Tim Cook Profiled in New Biography as 'The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level'

[drumcat]

I guess there's something to be said for milking something for all it is worth...

Should have been:

Tim (cook:emoji) - The guy who didn't completely **** up and made a billion dollars.

 

[YaBe]

Tim is CEO but has no clue where his product team is.

The team is in Apple's pipelines!

 

[shaunp]

I really do believe some MacRumors members doesn’t have a sense of what ‘innovation’ is and they take this term severely out of context. I think two of the biggest products that have been released under Cook was the Apple Watch and AirPods, if that’s not Innovation, then what is? The Apple Watch is leading the way in Health features and the AirPods are probably the most popular accessory Apple has ever created in their line up.

Exactly! He's focused on accessories and forgotten about the core product - the Mac.

 

[1000]

I haven't seen anything from him that makes that much sense if I had to be honest. I look back on Apple's product lines under Jobs; clear, simple product lines fit to purpose. Now I look at lines like the Macbooks, I wouldn't even know where to start to buy one; the entire line is now confusing as hell - the Air, Macbook Pro and Macbook once fit into nice, simple use-cases; all that's gone.. it's a mess of models needing 2-3 dongles each to be useful. I bought a Surfacebook last time and I've never looked back.

The cost of the products has literally sky-rocketed to the point where they've now priced base models to be the same as the premium handsets of yesteryear. Don't even get me started on ipad.. ipad 3, Air, Air 2, iPad, iPad pro, WTF.

 

[44267547]

Exactly! He's focused on accessories

Glad to see you agree. The Apple Watch and AirPods are both great products if you haven’t tried them. Especially the Apple Watch, huge improvements from when it first started in 2015.

 

[Abazigal]

Tim inherited a company with one of the strongest brand values in history, then exploited that by increasing prices while recycling existing parts and designs.

Apple's record profits are not a reflection of Tim's leadership.

The only interesting question about Tim is whether his focus on profit comes from greed, luck combined with cowardice, or self-awareness of his own lack of vision and an acceptance that the best he can achieve is to keep shareholders happy.

In my opinion, Apple’s success stems from an acute understanding that the future of Apple lies in wearables, not Macs.

No doubt what Apple has done is making a lot of people very uncomfortable and unsettled, but I believe that it is absolutely the right thing to do moving forward.

The haters are free to not like what Apple is currently doing. They are free to wax lyrical about how Apple has lost its way and forgotten its roots. It’s not going to change the simple fact that Apple is insanely successful, or that it will continue to be such for a good long time to come.

So let them hate. They cannot change what is to come.

 

[ZachBeo]

Next Level?
What innovation has been introduced over these past 9 years?
Instead of innovating, Apple was caught in its own arrogance web of trying to build thinner and lighter products ignoring the basics (physics etc)... so we have products that bend, overheat and throttle, with faulty components (keyboards etc)
...and PR disasters like products announced but never delivered (mac pro, airpower etc)
Shame

 

[nfl46]

Only 2 people care with your much too long comment.
[doublepost=1554848261][/doublepost]
You’re easy to please.

Trust me, I am. We need more people like me in the world. Lol.

 

[kis]

If you feel there hasn't been any vast improvements since 2011 then you simply aren't paying attention.

The new Mac Pro is supposed to be coming this year. And I am 110% positive that when they release it this site will be littered with people complaining about the price and specs regardless what they put in it or what they price it at.

Can you blame them after what they delivered last time?

 

[kis]

Thats Tim "Me Too" Cook the great copier-never an innovator.

He’s been very creative at accounting and tax evasion - perhaps that’s what they mean by “innovative” in the book?

 

[I7guy]

Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs took the company from the grave to $1t? Wow.
[doublepost=1554896060][/doublepost]

No it doesn’t. Once the innovative products are put in place and the system is operational, any dunderhead can grow it. He has infinite resources and a suite of hyper successful products at his disposal.

That’s because Tim’s a genius who made it look like child’s play. Nothing like over aggrandizing the past and devaluating the future. Apple would have failed under jobs if Cook hadn’t done his thing.

(The author agrees btw...Cook is a genius)

 

[shaunp]

Glad to see you agree. The Apple Watch and AirPods are both great products if you haven’t tried them. Especially the Apple Watch, huge improvements from when it first started in 2015.

LMFAO. If you are going to quote someone, put the whole quote. I said he focused on accessories at the expense of the core product, the Mac. I didn't agree with you, it was a rhetorical quote and the end bit was the important bit.

 

[benjo765]

Yes in the traditional sense Jobs may not measure as ‘the best CEO’; he did plenty of things in a manner that were so absolutist about products that it wouldn’t produce the kind of margins and shareholder strategy that Cook clearly excels at. But the end-user, and certainly at least the Apple fan, is far more impressed with the first than the latter. And only a fool would overlook the legend that was created in that approach, one that turns disposable consumer electronics into beautifully crafted items. I’ll never forget my first generation iPod, and though it is long gone, it was something to behold. On to the next trillion, Apple...

 

[JOBS-3:16]

Well, assuming he has okayed the direction Apple has taken with their products, then he has contributed to: the destruction of their once unassailably fantastic UIs; the absolute devastation of their once feature-rich and bullet-proof server OS; and the introduction of some of the worst hardware they have ever built. So, yeah, he's definitely contributed a lot. Kind of like the way Vogons contribute to poetry.

I appreciate the 'Hitchhikers' reference

 

[bbednarz]

homepods fantastic??? what exactly it do different/innovative than any other Bluetooth speaker??(sh*tty AI assistant is bonus)..

TouchID??? what Tim did for this?

A12 is incremental..any one in that seat can decide that...all Tim doing is finding ways to skim more customer money...

Why does it need to do something innovative or different? It is a nice speaker. It has Siri. Amazon and Google have their versions. HomePod does what it is says itll do.

Steve Jobs death: 2011
Touch ID introduced: 2013

Please go look up the leap from the A11 to A12. I'm sure you won't do that so well just stop there.

You conveniently skipped a number of the things I listed.
[doublepost=1554899013][/doublepost]

Can you blame them after what they delivered last time?

When the iPod was released this place lost their minds. No matter what Apple releases this place talks bad about it. It is really weird honestly.

 

[I7guy]

...But the end-user, and certainly at least the Apple fan, is far more impressed with the first than the latter.

Agreed, depending on who you talk to.

..And only a fool...

Post was really going well up until this.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Thats Tim "Me Too" Cook the great copier-never an innovator.

And how do you think it would have worked out for Apple if they had stuck with a 4 inch phone as it was the perfect size after all.

 

[cinq2]

Tim inherited a company with one of the strongest brand values in history, then exploited that by increasing prices while recycling existing parts and designs.

Apple's record profits are not a reflection of Tim's leadership.

The only interesting question about Tim is whether his focus on profit comes from greed, luck combined with cowardice, or self-awareness of his own lack of vision and an acceptance that the best he can achieve is to keep shareholders happy.

He plays it safe, simple as that. Driving on a high speed highway at 40m/h.
Numbers is a safe resort, innovation is not. Innovation is risky and disruptive.
He's good at what he does, did a great job overall, but eventually Apple will need another leader to act as a creative force inspiring people & moving Apple fwd.

One that could play this role is Forstall now gone. From the current leadership, I like what Srouji has achieved and Giannandrea's potential.

 

[JOBS-3:16]

Why does it need to do something innovative or different? It is a nice speaker. It has Siri. Amazon and Google have their versions. HomePod does what it is says itll do.

Steve Jobs death: 2011
Touch ID introduced: 2013

Please go look up the leap from the A11 to A12. I'm sure you won't do that so well just stop there.

You conveniently skipped a number of the things I listed.
[doublepost=1554899013][/doublepost]
When the iPod was released this place lost their minds. No matter what Apple releases this place talks bad about it. It is really weird honestly.

Anyone who knows and understands Apple knows that their tech pipeline is approx. 5 years into the future. Therefore, Touch ID was in the pipeline when Steve was still alive. Along with many other products.

 

[Shanghaichica]

LMFAO. If you are going to quote someone, put the whole quote. I said he focused on accessories at the expense of the core product, the Mac. I didn't agree with you, it was a rhetorical quote and the end bit was the important bit.

The market has moved away from traditional Computing. Even beloved Steve Jobs spoke frequently of the post PC era. Had Apple been stuck on Mac it would have been to the detriment of the expansion and evolution of the company.
[doublepost=1554900800][/doublepost]

Anyone who knows and understands Apple knows that their tech pipeline is approx. 5 years into the future. Therefore, Touch ID was in the pipeline when Steve was still alive. Along with many other products.

The Apple Watch was Tim’s product. That’s been well documented. iPad Pro wouldn’t have happened under Steve Jobs as he didn’t believe in a stylus. Also there are AirPods, the iPad mini, larger phones. All have been a great success for Apple and were all done under Tim’s watch.

 

[ipponrg]

The market has moved away from traditional Computing. Even beloved Steve Jobs spoke frequently of the post PC era. Had Apple been stuck on Mac it would have been to the detriment of the expansion and evolution of the company.

I think it’s a misconception to think you can’t upgrade the specs of your core line while still working on the rest of the portfolio.

All they literally had to do was keep specs updated with industry at a similar price/value point. Instead, we got the epitome of overengineering because Apple selectively chooses when it should be a design company vs when it should be a tech company

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Calling him that doesn't make it so.

Tim Cook was more of a 'numbers man', and was good at the 'mechanics' rather than the 'heart and soul'.

Perhaps, steve picked Tim because he subconsciously realized Cook represented a part of his personality that wasn't very strong. steve was always more of the 'smell the roses' kind of guy, than the 'we need to stop using custom screws' guy.

Bottom line, I wonder how much of an 'ideas guy' Cook isn't. It's obvious to me that the focus of Apple has turned away from the past, from the 'this device is going to rock the world' to 'let's get it done for the lowest price, and slap a lot of marketing on it'.

So much doesn't work, so many bugs in their software, products that don't work right, hobbled products, haphazard dropping functionality, and then providing crappy support for that functionality. I'm disappointed...

I looked for my first Windows notebook for personal use in decades.
[doublepost=1554904168][/doublepost]

LMFAO. If you are going to quote someone, put the whole quote. I said he focused on accessories at the expense of the core product, the Mac. I didn't agree with you, it was a rhetorical quote and the end bit was the important bit.

Cook is focusing on what kids and old people want. Tablets, phones, audio. I don't think he sees much future in 'the computer', like the mac, and macbook pro. I see the future has still having a computer centric system, with the 'home computer' managing, and 'directing' the parts of the home, and the devices the inhabitants use. I don't see the tablet as running it all. It can't. Apple should be working on 'home centric' devices. Home management devices. Home 'systems', rather than just another static tablet. *shrug* And the New New Mac Pro? Likely to flop, again... But maybe I'm wrong. Ken Olsen was widely wrong on computing. The future can be brutal...

 

[Defthand]

Do you have any idea how insane Apple’s supply chain is and the complexity behind it? You don’t. Cook is a genius. Genius, genius, genius.

Apple is OBJECTIVELY a stronger company today than any time during the Jobs era.

Services are growing at 20%, so the story isn’t over. Cook also managed to sell 3X as many iPhones as Jobs ever did at his peak. He’s taken everything to the next level and introduced a leader in silicon, wearables, and services.

I've toured the workings of much smaller clients and was in awe with those. You're right. I can't comprehend the logistics a silicon product must present. So I'll accept that Cook is a genius supplychain architect. But a genius brand leader? After all, those are the shoes that everyone expected to Cook to fill.

Apple's post-Jobs success still depends on product concepts invented under Jobs. Improvements to those products have been a mixed bag. Some barely budged the needle. Some actually harmed. Most were predictable or gimmicky. Meanwhile, the watch, earpods, Apple Music, Homepod, and other Cook era originals still have less adoption than the much-dismissed MacOS products. Cook's genius is less significant if product demand is modest.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I've toured the workings of much smaller clients and was in awe with those. You're right. I can't comprehend the logistics a silicon product must present. So I'll accept that Cook is a genius supplychain architect. But a genius brand leader? After all, those are the shoes that everyone expected to Cook to fill.

Apple's post-Jobs success still depends on product concepts invented under Jobs. Improvements to those products have been a mixed bag. Some barely budged the needle. Some actually harmed. Most were predictable or gimmicky. Meanwhile, the watch, earpods, Apple Music, Homepod, and other Cook era originals still have less adoption than the much-dismissed MacOS products. Cook's genius is less significant if product demand is modest.

How do we know that Steve jobs would have been able to keep innovating if he’d lived?

 

[bbednarz]

Anyone who knows and understands Apple knows that their tech pipeline is approx. 5 years into the future. Therefore, Touch ID was in the pipeline when Steve was still alive. Along with many other products.

Sure. Take off Touch ID then. All the other points still stand.