Tim Cook Sends Email to Apple Employees Reflecting on 2013, 'Big Plans' for 2014

[Rogifan]

There isn't anything sensitive in the memo. It's a feel good kind of statement. I'm surprised you think it's such a big deal. It's not like the upper management at Apple cares about internet trolling. Such a thing isn't even a blip on their PR radar.

All I know is where I work if it was found out I leaked an internal memo to the media or a blog I'd be fired in a heartbeat. Apple has a real problem with leaks. Cook says they're doubling down on security yet there's very little they did in the last two years that wasn't known about ahead of time. There's nothing sensitive in this memo but it is indicative of a larger problem. Cook & Co. need to do a better job of "doubling down" IMO.

 

[puckhead193]

I hope a bigger iPhone 6 is coming
new TB 2 displays would be nice in January. I miss MWSF

 

[IbisDoc]

Did the chinese workers at Foxconn received this email too? (because they are the only ones making our "magical experience" possible). I don't think so, they are too busy working their a**es 12 hours a day. Apple won't make them waste time reading corporate emails.

He releases another version of that letter to his slave labor in third world countries, one in which he doesn't use the word "team", doesn't intentionally leak it to the press, but does discuss at length his "big plans" in the area of suicide netting installation.

 

[swingerofbirch]

Nice of him to voice his appreciation of his employees. I wonder how many companies do that.

He's also trying to get them not to jump ship. If people think they're working on something big, it could help retention. The fact that many know as much about the public on products they're contributing to probably doesn't help with retention, though. They're getting the vaguest possible promises. And they've probably heard them before.

Anyhow, it's in a company's interest for its workers to like the company. I was talking to an Amazon warehouse employee on Reddit, and she was pumped about Amazon, its products, and its customer-centric viewpoint. She could have been a PR person for the company but wasn't. Companies want you to buy in like that. I think most companies would do something to encourage that to some extent.

 

[dampfnudel]

This would require an iOS device running on x86 or a mac running ARM, unless it has both processors in it?

No offense, but either way that sounds like a bad idea, and I'd be disappointed if Apple bit from the "pressure" and started making gimmicky hybrid devices.

I find it hard to believe that the 12.9" iPad Pro will just be a larger version of the iPad Air with no enhanced abilities to make the most of that larger screen. The MBA needs to evolve in this post-PC world and the iPad needs to be a serious contender when it comes to productivity. Apple's engineers will find a way to make this "marriage" happen and consumers will be ready with their money, maybe even you by the 2nd or 3rd revision.

 

[THOPMedia]

As a consumer, I'd love a MacBook Air with Retina...

I want a macbook air that has a 27-inch Retina screen that folds away into an iphone sized package . . . and has 12TB SSD . . . and a pizza.

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Did the chinese workers at Foxconn received this email too? (because they are the only ones making our "magical experience" possible). I don't think so, they are too busy working their a**es 12 hours a day. Apple won't make them waste time reading corporate emails.

They are certainly not the ONLY ones making our experiences possible, but they are definitely making our experiences cheaper!

 

[H2SO4]

Nice of him to voice his appreciation of his employees. I wonder how many companies do that.

Mine does, (it's in about the top 20% of the fortune 500), then it tells you that you'll get no pay rise this year. After which they send out global emails congratulating salesmen on the bonuses they'll receive, and then they.............(trust me there is a list).


All in all then I'm a little cynical about CEO speaches.

 

[simonmet]

While it's common for CEOs to write self-congratulatory dribble like this I just find it so nauseatingly shallow and completely unnecessary. It's written not for the staff but in the knowledge that it will be leaked and reposted across the internet ad-nauseum and as such is simply part of Apple's propaganda machine.

I don't recall Steve writing such sickeningly self-congratulatory dribble. Feel free to post examples if my memory fails me. In most cases it's evidence of a CEO who feels the need to massage perceptions because a lack (or perceived lack) of vision, competence or confidence in the role (see Steve Ballmer's self-congratulatory dribble). The reason I liked Steve was he was fundamentally different to most CEOs. He was a man of action rather than words and I'm pretty sure he had no patience for hollow gesturing. This is what forms in my head the opinion that Tim Cook is a corporate player rather than a technophile at heart and is perhaps unsuited to leading a technology company into the future.

Tim has and will say the same things every year over and over. 2014 was promised to be an *incredible* year but it was largely business as usual. Yes they FINALLY delivered a new Mac Pro (barely) since promising it a year and half? ago and having neglected the platform for years, but much of the year went without updates or anything of significance to report. What else? Um they gave MacBook Pros, Airs and iMacs routine tech updates and added a fingerprint sensor to a phone, which most people are ho-hum about at best, if not slightly suspicious given the shocking NSA revelations this year.

The biggest surprise was probably the 64-bit A7 processor that continues to provide impressive performance gains with the same battery life. Even the iPad Air was largely predictable, though it should help maintain its dominance in the market.

 

[whitecraine]

no mention of the 2014 mac mini???

I hope the big plans include an update for the mac mini!!! Still waiting T__T

 

[lincolntran]

If I'm permitted to be devil's advocate, while it's common for CEOs to write self congratulatory dribble like this I just find it so nauseatingly shallow and completely unnecessary. It's written not for the staff but in the knowledge that it will be leaked and reposted across the internet ad-nauseum and as such is simply part of Apple's propaganda machine.

I don't recall Steve writing such sickeningly self congratulatory dribble. Feel free to post examples if my memory fails me. The reason I liked Steve was he was fundamentally different to most CEOs. He was a man of action rather than words and I'm pretty sure he had no patience for hollow gesturing. This is what forms in my head the opinion that Tim Cook is a corporate player rather than a technophile at heart.

Tim has and will say the same things every year over and over. 2014 was promised to be a massive year but it was largely business as usual. Yes they FINALLY delivered a new Mac Pro (barely) since promising it a year and half? ago and having neglected the platform for years, but much of the year went without updates or anything of significance to report. What else? Um they gave MacBook Pros, Airs and iMacs routine tech updates and added a fingerprint sensor to a phone, which most people are ho-hum about at best, if not slightly suspicious given the shocking NSA revelations this year.

The biggest surprise was probably the 64-bit A7 processor that continues to provide impressive performance gains with the same battery life. Even the iPad Air was largely predictable, though it should help maintain its dominance in the market.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Now, in 2014, with all of your logic and deduction prowess, please you tell us what will happen in 2014. Or are you going to wait until end of 2014 and put up a nice summary post like this and pretend like you could already predict what happened?

 

[mrmac007]

Another pat on the back

Another pat on there back for those hard working employee's that don't earn a living wage. Although they sell thousands for pounds worth of stuff. After 3 years i couldn't take it. While Tim is sitting down to a nice fat turkey and family round him at christmas, my wife had to work christmas day with my new son with me at home as the wages they pay is just a basic salary and that was it that didn't even cover my rent each month. No Christmas bonus for thanks for the hard work, no performance bonus for doing a good job, no yearly profit share nothing just a pat on the back,well a pat on the back don't pay the bills mate. John Lewis do a great job at rewarding there employee's each year with a profit share, even Costco that treat there employee's like dog dirt get a 1 or 2 thousand pound bonus each year. (once there for to long they get rid of you,another topic for another website maybe.) Working for Apple is fine if your a university leaver living at home no kids to support but once you have a family, you need to move on.

 

[WhackyNinja]

Big as in: "HEY GUYS FOR iOS 8 LETS NOT SCREW UP THE UI."

 

[simonmet]

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Now, in 2014, with all of your logic and deduction prowess, please you tell us what will happen in 2014. Or are you going to wait until end of 2014 and put up a nice summary post like this and pretend like you could already predict what happened?

Where in my post did I suggest that I predicted everything? It's true that the iPad was largely predicted across the internet ever since they released the iPad mini, and the widespread leaks only served to reinforce this, likewise that the iPad mini would eventually get a retina display. Apple has historically tried to make most of its devices slimmer, lighter and more powerful. It doesn't take a massive leap of faith to presume that it was going to be the case for the iPad, yet I still never try to second-guess Apple.

My comment was about Tim Cook's self-congratulatory email and not about predicting Apple's plans.

If it was Steve maybe I would've thought it was an incredible and magical year, but Tim just doesn't have the RDF that Steve had.

 

[Winni]

Nice of him to voice his appreciation of his employees. I wonder how many companies do that.

Every company and every organization I ever worked for did that. Talk is cheap.

I cannot hear the word "magical" anymore. Someone should give Apple's management a bag of new buzzwords.

 

[thekev]

All I know is where I work if it was found out I leaked an internal memo to the media or a blog I'd be fired in a heartbeat. Apple has a real problem with leaks. Cook says they're doubling down on security yet there's very little they did in the last two years that wasn't known about ahead of time. There's nothing sensitive in this memo but it is indicative of a larger problem. Cook & Co. need to do a better job of "doubling down" IMO.

Your boss would consider that kind of memo to be confidential? I ask because it seemingly contains no confidential information. I disagree that it is indicative of anything, as I don't think the information is there to prove that this is a violation of company policy. As I mentioned it's just a "feel good" PR statement.

 

[Marx55]

Tim, That is all great and wonderful. Now, could you please remove the Apple Tax, so that more people enjoy the Apple products?

Example of Apple tax: price of RAM inside Macs, which is two to three times more expensive than exactly the very same RAM model from the very same manufacturer or better.

Thank you.

 

[Dragonforce]

OS X 10.10 ?
OS Triple X ?
OS xXx ?
OS Ten Ten Ten ?

Questions over questions.

 

[Teste]

"Big Plans": sligthly thinner, sligthly faster and with a sligthly better camera (but otherwise mostly identical) iPhone 6 in August and New iPad Air in October.

Apple is so revolutionary, sometimes it hurts.

 

[Eraserhead]

He releases another version of that letter to his slave labor in third world countries, one in which he doesn't use the word "team", doesn't intentionally leak it to the press, but does discuss at length his "big plans" in the area of suicide netting installation.

Neither Apple, not any other major western brand, use slave labour.

 

[ownamac]

I like the tenor of Tim's missive. He's clearly a class act and displays the demeanor one would expect from the leader of a world-class company.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Ideally, these plans include a space program.

Well, not a space program, but actually, it would be nice if Apple would launch an initiative in something a bit more long-term/big-picture that still relates to their core business. Apple could make some huge strides pursuing their own energy R&D. ...since no one else can afford to do it economically or politically, and they're sitting on the pile of money that it takes to do it, & have more autonomy than anyone, it's up to them. There are about 50 years of better Nuclear technologies to pick up and run with, without even inventing anything new.

It'd be a shame if after the decades, we look back an see Apple sat on a tenth of the nations wealth and did nothing more with it than barely keep up with disposable consumer electronics trends.

 

[Defender2010]

Another pat on there back for those hard working employee's that don't earn a living wage. Although they sell thousands for pounds worth of stuff. After 3 years i couldn't take it. While Tim is sitting down to a nice fat turkey and family round him at christmas, my wife had to work christmas day with my new son with me at home as the wages they pay is just a basic salary and that was it that didn't even cover my rent each month. No Christmas bonus for thanks for the hard work, no performance bonus for doing a good job, no yearly profit share nothing just a pat on the back,well a pat on the back don't pay the bills mate. John Lewis do a great job at rewarding there employee's each year with a profit share, even Costco that treat there employee's like dog dirt get a 1 or 2 thousand pound bonus each year. (once there for to long they get rid of you,another topic for another website maybe.) Working for Apple is fine if your a university leaver living at home no kids to support but once you have a family, you need to move on.

I agree. Give the employees some commission at least! The wage is rubbish. I worked for Apple Retail in the last and sold £18,000 of gear in one week - and what thanks does one get? £7 per hour. Cook should put his money where is sickly sweet mouth is.

 

[gnasher729]

Another pat on there back for those hard working employee's that don't earn a living wage. Although they sell thousands for pounds worth of stuff.

Excuse me, but if I go to a shop, knowing fully well what I am going to get, and all an employee does is picking up the £2,000 merchandise and taking my card to pay for it, do you think that employee should be paid more than another employee picking up some £10 merchandise and taking my card to pay for it? Have they contributed anything to the sale?

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I agree. Give the employees some commission at least! The wage is rubbish. I worked for Apple Retail in the last and sold £18,000 of gear in one week - and what thanks does one get? £7 per hour. Cook should put his money where is sickly sweet mouth is.

And what did you contribute yourself to those £18,000 of sales? Here's what Michael Winner once said to a waiter who complained about a tip: "Do you really think I should pay you £120 to open a £1,200 bottle of wine? "

Do you think you deserve more money than the guy working at PCWorld, who sells cheap computers? Do you think you should be paid more money because I decide to buy a £500 phone and not a £50 phone? Really, what do you contribute that a million people working at other stores couldn't contribute just as easily if they took your job?

 

[mejsric]

"Big Plans" = 5 inch iPhone?

According to new Samsung Ads.. big phones are not good.. you will be having hard time holding it.

 

[ablashek]

Tim, tecnically the big donations were done by your customers aquiring product red or donation to the red cross though itunes. But i guess its very charitable of apple not to charge 30% to the red cross for having used their platform to get those donations to those who really need it!