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And he's done a great job, despite what people have to say around these parts. :) Glad he's on board.

Yeah $100 Million+ "great" while lower level employees do all the real work and get paid jack squat while they have to wait off the clock to have their bags searched. :confused:

I'm not saying socialism is great. I'm saying fixed rules ultra-greedy at the top Crony Capitalism is out of control. CEOs used to make 100x what a regular worker makes. Now they make like 100,000+ times what a regular worker makes. It's ridiculous.
 
$100 Million to do nothing but sit in his office playing Flappy Bird and talk about how clogged his pipeline is every few months for 5 years.

stooges.jpg
 
Imagine where iOS and iPhone\iPad and Mac would be today if his incentive would have been based on marketshare instead of tenure. Longevity pay of any kind is the worst incentive. All it does is encourage someone to just do the bare minimum to keep their job.

Do you really think that Tim Cook is doing "the bare minimum" to keep his job?

Incentives based on market share would be worthless at Apple, because as everyone knows Apple does not run their company based on market share. Frankly, a more logical indicator for incentives for a CEO would be long term profitability.
 
Samsung is making less money because they're pumping far more money in R&D and their phones are reasonable priced for the technology you get. Don't forget that more then half of the components Apple is using in their iPhones are actually from Samsung.
Also Samsung is making their own camera's, ram, screens while iPhone is glued together with nothing Apple except the A9/10. That's why Apple making that huge profits. When you dive into this matter, there is nothing to be proud of that huge profits and it's a shame they don't give their customers the latest and the greatest with those pricing. I think iPhone 7 will under deliver. It might be faster... But since it's not real multitasking it's subjective... I don't care if my phone is tens of seconds faster. I care about camera quality, screen, overall quality and price. If Apple doesn't make their phones cheaper, they'll lose lots of share. And with less market share third party companies will focus less and less on Apple with their own no compatible cables etc.
So let me get this straight.

Apple has the lion's share of profits, and you are asking Apple to discard what has worked for them, in favour of a strategy that is clearly not working so well for the rest of the competition?

I am not so much proud of Apple's profits as much as I am proud of what those profits represent - they are the result of Apple making great products that countless customers don't mind paying for, and I feel that is something worth celebrating. 12% market share sounds pitiful, but it is still a very significant number in an absolute sense, and certainly way more than many other vendors out there.

If Apple products sucked, nobody would buy them, and Apple wouldn't earn a cent. There is clearly value in what Apple is offering. For me, it's an integrated computing solution that just works. No one else can offer me what Apple has given me, so I see no reason to switch however cheap the alternative is. I would rather pay more for something which works well for me, than pay less for something I won't enjoy using.

Samsung makes less money because amongst other things, they spend quite a lot on advertising, they practically give their products away in the form of buy-one-get-one free promotions and frequent discounts, and they can only charge as much as the market will bear.

The real question as an Apple consumer is wether you prefer this company to be the most profitable (as it is), or a company which differentiated from the rest through innovation (with balanced success).

I'm sure stockholders are happier with Cook than Jobs.
I'm sure consumers were happier with Jobs than Cook.

Different approaches, both valid, but Jobs had more impact on consumers, who in the end, put you on the wave. Hopefully Cook will keep that in mind the next time they put spinning drives on "premium" devices.
As I mentioned before, the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Apple makes great products which people like, and they are in turn rewarded with huge sales and consequently, great profits. Consumers have voted with their wallets. This isn't a democracy, where it is one vote per device sold. It's a free market, where it's 1 vote per dollar of profits, and from what I can see, Apple is still winning that election hand over fist.

Let the other companies have their profitless market share. See what good that will do them in the long run.
 
No one single person should ever own that much wealth. It's not a good distribution of limited resources.

It's funny that you think money is a limited resource. When the US government has created $14 trillion in new money since the housing meltdown last decade.

It is a problem that the US has a policy of printing trillions of dollars that ends up in the hands of rich people, but at this point, that money is propping up stock values and real estate values. if all that extra money got dumped into circulation in a short time, you'd have runaway inflation and a currency meltdown.

But basically, US currency is less a limited resource than monopoly money. It actually costs effort to print monopoly money.
 
There's only so much you can do with a smartphone. If people expect "innovation" every year, you simply aren't going to get it. The 6s broke records. The 7 will break records. Simple.

Yeah, but the high school crowd complaining here wants a curved screen, ground effects lighting, and VTEC stickers.
 
It's funny that you think money is a limited resource. When the US government has created $14 trillion in new money since the housing meltdown last decade.

It is a problem that the US has a policy of printing trillions of dollars that ends up in the hands of rich people, but at this point, that money is propping up stock values and real estate values. if all that extra money got dumped into circulation in a short time, you'd have runaway inflation and a currency meltdown.

But basically, US currency is less a limited resource than monopoly money. It actually costs effort to print monopoly money.

I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about natural resources, without which, money is utterly meaningless.
 
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Surprised this thread hasn't been moved to PRSI yet. I imagine it will soon, where the comments can get even more argumentative.

Personally, I think Tim has done a good job from a corporate management perspective, but it's pretty obvious to most that he lacks the kind of innovative fire that Apple used to be praised for. I think he's put too much faith and power in Jonny Ive. From a design perspective, Ive is a master... but his product directions are too focused on "sleekness" rather than true computing innovation. You can only make a product "x" thin before it will start crumbling in your hand when you try to use it.

Eventually, the Apple board will come to realize that they need someone who has the spark that Tim lacks.

Eventually.
 
Eventually, the Apple board will come to realize that they need someone who has the spark that Tim lacks.
So Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs is what you're saying...

I think the board (and the rest of the world) recognizes that.

Thing is, would could the board replace Tim with to make that statement any different? T-Mobile's CEO is pretty outspoken and brash, like Steve Jobs was, but I doubt he'd have any more of an eye for creating "magic" (on a regular basis, no less) than Tim Cook does.
 
CEO takes big cash bonuses BEFORE a major product announcement and right in time for donations before a major election. Yup, this is the start of Tim's parachute opening. He'll be out of Apple by this time next year.

I got that same feeling from that. But I hope it's much sooner than next year. It wouldn't make sense for him to move into the new HQ building and then pack up a few months after. I think his promotion to his "pet" Jeff Williams was his plan to continue his " Cook Agenda ". Making Williams CEO would be a huge mistake.

So in that sense, it sounds like you're familiar with this pattern with CEOs in the market taking big cash bonuses prior to a major development or career situation in their lives.

If his recent interview is a hint of what's coming around the corner, he could end the Fall keynote with a 'goodbye. Meet so and so who's now your new CEO'.

I've a strong feeling Craig will be doing a lot of talking in the upcoming keynote. Hopefully. The others are less engaging on stage.
 
He's done a bad job of managing what Apple has to offer. Eleven figure bank account, what do we get? A fragmenting product line that leaves most of their core business to rot. But hey... Watch bands!
I'm not T. Cook fan by any stretch of the word, but I do think he has managed the business well, that's his strength. His issues are related to rolling out new products.

Personally, I have no problem with the watch or its bands. At least they're trying in that endeavor, even if it's not a huge runaway smash like the iPhone.
 
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Apple store employees, the out-sourced people who build Apple products made in communist China, etc. Do you want social security numbers or something? :rolleyes:
No. I worked a few years as an Apple Store employee and remember being hired on (as a part-time trainee) with an hourly wage that was greater than what most of the assistant managers in 90% of the other stores in that mall earned. Apple also gave a stipend to all employees to cover the cost of a monthly parking pass (for the mall garage), or cost of a monthly public transportation pass (for people that didn't drive). Those were perks that not even store managers got at most of the other retail stores in the mall. That action isn't in line with a company that pays its retails employees jack squat.

Nobody bitched about being paid jack squat in the store I worked at. The bitching that happened was from the lack of advancement opportunity because the turnover so was low. So if you'd been there for a few years, enjoyed your job, and wanted to advance your career, your opportunities were limited because the upper positions rarely turned over in the store. That's something that's being addressed (to a degree) with the new positions that were just announced for the retail stores, IMO.
 
Mac holds less marketshare than ever in history.

Wrong.

iOS sinks to record low marketshare.

Wrong.

iPhone now makes up less marketshare than ever.

Wrong.

iPhone 7 looks like iPhone 6S, and iPhone 6S looks like iPhone 6.

Well done. Based on rumours you may be right.

Not a resume I'd want... sure Apple is profitable... but has been stagnant for a while in product.

Going off these answers your posting ability is something I wouldn't want. Ouch.

And the reason the company is successful is the coat-tails they're still riding from past successes.

My Apple Watch and iPad Pro 9.7" are my 2 favourite Apple products at the moment. Both released under Tim Cook. They've made the biggest changes to my life since TouchID and before that the App Store on the iPhone.

The iPad Pro has allowed me to go pretty much paperless at work. Have all my notes on me at all times, in a searchable form. Brilliant. (And over the Surfaces I've tried in the past the Pencil is better and it has no fan).

The Watch as a product has had a has changed the way I work out. No more carrying my phone around the gym where it has to be placed somewhere safe between sets. No more carrying around a phone when running. No more carrying around a card or cash for water when out cycling.

I'm glad Tim Cook hasn't failed as hard as you have today. As a shareholder and Apple product user I'm pretty damn happy. There are certain features I want from competing products, but no products overall make me want to sell my MBP, iPad or iPhone just yet.

I think the Watch will get there, too, eventually. I just think it was released prematurely and half-baked.

I could say the same about the OG iPhone - no 3G or App Store. Or the OG iPad - barely an iPad specific OS tweak (something that still needs more work, but it is improving). Or the OG MacBook Air - poor performance even for it's basic use cases and that awful flap hiding ports.

The Apple Watch is about right for a Gen 1 Apple product. Better than what's available, but plenty of scope for improvement.
 
I find it interesting, basically money loses all meaning when you start earning these sums of money.

Where does the hunger come from to create great new products?
 
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good his personal "performance targets" are not measured in market share or innovations...
You could have fantastic market share and yet make little or no profit. What would Wall St make of that eh?
Not every maker of widgets needs to have the majority of a market in order to be a success.
The term 'buying market share' is well known and in general should be avoided.
 
I'm not T. Cook fan by any stretch of the word, but I do think he has managed the business well, that's his strength. His issues are related to rolling out new products.

Personally, I have no problem with the watch or its bands. At least they're trying in that endeavor, even if it's not a huge runaway smash like the iPhone.

I think people are expecting Tim to be Steve Jobs, no one will be Steve Jobs, the man has gone. From the moment Jobs died Apple was going to change, personally i think Tim has done a great job so far. Under Cook we have had the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which were very successful smartphones. With each iteration the iPhone has gotten better and better, i think people get caught up in the new design hype, personally i like the iPhone 6 design, i don't mind if they stick with it, i care more about the features like 3D Touch, camera improvements, Live Photos and so on. I think Apple are taking smaller steps, but their products are still great.
 
I find it interesting, basically money loses all meaning when you start earning these sums of money.

Where does the hunger come from to create great new products?

If money is your motivation - tech leadership isn't your game. As an example Steve was already wealthy when he came back to Apple, he still delivered lots of great new products (as well as some duds). It's the same as those people who win enormous sums of money but continue to work - even if it's just charitable. Money isn't everything for some people.

But yeah I agree with money losing its meaning at super wealthy levels. Yet I have never heard any reports of him being tardy, or lazing off. He apparently gets up at about 5 o'clock every day to get working super early.
 
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