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
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%.
