Tim Cook Stepping Down as Apple CEO Next Week: 15 Years in Quotes

[AndiG]

Quotes, plural?


There’s only ever been one: “We’re proud to present the best iPhone ever.” Fifteen years on repeat, like a scratched record.

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

I can’t help but think he’s gonna sit back at his new (or is it old?) desk with a sigh of relief now that he’ll be back doing what he does best but with (I assume) a bigger paycheck

The real question remains who’s going to pick up logistics once he actually retires

 

[AusMness]

For what,..the BILLIONS of dollars wasted on the Apple Car and Vision Pro projects? The masses of staff layoffs? The giant leap in hardware prices over the past 15 years?

Ahh, there’s the negative nancy. Was only a matter of time.
Take a look at what they’ve accomplished under Tim and come back to me. Look at all the new things these iPhones and iPads can do. Look at the new product lines like the Apple Watch and AirPods and how they’ve changed the world. Look at how Macs went from PCs with aluminum shells to the best all-rounder laptops in the world. Apple absolutely as a whole is in a much better place than they were 15 years ago and if you can’t see that…

 

[Robert.Walter]

He did a great job with a complex company in an increasingly complex world.

 

[slippery-pete]

For what,..the BILLIONS of dollars wasted on the Apple Car and Vision Pro projects? The masses of staff layoffs? The giant leap in hardware prices over the past 15 years?

During his 15 years, do you think more jobs were created at Apple than eliminated? We both know the answer...

And acting like prices haven't increased overall in the last 15 years is just silly.

 

[Robert.Walter]

For what,..the BILLIONS of dollars wasted on the Apple Car and Vision Pro projects? The masses of staff layoffs? The giant leap in hardware prices over the past 15 years?

A CEO's job is to try and predict the future, to make bets on those predictions, and to the extent he can fund them, to have multiple pokers in the fire because some may not work out.

Additionally, a company the size of apple is difficult to keep in a growth phase if you don't pursue multiple big projects.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Every CEO has failures, some even learn from their mistakes. Tim Cook:
- released bigger phones, apply pay, face id, Apple Silicon, wearables, apple TV+ plus more
- saw major revenue growth in services
- had a positive social impact
- championed data privacy and privacy in general
- grew apple into a massive juggernaut, which resulted in his direction about products. (Oh I forgot, he isn't a product guy /s)
- and importantly avoided getting bogged down into AI until Apple deemed something worthwhile could be released.

So yeah he had failures, but so what? If the failures are your takeaway from Cook's 15 years at the helm, the universe disagrees.

edit: Also mashable noted in an article about Tim, if the M5 (and I guess now the M6) chip can handle most AI tasks locally, it could put a dent into nvidia.

Agreed. Apple literally built a chip machine juggernaut (A-series, M-series, Wi-Fi, Broadband, etc.) out of the acquired ashes of competitors and gradually liberated itself from Broadcom, Intel, Nvidia, etc. That takes vision to see and balls to pull the trigger on.

 

[slippery-pete]

Ahh, there’s the negative nancy. Was only a matter of time.
Take a look at what they’ve accomplished under Tim and come back to me. Look at all the new things these iPhones and iPads can do. Look at the new product lines like the Apple Watch and AirPods and how they’ve changed the world. Look at how Macs went from PCs with aluminum shells to the best all-rounder laptops in the world. Apple absolutely as a whole is in a much better place than they were 15 years ago and if you can’t see that…

My favorite part of the post "masses of staff layoffs". If they did 2 seconds of research, they would have realized how silly of a statement it was.

And prices went up over 15 years? 😂😂😂

Most of the post in this thread are negative, which is the norm nowadays for this board. It is clear that most don't really know what a CEO of a publicly traded company is responsible for. "Bean-counter"....um yeah, that is part of what a CEO does.

 

[Happy_John]

During his 15 years, do you think more jobs were created at Apple than eliminated? We both know the answer...

And acting like prices haven't increased overall in the last 15 years is just silly.

Mac prices actually went down with M chips, adjusted for inflation….

… unfortunately they’ve skyrocketed back up. But you have to have had your head under a rock not to know why.

 

[slippery-pete]

Mac prices actually went down with M chips, adjusted for inflation….

… unfortunately they’ve skyrocketed back up. But you have to have had your head under a rock not to know why.

Yup. My point about prices over the last 15 years was just a general comment...not specific to Apple, but it still applies.

 

[bLackjackj]

A CEO's job is to try and predict the future, to make bets on those predictions,

Multiple BILLION dollar failures do not maketh a good CEO 🤦‍♂️,..he should have been ousted by the board after wasting Billions on the rediculous car project.

Literally everyone knew it would be a failure, apparently bar Tim.

 

[I7guy]

Multiple BILLION dollar failures do not maketh a good CEO 🤦‍♂️,..he should have been ousted by the board after wasting Billions on the rediculous car project.

One needs to ask why he wasn’t.

Literally everyone knew it would be a failure, apparently bar Tim.

Hyperbole much? Similar to the Apple is doomed meme since 2011?

 

[webkit]

Multiple BILLION dollar failures do not maketh a good CEO 🤦‍♂️,..he should have been ousted by the board after wasting Billions on the rediculous car project.

Literally everyone knew it would be a failure, apparently bar Tim.

Not everything works out. Steve Jobs had plenty of failures too. Project Titan (Apple Car) wasn't a total loss as some of the "learnings" were applied elsewhere. Also, for a company the size of Apple, the amount spent on "Project Titan" over 10 years or so was pretty insignificant. The board would've been absolutely foolish to oust Cook over this.

 

[bushman4]

Tim Cook took over Apple filling shoes of Steve Jobs which was an incredible feat
I’m hopeful John Ternus will pay more attention to the iPhone
Ternus has no easy task in front of him

 

[TruthAboveAllElse]

I’m not sure I entirely agree.
The Vision Pro strikes me as an absolute mission-driven product more than a results-driven product.
The vast majority of regular consumers will never, and certainly can’t, purchase it due to its extremely high retail price, extremely low utility, and cumbersome form factor. Apple knows this.
But it’s clearly driven by a mission, the mission being that this is Apple’s ultimate vision of computing, the idea of something that’s just there, in front of you, in your space. Not a squared off rectangle of glass and metal separating you from your content, but your content, including your entertainment and memories, appearing directly within your space.
Now, if that vision is practical, can be argued all day, but I think it’s hard to argue that Apple ever expected to see much results with the first generation Vision Pro.
Compare this to something like the AirPods or the Apple Watch, which were introduced with Apple’s whole chest clearly expecting results, those being millions and millions of sales and to quickly, become the best-selling watch company and headphone company, which they did within two years of both products introductions.

One could also argue the entire project tighten saga was significantly more mission driven than results driven, but they eventually realized that it was going to go absolutely nowhere.


I also think that Apple’s pure size doesn’t help it in this way, they are so big now to where they can’t just ship everything that could be cooked up in their labs. Look at the whole micro LED saga, they eventually just realized that they would have to produce them at too large of scale to be worth anything, that’s an issue, even the most mission-driven company can’t solve. Not just how to produce a certain type of product, but how to produce it at massive, massive scale. To go from zero devices on the market, having micro LED, to 100 million devices on the market, having micro LED in three months. The supply chain is literally Tim Cook’s thing, and even he couldn’t figure out an economically responsible way to do something like that.

Fair enough. I framed it too dichotomatically. It’s really that it seems to have shifted to be less mission driven, and more results driven than it was before. I’m not a Cook hater, but I do feel there are valid criticisms as well, even though he did a good job from a revenue and market cap standpoint.

 

[TruthAboveAllElse]

"Stepping down" only to become the new CEO's boss... OK!

A chairman is not the CEO’s “boss”. The board as a whole is, in a sense. The chairman is the lead of the board, but they can’t individually do much without support from the rest of the board. And they don’t run the day to day business.

 

[Happy_John]

A chairman is not the CEO’s “boss”. The board as a whole is, in a sense. The chairman is the lead of the board, but they can’t individually do much without support from the rest of the board. And they don’t run the day to day business.

The shareholders are the CEO’s bosses. The Board represents the shareholders. The Chairman chairs the meetings of the board. The Board delegates the day to day running of the business to the CEO / Chief Officers.

 

[TruthAboveAllElse]

The shareholders are the CEO’s bosses.

In a sense. But all corporate governance power resides in the board.

The Board represents the shareholders.

And potentially other stakeholders, but in this case it is just that.

The Chairman chairs the meetings of the board.

They do more than that.

The Board delegates the day-to-day running of the business to the CEO / Chief Officers.

Yes.

 

[bLackjackj]

Project Titan (Apple Car) wasn't a total loss as some of the "learnings" were applied elsewhere.

Yeh, probably the overcooked polishing cloth 🤦‍♂️…0 learnings and Tim should have resigned long ago not have to be told his time is up..

 

[bebarhood]

I am gonna miss:

"GOOD MORNING"
"Our Lives"

 

[UltimaKilo]

It's not unusual for a CEO to step down and become executive chairman of the company. Jeff Bezos did it, Bill Gates did it, Larry Ellison did it, Reed Hastings did it, Eric Schmidt did it, and others.

It's typically meant to be a short-term/transition thing.

Yep, I think the point still stands though: for the time being, every major decision will be approved by Cook.

 

[UltimaKilo]

A chairman is not the CEO’s “boss”. The board as a whole is, in a sense. The chairman is the lead of the board, but they can’t individually do much without support from the rest of the board. And they don’t run the day to day business.

Usually it is, and especially in this case. The board was mostly selected by Cook; the board has been described as containing “loyalists” who rarely push back by numerous reporters and insiders. The transition to Ternus as CEO and Cook moving to executive chairman further cements that.

Make no mistake, the company’s direction and vision will still be run by Cook, even if the day-to-day won’t, at least for the medium term.

 

[TruthAboveAllElse]

Make no mistake, the company’s direction and vision will still be run by Cook, even if the day-to-day won’t, at least for the medium term.

I simply do not think this is true. Example will be what happens to Vision Pro, which is basically Cook's baby. The grand vision of Apple is cemented in their culture, and it is unlikely Ternus and Cook would diverge there anyway. Cook is stepping back because he doesn't want to be the boss anymore.

And it certainly isn't true that the chairman is "usually" the CEO's boss.

 

[Abazigal]

Yep, I think the point still stands though: for the time being, every major decision will be approved by Cook.

I was generally okay with Tim Cook’s tenure at Apple, so that is an arrangement I continue to be fine with.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Tim still looking forward staying friends with all the dictators