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

[groove-agent]

To *actually* look at things objectively here, Jobs handed over a pretty awesome company over to Tim. It's hard to argue that it's because of Tim that Apple is where it is today when it could have gotten here with a different CEO (as a natural course due to Jobs' legwork). To say that "Cook sold 3x as many iPhones as Jobs ever did" is silly as iPhone sales could have just continued to grow naturally with a different CEO. We don't really know for sure what Tim is responsible for, or if it's the work of people beneath him.

We saw a LOT of Mac product neglect and lack of product refreshes shortly after the changeover which really put a bad taste in people's mouths. It's still a mystery as to why this happened but I think a course correction was made once there was enough bad PR about it. Recall when they disclosed the modular Mac Pro to convince people that they were still serious about the Mac. Such disclosures never really been done before. I'd like to think they're back on track though.

Why do you tell Woz that?
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Um, his best in the world supply chain management? He is THE best and was that genius during the Jobs era too. 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.
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I honestly feel sad for the people who don’t recognize the genius of Tim Cook. It was not a joke; he is a genius.

 

[Gogeta-Blue]

this is what has become of Mac rumors
no more Mac rumors
I have one question
why I don't see anything anywhere about apple1 43 birthday
hello there, mcfly
April 11 1976

also the genius mr cook doesn't mentioned anything about the apple1
if it wasn't for that first machine we wouldn't be here now

this is what I hate about mr "the genius" cook
he forgot his root and where they came from
keep milking the cow

no wonder Macs sales are down, but they don't care as long as all the other devices are selling
and people dare defend him, maybe because they love devices and they don't have any love for the Mac or Mac OS

I got news for you , there are still some people in this world that love small phones and desktop computers like the absent Mac Pro

yeah right the genius has done and outstanding job
poor quality control, bendable products, just because they have an obsession with thinner
is better for them if the product doesn't last long
so we just buy a new one
apple is not a consumer company, apple only cares about apple, share holders and investors
the costumers are just being ripoff

mr cook is not a genius, he is an Extortionist in charge of sector 7

 

[Abazigal]

To say that "Cook sold 3x as many iPhones as Jobs ever did" is silly as iPhone sales could have just continued to grow naturally with a different CEO. We don't really know for sure what Tim is responsible for, or if it's the work of people beneath him.

In the very least, I know that 200 million iPhones a year don't just automatically manufacture themselves without an expert overseeing the supply chain.

So yes, under a different CEO, the likelihood is that even if you had 200 million consumers willing to purchase that many iPhones in a year, Apple might not be able to manufacture anywhere near that amount.

 

[Baymowe335]

To *actually* look at things objectively here, Jobs handed over a pretty awesome company over to Tim. It's hard to argue that it's because of Tim that Apple is where it is today when it could have gotten here with a different CEO (as a natural course due to Jobs' legwork). To say that "Cook sold 3x as many iPhones as Jobs ever did" is silly as iPhone sales could have just continued to grow naturally with a different CEO. We don't really know for sure what Tim is responsible for, or if it's the work of people beneath him.

We saw a LOT of Mac product neglect and lack of product refreshes shortly after the changeover which really put a bad taste in people's mouths. It's still a mystery as to why this happened but I think a course correction was made once there was enough bad PR about it. Recall when they disclosed the modular Mac Pro to convince people that they were still serious about the Mac. Such disclosures never really been done before. I'd like to think they're back on track though.

Again, you're speculating without any real evidence, facts, or data. You are assuming things "would have happened if" and that's just nonsense.

I have evidence Apple is worth over $900B and was $300B when jobs was alive.

3X the iPhones sold.

A wearables business growing at 40%

A services business growing at 20% and recently passing $40B in revenue.

These things don't just happen because you inherited a great company. Apple was great, but it's so much greater now...measurable by its value, revenue, profits, and overall position in the space. Cook has to deal with much fiercer competition than Jobs because there was no real iPhone competitor until the last 6-7 years.

The Watch, ApplePay, AirPods, services, silicon, and best in world supply chain are all Cook. He also took legacy products like iPhone to new levels.

Really, you guys give Cook no credit but he deserved more even when Jobs was living.

I gave you facts and numbers. You called 3X iPhone growth "silly" as if that was going to just happen. Disagree.

 

[I7guy]

To *actually* look at things objectively here, Jobs handed over a pretty awesome company over to Tim. It's hard to argue that it's because of Tim that Apple is where it is today when it could have gotten here with a different CEO (as a natural course due to Jobs' legwork). To say that "Cook sold 3x as many iPhones as Jobs ever did" is silly as iPhone sales could have just continued to grow naturally with a different CEO. We don't really know for sure what Tim is responsible for, or if it's the work of people beneath him.

We saw a LOT of Mac product neglect and lack of product refreshes shortly after the changeover which really put a bad taste in people's mouths. It's still a mystery as to why this happened but I think a course correction was made once there was enough bad PR about it. Recall when they disclosed the modular Mac Pro to convince people that they were still serious about the Mac. Such disclosures never really been done before. I'd like to think they're back on track though.

Or, since we're speculating, under a different CEO Apple could have imploded. It's a fact Steve revitalized Apple, just as it's a fact that Tim grew Apple and developed new business lines. It's not an even plaing field to speculate about Tim's success (and if a different CEO would have succeeded) without speculating about what-ifs related to what would apple look like if Steve failed.

 

[Baymowe335]

Or, since we're speculating, under a different CEO Apple could have imploded. It's a fact Steve revitalized Apple, just as it's a fact that Tim grew Apple and developed new business lines. It's not an even plaing field to speculate about Tim's success (and if a different CEO would have succeeded) without speculating about what-ifs related to what would apple look like if Steve failed.

Tripling the size of a $300B company is no easy task.

These people just underestimate the complexity and competition in business. Nothing is easy.

 

[R.P.G]

Please inform me of the other companies who have released some 'industry shaking' new product. Please tell me the product you want to see that would be 'industry shaking'. The thing is those don't come around every couple years. You're also severely discounting the watch. Was it 'industry shaking'? Probably not. It wasn't the first of its kind, but per usual, it was/is the best of its kind.

other companies never innovated like Apple before..else we will talk about them and not apple. But, The other companies adoption to the trend is amazing...Check how far this Samsung and microsoft improved their product offerings..the difference between Apple and others is very very minimal now...

 

[tallscot]

For those who blast Cook on innovation, can you point to something specific where Apple fell far behind? Or is it just this idea that Jobs would have come up with something incredible and completely unknown to us after 2011 to change the industry again? FWIW, I doubt he would have, it's not like we have seen anything from anybody else, Apple after 2000 did great by finding good ideas buried in terrible products and executing them correctly, where is that now? I mean, they did do that (IMO) with AirPods so they still got it sometimes. The big issue for them is that the industry seems to be far better at catching up than they used to.

Cook has been in charge while this company has grown to an amazing size. I think he has done a good job of that, the company has lost some of its soul but that was inevitable. I think he's also made structural mistakes by handing too much power to Ive that have led to issues in things like QC that have eroded trust. But the scale at which this company operates today was simply inconceivable even 5 or 6 years ago, and he deserves credit for (mostly) pulling that off smoothly.

The real question is if Cook has some skillset that made him uniquely qualified and able to pull this off, and here is where I doubt it. I would say he's been fine, above average to good, but I don't see what he has that nobody else does.

Not sure what they innovated in the last few years. Even with Jobs, they would typically not be the first, but would do it better - better UI and OS, specifically.

Seems like they have more quality control issues today.

Their Macbook Pro sales went down after they released the current model with only Thunderbolt, the iPhone sales went down after they raised the entry price from $350 to $450 by axing the SE.

Their pro desktop sales have vanished since abandoning the upgradeable desktop - the trash can is a $6K paper weight after a couple years. They let Davinci and Premiere replace FCP as the standard. Nobody uses 3D on the Mac anymore because Octane is nVidia-only and Apple chose Radeon. Literally everything in the pro market is nVidia-based for CUDA.

They don’t even sell monitors anymore, and the last one they sold couldn’t be adjusted up/down so you see them sitting on books at studios.

Their smart speaker was late and a failure because of the price.

 

[Peperino]

So... your response to my cited reference showing reliability has improved from 2008 to 2018 is to just deny it with an opinion?

No, with plain facts. How reliability improved if the Macbook Pro has one of the worse keyboards in Apple history and is actually facing a class action lawsuit?

Furthermore, in 2016, Apple knew about the problem and instead of designing something new, they did a cheap fix, which still DOES NOT work...

And I can keep posting more showing how bad Apple quality has declined over years.

Your neglect to be able to see how bad Apple quality has turned does not mean that quality still declined.

 

[Analog Kid]

No, with plain facts. How reliability improved if the Macbook Pro has one of the worse keyboards in Apple history and is actually facing a class action lawsuit?

Furthermore, in 2016, Apple knew about the problem and instead of designing something new, they did a cheap fix, which still DOES NOT work...

And I can keep posting more showing how bad Apple quality has declined over years.

Your neglect to be able to see how bad Apple quality has turned does not mean that quality still declined.

You have provided no facts, only referenced other people's data starved outrage.

The data I provided shows that the the overall service request rate dropped, despite the fact that keyboards accounted for a larger percentage of those repairs, and that Apple's problem rate is lower than the rest of the industry. You posted YouTube links driven by a desire to maximize ad revenue.

Find some legitimate data showing the magnitude of the problem that refutes what I've provided and I'll have a reason to listen, but I've no interest in getting spun up in manufactured outrage.

 

[Peperino]

You have provided no facts, only referenced other people's data starved outrage.

The data I provided shows that the the overall service request rate dropped, despite the fact that keyboards accounted for a larger percentage of those repairs, and that Apple's problem rate is lower than the rest of the industry. You posted YouTube links driven by a desire to maximize ad revenue.

Find some legitimate data showing the magnitude of the problem that refutes what I've provided and I'll have a reason to listen, but I've no interest in getting spun up in manufactured outrage.

Multiple class action lawsuits due to a bad keyboard design are not manufactured outrage.
I can care less if you listen or note. You can decide to keep your head hidden in the sand and neglect the truth. The Macbook Pro has been one of the worse products ever designed by Apple both in design and quality. And I do not care about maximizing ad revenue. I find their reviews much thorough and fact related that the data you posted.
I can tell from personal experience, since any Pro users that have bought in 2016 they actually ended up returning it.
I also know many users that were waiting to buy a Macbook Pro including myself, but decided against it due to the bad design and its way overpriced.

And just in case, here is another review from experienced 27 year old users and computer reviewer.

 

[I7guy]

Multiple class action lawsuits due to a bad keyboard design are not manufactured outrage....

Suits are easy to file and harder to win.

I can care less if you listen or note. You can decide to keep your head hidden in the sand and neglect the truth...

Seems like this goes both ways.

 

[Analog Kid]

I can tell from personal experience
[...]
many users that were waiting to buy a Macbook Pro including myself, but decided against it due to the bad design and its way overpriced.

If you didn’t buy one, you have no personal experience...

 

[shaunp]

The Mac hasn't been Apple's core product since Jobs removed "Computer" from the company name in 2007. This thread is worth a read:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-computer-incorporated-becomes-apple-incorporated.267811/

One post in the thread reads: "Hope 20 years from now I don't tell my grandkids 'I remember the day Apple Computer died'."

Jobs introduced the change by quoting Gretzky: "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been."

By the time he left the company, Macs were about a quarter of their revenue and shrinking fast:
View attachment 831492

Cook didn't forget about the Mac, Jobs left it behind.

To suggest Cook is a failure because he didn't grow Apple by 35x is as absurd as suggesting that Jobs was a failure because it took him the life of the company to get to add $350B to the market cap and Cook did it in just a few years.

You need to freshen up on your exponentials. Remember the tale of the chessboard. Jobs started with one grain of rice in the first square and put two in the second, and 4 in the third... As you progress, each doubling becomes much harder.

Jobs did a great job turning Apple around, but comparing the effort of bringing a failing company sitting on massive intellectual assets back to profitability to bringing one of the most successful companies in the world to be the most successful on a linear scale is disingenuous.

Comparing Cook to Jobs is futile. They are different people running different companies in vastly different circumstances. When Apple was getting their clocks cleaned by Microsoft, Jobs took pride in being small but special. You don't think he'd be proud today to see his vision vindicated by having his hand picked successor lead Apple to becoming the world's most valuable company?

Yes, I know this. Still think ignoring the Mac is a mistake in the long-term.
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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.
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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...

While concentrating for the masses, they are forgetting the people who create content for the masses. The Mac used to be a great platform, now it's become fashion statement first, computer second. These thin designs with terrible keyboards and either no ports, or ports hidden at the back of the machine don't help me get my work done. They are less useable from an ergonomics perspective than their predecessors. This is the current trend with Apple hardware - make it thinner than the last one and so long as it looks cool and the battery life is good we can forget that there are people who actually need to get a days work done on these things.

 

[LizKat]

And just in case, here is another review from experienced 27 year old users and computer reviewer.

Woot. Two guys made a video carping about Apple's hardware over the past 3 years.

How does that gainsay whatever Kahney will have had to say about Tim Cook bringing Apple forward from where Steve Jobs had to leave off because he was terminally ill? No one can say where Jobs was going to take Apple onward in the 8 years he hasn't been around to explain that to us, much less demo it or defend results.

Anyway I look forward to reading the book about Apple's current CEO. At least l may find out if the issues I had with parts of Kahney's book about Jony Ives were because of the nature of the subject himself, or just due to some limitations of Kahney's talent, training, or industriousness. It's possible that aspects of Tim Cook's inner life relevant to tenure at Apple Computer have ended up as resistant to exterior illumination as Jony Ive's may have done while Leander Kahney was putting that earlier book together. Doesn't mean the books won't both have been worth reading, and certainly won't prove anything one way or another about whether Apple's on some right or wrong path forward as a corporation.

 

[Peperino]

If you didn’t buy one, you have no personal experience...

You do not need to buy one to know a computer is badly designed and poor quality.

 

[I7guy]

You do not need to buy one to know a computer is badly designed and poor quality.

Based on YouTube of course...

 

[Gogeta-Blue]

any person with and average IQ, that watch an old steve job video and listen to steve talking, then listen to mr tim “the genius” cook talk, can easily tell the diference between the real deal and the wannabe, there are some products that sell by themself, but tim exploited the company, increasing prices and lowering components quality by using cheaper parts in order to maximized the profit even more, yes he is a genius, when it comes to ripoff his own costumers,

i see through the lies of the jedi

 

[Frank Dalton]

Apple is thriving and their products continue to be coveted and considered best-in-class.

I'd like to meet the person who thinks the Mac "Pro" is "best-in-class."

 

[09872738]

any person with and average IQ, that watch an old steve job video and listen to steve talking, then listen to mr tim “the genius” cook talk, can easily tell the diference between the real deal and the wannabe, there are some products that sell by themself, but tim exploited the company, increasing prices and lowering components quality by using cheaper parts in order to maximized the profit even more, yes he is a genius, when it comes to ripoff his own costumers,

i see through the lies of the jedi

Yup. Worst of all: pi**ing off the most loyal. Apple was once loved for being different in a positive way. Now Apple is perceived (and actually is) a disgusting company to a degree where they solder everything on just to make sure they can rip off their customers. The strategy may work for a while, but risking the company's reputation in the process.

More and more people jump ship. As said, Apple is not loved any more, quite the opposite. Well done, Mr. Genius. That one is solely on you. As a company Apple is almost as hated as Facebook or Microsoft. If they hadn't Mac OS on their side they'd be massively screwed by now

 

[Gogeta-Blue]

Yup. Worst of all: pi**ing off the most loyal customers in the process. Apple was once loved for being different in a positive way. Not Apple is perceived (and actually is) a disgusting company to a degree where they solder everything on just to make sure they can rip off their customers. The strategy may work for a while, but risking the company's reputation in the process.

More and more people jump ship. Apple is not loved any more, quite the opposite. If they hadn't Mac OS on their side they'd be massively screwed by now

yes i used to love apple very much, but little by little things started changing, while others ignore the facts because they can’t handle the truth, i can’t ignore what is happening, mr cook has ruined apple with his actions, i still like apple but they really need to get rid of mr cook, the magic is gone, we need someone to turn things around, it might never be what it used to be but i will settle some where in the middle, just some innovations and some improvement, all i see is the same disturbing pathern, bad quality control, outrageous prices for old hardware, no wonder they get obsolete so fast lol, the funny thing is that the last time i checked, Tim is not even 60 years old yet but he look like almost 80, unless something drastic happens on apple sales or he simply decides to quit , we might still have that man running apple for another 10 years, poor me, why i do i have to wait that long



regards

 

[Funglebuddy]

Well said!

it always bothered me how they refuse to get on board with the rest of the mobile phone developers...what will bring apple back on top...1. SD card storage 2. Adoptions to USB-C 3. Peripheral support for iPad Pro 4. Cheaper Macbook prices..just a few ideas.

 

[GuruZac]

What did he actually do other than raise prices and make investors happy

I’m an Apple fan and I completely agree. I would wager the most impressive technological leaps in Apple’s hardware were arguably either talked about or in development before Tim Cook took the reins. He’s a numbers guy and that shows with their decreased reliability, decreased serviceability, iterative improvements, with huge increases in price. He needs to go and fresh blood needs to come in.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

it always bothered me how they refuse to get on board with the rest of the mobile phone developers...what will bring apple back on top...1. SD card storage 2. Adoptions to USB-C 3. Peripheral support for iPad Pro 4. Cheaper Macbook prices..just a few ideas.

From my long history of owning electronic devices let me give you my answers to your 4 items.

1) SD card slots are a crap magnet. Also, I had an HP notebook that literally incinerated an SD card inserted into its slot. I have no idea why, and it never did it again. (I just scrapped that notebook this morning)

2) USB-C SUCKS! The idea that muxing connections through a connection that sucks so that you can meet some kind of ideal where all your devices are on one connection is ridiculous. Certify Lightning as a connector, and let other manufacturers use it. It's really that good. (And MagSafe could have rocked the world!)

3) That's true with all of the iPads. They could have made a docking station, and provided ports, but... (AirPower?)

4) They are paying Tim Cook one hell of a lot more than steve jobs. And 'The Ring'. "One Ring to Rule Them All. One Ring to Find Them. One Ring to Bring Them All and In The Darkness Bind Them."

 

[I7guy]

I’m an Apple fan and I completely agree. I would wager the most impressive technological leaps in Apple’s hardware were arguably either talked about or in development before Tim Cook took the reins. He’s a numbers guy and that shows with their decreased reliability, decreased serviceability, iterative improvements, with huge increases in price. He needs to go and fresh blood needs to come in.

I don't agree with this as an across the board comment and I think one could pick and choose the way their version of the facts has been presented to prove their point. It's not like under Jobs there was this utopian Apple that was absolutely perfect.