products, and often to succeed wildly with it.

The biggest thing to come from Apple in 2014 was Apple Pay. No, Apple didn't invent mobile payments, but it's likely they're going to be a major force in that field, and it's going to make them a lot of money.

 

[69650]

Why is share buyback a waste of money? The shareholders who get the money are perfectly capable of giving as much as they want to charity. Why should Apple pick the charity, rather than the shareholders who have a right to the money? Why do you think Tim Cook should choose rather than other people?

I've no objection to Apple giving money back to shareholders by way of dividends which rewards long term shareholders. Buy backs only help rich short term speculators like Icahn.

What right do shareholders have to that money? They've done **** all to earn it. That money could have transformed millions of lives around the world.

 

[cdmoore74]

I don't think the iPad mini 3 was considered important this year. People would buy an iPhone 6+ than an iPad mini.

Guess that's why iPhone 6 did not receive optical stabilization. Not important because people would rather buy iPhone 6+.

 

[KohPhiPhi]

The number one complaint about Macs among the general population is that they're overpriced. Which I disagree with, but it's a very valid statement

I would say that Macbook Pro 13", Macbook Airs, iPads and iMacs are fairly priced. Macbook Pro 15", iPhone 6/6+ and the new Mac Mini the other hand are overpriced.

The main problem in terms of price come from upgrades. Base models are OK priced, but as soon as you start adding up RAM and specially SSD memory, price sky rockets.

Almost nobody cares about expandability, on the other hand. It's just a non-issue for most people.

I agree. The average consumer doesnt go to the after market to buy and install more RAM or a new SSD, etc. Apple knows that and they charge you -too much- extra for upgrading at the point of checkout.

 

[cdmoore74]

Apple has never had innovation. If you want ranges of new products, you've always had to go elsewhere, or wait until Apple gets around to seeing an opportunity to add their own take on emerging types of products, and often to succeed wildly with it.

The biggest thing to come from Apple in 2014 was Apple Pay. No, Apple didn't invent mobile payments, but it's likely they're going to be a major force in that field, and it's going to make them a lot of money.

I do think the iPhone 4 was innovative. No one else could touch the retina display at the time and the phone was built high end. Retina had real meaning back then.
I also like the idea of facetime but it did not work reliably for me. That's why I feel the same way with Apple pay. It starts off strong like all other Apple attempts but it will just fizzle because people still have to use physical payment. Apple pay (or any form of it) will only work if everyone big and small are on board.

 

[KohPhiPhi]

But the most successful CEO currently alive would be Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

The company had increased $140Billion in value with him at the helm... Far exceeding any growth at apple under Cook.

Yes, but the difference is that Amazon doesnt pull ANYWHERE near the profit ratios of Apple. Market valuation trends can change in a matter of a quarter at the will of Wall Street, whereas cash profits go directly to the bank.

Apple has the profits - Amazon doesnt. A quick Google search will show you the rather polarizing financials of Amazon: tons of volume, hardly any significant profit.

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Apple has never had innovation.

If they dont innovate, why do all the other tech companies follow whatever trend Apple stats? iOS got ripped off by Android. Macbook Air style got copied by all the other laptop manufacturers. The iPhone design is copied by everybody. Etc.

Apple is a trend starter, and everybody else follows.

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I don't think the iPad mini 3 was considered important this year. People would buy an iPhone 6+ than an iPad mini.

I agree. I have heard quite a few friends stating that they hardly use their iPad Mini anymore since they bought their iPhone 6+. While they're not in the same product range, they certainly overlap in how customers use them.

 

[AppleFan360]

A bunch of liberals patting each other on the back. Who cares. Almost as bad as the academy awards.

 

[Sabretooth78]

Totally agreed. It's not that all the Macs have soldered RAM and aren't user upgradeable, but that there is no choice basically. There's only Mac Pro and the high end 27" iMac that let you swap a few things. The rest of the Mac portfolio feels like style over function - I don’t know what to call the new MacMini, which is soldered all the way through without any reason. It’s just pure corporate evil the way I see it.
When it comes to MacBooks, I can comprehend the way-of-solder, I get it that it's (officially) in the name of progress and so on. The Macs are thinner, lighter - cool. But I feel that Apple should or rather could somehow give customers a choice. Not so long ago, I can still remember, Macs were perceived as computers for the professionals - my aunt, who was an editor-in-chief had one and so did graphic designers or my cousin who is a filmmaker. Of course even 5-6 years ago they were also seen a status statement (especially in a poor country like Poland), but damn was there a huge difference if you were using Windows and then you could sit in front of a Mac. "My first time" was a truly ethereal experience. I remember seeing the Mac Pro and even though it was a huge tower, it looked so elegant, clean and well engineered (especially inside!) than any PC I had ever seen. And it had a lot of ports, most of which were useful unlike the gazillion weird outputs I had on my PC tower. When I got my first business Macbook Pro it was still the pre-unibody version, but damn what an experience that was coming from the world of Sony’s, Acers and Asus. After recreating the OS X experience on a hackintosh I quickly went for the real deal and got myself my own Macbook Pro (unibody). And it felt incredible, slim, compact, sturdy and I could swap RAM, add SSD, thus having two drives inside. My MBP Retina also feels, looks and works great, but I feel like I’, being cheated. Especially since the main reason I got it was because I was afraid that my early 2011 Macbook Pro’s graphics is gonna crap out on me and I’ll be left with a $500 bill for fixing it. That’s why I went for the 13” Retina over the 15” - it just feels that the design, although gorgeous, doesn’t give me that much confidence. It just makes me wonder: “Since it’s so thin, won’t something inside get overheated and fail?”
Now it’s all soldered, so it’s all the more costly to repair. Even a hard drive failure posts a lot of problems and expenses now.
Therefore, even though I still love OS X + Mac experience and wouldn’t trade it for Windows, I don’t have that confidence in Apple’s products anymore. Maybe wrongfully so, I don’t know, but I just get the feeling that the Mac and the iPhone (especially since I had a lot iTunes library issues on my iPhone since iOS7) are just one of many electronics produced in China. It’s not “it just works” anymore, it’s more like “it usually works, but results may vary more than ever”. I could justify using iTunes for syncing an so on, but now that it randomly breaks my iPhone and I don’t have any other way of getting MY stuff on MY phone, it just doesn’t feel good and before moving to iPhone 6 I was seriously considering going Android, which was something I swore off back in the Gingerbread days. How time flies. I just feel that Apple had a nice equilibrium between producing premium, reliable products and selling tons of gadgets (iPhone, iPad). Now I get the feeling that they want to cater two different markets all at once. And I’m afraid that they’re starting to fail.

This.

Prior to my current mid-2012 MBP, I had a late-2008 MB and that machine was a rock. Why am I saying was - it still is. After buying the 2012 I sold it to a friend and it's still running strong. Don't get me wrong, I love my 2012 (I had always kind of wished I had sprung for the Pro in the first place) but there's something about it that has never felt as...solid. Maybe I'm viewing it in much the same way as many people view their first car; it was the purchase that finally and so suddenly released me from Microsoft's Walmart-grade OS. Maybe, 6 years on, I'm finally able to see the flaws that were always there - but I don't think that's the case.

I wouldn't be surprised if history ends up proving the 2005-2010 (or so) window as the peak in the story of the Macintosh PC, and maybe even Apple as a whole.

As for the subsequent growth, well, stars also continue to grow (and quite rapidly) after they've reached their peak...

I hope I'm wrong.

 

[tigres]

if these are the criteria of Cook's nomination, its got to have more details than just "fail" or "win". Many of these "wins" have issues. Many of these "fails" have benefits.

iPhone 6 (and Plus) - Overall a victory. They're fantastic devices and a nice redesign and implementation by Apple. However, by releasing they did admit that they may have been wrong in the past about phone sizes. For a CEO that was adament about the phone size being "right" in the past, this seems like a flip flop

ApplePay - I'd chock this as straight up win. Only thing missing is that it's really only USA right now. So while its a win, being a very localized product, Idunno how well i'd apply this to "person of the year' if it only affects a single nation.

iPad Air 2 - not a win IMHO. a re-iterative upgrade on the AIR. the iPad AIR was a big win. the 2 is just more of the same. a luke warm win at most. Even though it's a fantastic product.

IOS8 - not a fail. But not a success. an OS iteration to fix a lot of problems of iOS7 and to include features that have been lacking from iOS for a while. A win in the sense it's a much better update than the last, but not enough that it dramatically changes the landscape of iOS and Apple

Yosemite - Success of moderate proportions. Some exciting new features. Some cool new graphics. Ultimately doesn't actually change the functionality much of OSx. mainly cosmetic. But unfortunately has a much larger hardware requirement than previous. IMHO, feels more like the "Vista" of OSx

Mac Mini - Fail. Complete, and utter fail. not even so much the lack of upgradability from soldered on features. But the decision to move backwards in performance was completely unjustifiable. it is a desktop computer (even if small one)> the Move from Mobile quad core parts to ultra mobile dual core parts was completely unjustified. it was a cost saving measure for Apple to increase profits and nothing more. Decreasing performance and releasing it as a "new upgraded computer" from previous is an embarassment. THEN toss in the fact it's all soldered together... yes, this computer is a failure.

iCloud was a failure for this year, not cause of the functionality, but because of the leaks and hacks that did occur. I'm pretty sure that Jeniffer Lawrence is not a big fan of Apple's cloud services anymore.

iPad Mini 3 - another useless iterative product. they took the Mini 2, added touchid, jacked the price by $100 and called it all new. This is an insult money grab and pure commercialism.

Apple Watch - Announced but not released. not a 2014 product. still not available. And despite their claims, and peddling it around the fashion industry, it's ugly, and doesn't actually do anything above and beyond the competition's smart watch offerings. We were expecting revolutionary product and got, more fo the same.

Apple TV: Put a fork in it. it's done. the hobby might as well die. They dont know if it's coming or going. They sign content deals for it, but wont release updated hardware to take advantage of newer tech. And the last aTV even saw a reduction in features and power.


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why does Tim Cook win?

Because despite all of that above. the misses. the moderate hits. The hate that Apple has had in the last year due to lawsuits, more patent disputes, tax cases and the like, he has STILL managed to run Apple into yet another insanely profitable year of growth.

we may be frustrated with the current offerings and updates, But he's still selling them despite the problems. And more importantly, those who select this award are those liekly who have profitted most from it, seeing that in the last year, Apple has increased their stock value 40%.

Excellent rebuttal.

 

[tito2020]

For soldering RAM to motherboards and making Apple HW disposable

Every ceo that time magazine names fail in the long run or retires

 

[mr.bee]

iPhone 6,+ win
iPhone 6 plus +win
applepay, +win
iPad Air 2 +win

iOS 8 -Fail
Yosemite, -problematic
Mac Mini -fail
iCloud -fail
iCloud drive -fail
iPad Mini 3 -fail
No Apple TV updates -fail
iPhotos (or lack thereof) -fail

It shows again that Apple is a DEVICE company first and an experience (hardware/software) company second.

priority number 1: shove down devices down your throat

(the ipad mini will get an update when the ipad pro comes out)

 

[doelcm82]

I do think the iPhone 4 was innovative. No one else could touch the retina display at the time and the phone was built high end. Retina had real meaning back then.
I also like the idea of facetime but it did not work reliably for me. That's why I feel the same way with Apple pay. It starts off strong like all other Apple attempts but it will just fizzle because people still have to use physical payment. Apple pay (or any form of it) will only work if everyone big and small are on board.

I don't think Apple Pay will fizzle. People still carry cash, but credit cards didn't fizzle. Some places don't take American Express (and some ONLY take Amex), but that doesn't stop it from being in people's pockets. It doesn't require EVERYONE to be on board. It just has to reach a threshold.

 

[DoctorTech]

You forgot iMac 5K

iPhone 6,+ win
iPhone 6 plus +win
applepay, +win
iPad Air 2 +win

iOS 8 -Fail
Yosemite, -problematic
Mac Mini -fail
iCloud -fail
iCloud drive -fail
iPad Mini 3 -fail
No Apple TV updates -fail
iPhotos (or lack thereof) -fail

I largely agree with your list. I love my new 6+ and my new iMac 5K. However the software has been problematic. I upgraded to Yosemite largely for the handoff feature that I never have been able to get to work properly.