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Anyone else have a bad feeling Tim is just ending up being another John Scully.. They kinda think the same, even something as simple as the iPhone 6 & S fragmentation shows just how he thinks. It's not right, it's about simplicity Tim, zen, not profit margins and split product lines. Someone like Tim Cook can never keep Apple going the way it should be, he's a suit, not a Jobs.

Well I definitely don't get the feeling it's Tim that is scully-like. What resembles the scully era is the emphasis on board control and profitability (first). The subtle difference between someone like Jobs is he knew the value of Apple would increase by making outstanding products its core value. Most companies don't allow someone like Jobs to be in control for very long. And as we know, he was ousted, and even more unlikely he was brought back.

Apple was good at evolving. Now they are good at pro-longing. The devices get marginally better yet significantly more expensive.
 
Apple is investing in the Chinese ride sharing company to make money. Apple doesn't get any trade secrets from that company and Apple didn't pay to be a partner. Like how when people invest in Apple, they don't get to know the secrets in Apple HQ.

What this says is Tim believes that it is a better investment to invest in that Chinese ride sharing company instead of Apple (by way of Apple stock buy back). DOOMED!


WRONG! Apple is investing heavily in an industry that will ultimately employ the (autonomous) car technology they're developing in the US. Greatly synergistic for those that can see ahead, rather than being stuck in the past. The rewards will soundly beat flat/incremental growth in the saturated smartphone market that all phone manufacturers see today. The company with their 87% marketshare in a huge market will provide a ton of insight to Apple along the way with huge dividends down the road. It's a bold move.
 
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I wonder what VPN Tim used.

Burner phone. Probably got new iPhone for the trip and then will hand it back to IT to be wiped as soon as he got back. A sniff at Tim Cook's emails is probably worth millions to China's manufacturers and Tim has to know that.
 
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All of you who think Apple sells more or less products because of its OS X design, or AAPL goes down because the computers aren't pro oriented just don't have a clue.

First thing, Apple shouldn't be selling crap, that's true, and they sell a lot of crap right now, but the reason why the whole thing is decreasing is, well, that the whole thing is an ecosystem, and the driver of this ecosystem is the iPhone.

Most people don't have Macs, in fact, the Mac has an incredibly low market share globally. What happens is that people buy the iPhone, they like it, they like its design, and some of them start buying other products from Apple, like the Mac. That happened with the cheap iPads minis too when they were released, some people bought them because they were affordable and then they changed them for the big one and bought other products.

The Macs don't sell iPhones, the iPhones sell Macs. If the iPhone growth is over, then, the Mac growth is over. Simple as that. What happened with the iPad? Well, what happened is that as the iPhone was getting more power and screen, the iPad got cannibalized, because it's just a big powerful iPhone, and that's why it has been decreasing for longer. The iPhone killed the iPad, and the lower iPhone growth kills the Mac growth. Just. That.

Selling crap reduces the upgrade rate from current owners, but that's not the main problem short term, although it hurts the brand long term. And WS likes growing companies, not tanked companies. AAPL is a consumer electronics company (ultra changing sector) which depends on 1 product, and that's why it always has very low ratios.
 
When a Chinese corporation puts big bucks into an American company: "OMG, China is going to own us all!"

When Apple puts big bucks into a Chinese company: "OMG, Apple is kowtowing to China!"
china like to buy the company and move it back to china! Do some research!
 
Just an observation, but when Jobs was leading Apple, I was always impressed at the end of major keynote presentations. There would always be one specification or feature or product that I didn't think would be possible, only to see it perfectly executed on stage and ready for market.

With Cook at the helm, each keynote presentation leaves me feeling like Apple missed the ball with underwhelming specifications, functionally useless features, or products that no one wants or needs. The last Apple product I was genuinely excited about was the iPhone 4. Jobs wasn't the second coming of Christ -- anyone remember Ping!? -- but at least he got it right most of the time.

Apple needs a shakeup. Cook simply doesn't have a beat on what consumers want, or he lacks the ability to realize that vision. Even the most brand loyal consumers are beginning to lose faith. Does anyone actually believe that something big is just around the corner? I don't even think Cook believes that anymore.

/rant.
 
Just an observation, but when Jobs was leading Apple, I was always impressed at the end of major keynote presentations. There would always be one specification or feature or product that I didn't think would be possible, only to see it perfectly executed on stage and ready for market.

With Cook at the helm, each keynote presentation leaves me feeling like Apple missed the ball with underwhelming specifications, functionally useless features, or products that no one wants or needs. The last Apple product I was genuinely excited about was the iPhone 4. Jobs wasn't the second coming of Christ -- anyone remember Ping!? -- but at least he got it right most of the time.

Apple needs a shakeup. Cook simply doesn't have a beat on what consumers want, or he lacks the ability to realize that vision. Even the most brand loyal consumers are beginning to lose faith. Does anyone actually believe that something big is just around the corner? I don't even think Cook believes that anymore.

/rant.


That's true, with this Apple's mentality, the original iPod would have had 600 mb of storage, "because it's about user experience not specs". That's just marketing BS for fans and higher margins, obviously.
 
When a Chinese corporation puts big bucks into an American company: "OMG, China is going to own us all!"

When Apple puts big bucks into a Chinese company: "OMG, Apple is kowtowing to China!"
Either way, China is the culprit to be blamed.
 
This is such a staged social media post... Tim is starting to act more and more like a politician

Couldn't agree more. I'm not convinced that Cook just relied on whatever driver 'happened to be in the area'. Everything about Cook appears to me to be 'staged', from his political activism to his cow-towing to China. Not much appreciation left for this company. From my first Apple II in college to using 6+ apple products per day, I find myself intentionally browsing competitor's products with frequency now. Just a matter of time I suppose.
 
Or by worrying at all about the stock price...

When all the board's revenues depend on the stock price, he can be fired depending on the stock price evolution, so he better worries about the stock price. He's not Steve Jobs, and by that I mean that he doesn't have some kind of artistic license
 
Said it before...

tim_zedong.jpg
 
*Sigh* This was staged, in reality it should read, Tim Cook car comes to pick him up.
I wonder what make the car was, and how clean it was, and who the driver was, quite possibly he was a driver with the Chinese company, but I am sure he was vetted and put into position.
 
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G
he works for one of the largest tech companies in the world. pretty sure he'd be hooked into their corporate VPN 24/7...

or maybe he doesn't run his own twitter. which is possible.

Good point. I wish I could get on that corporate VPN. The one I use has speed issues and keeps dropping servers.
 
Tim - Offer a discount on the watch with every new iPhone. You'll make it up on the bands! Do you see the light Tim? THE BANDS!! Got to sell the bands!!
 
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The beginning of the end of Apple.

Apple was never a singular product-based company.

Tim is just a numbers guy.

Steve is missed.

Which is exactly why he's traveling the globe to find more markets to stuff the iPhone... gotta raise that stock with increased unit sales year over year otherwise the shareholders will leave and the board will replace him. His bonuses also are related to performance numbers, so without that performance... his fortune is stuck in stock.
 
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Apple has been more successful under Tim Cook than it was under Steve Jobs.

The longer time goes on, the more unrealistic people's remembrance of the past becomes.
 
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I find it interesting that people find this action so revolting. Good business requires risk to thrive. Apple has a stable product line and like many other manufacturers is expanding its base. Apple happens to be a Chinese manufacturer and focusing its endeavors in the country of production makes sense with regard to this automotive market. Chinese innovating and manufacturing for their own people makes perfect sense.
 
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Apple has been more successful under Tim Cook than it was under Steve Jobs.

The longer time goes on, the more unrealistic people's remembrance of the past becomes.

You basically do not understand Apple's current success: it is predicated on the vision and execution of products while Steve was at the helm - Cook has managed supply chain / margins / incremental updates / but NO new "game changers" 5 years into his time at the helm. His pipeline appears empty no matter how much he touts otherwise.
 
Apple has been more successful under Tim Cook than it was under Steve Jobs.

The longer time goes on, the more unrealistic people's remembrance of the past becomes.

I'm not sure that's true.
If you're talking sheer $$ then yes - although the share price is becoming alarming for many.
If you're talking products, wow factor, magic, secrecy, surprise etc, then no. Apple has never been more stale and uninspired. Not to mention the keynotes that just seem so fake now. A bunch of tired old white guys trying to find something exciting in tired old products.
 
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What do you mean nothing else? Do all those fancy watch bands mean nothing to you?
The bands might not have anything high-tech inside them like we're used to seeing from a computer company, but they're what makes the Watch more than just an iPod Nano strapped to your arm, so they're still just as important as the internals of the Watch itself.
 
.......Steve moved mountains, Tim moves small coffee shops.


Are you sure you don't love Steve Jobs just a little bit too much? You certainly give the guy far too much credit. He was one person, he had an enormous team behind him. He sold products, he told people what to do, he put his name on patents another person came up with. He would stand on stage and tell everyone about the products.

Look at Apple day 1, without Woz Steve Jobs wouldn't have had a company to front, he did a great job and I wouldn't ever try to say he didn't, but I'm not sure people understand quite how many other fantastic people make up Apple.

The fact is Apple under Tim Cook is worth more and generating more sales and profit than under Jobs. The company doesn't exist to keep you or anyone else happy, the day they floated on the stock market their only reason to exist became profit. Many on here hate Tim Cook, that's fine and I couldn't care less, I don't know the guy and I have zero interest in meeting him, but once again he's just one guy, I neither give him credit or blame for everything.

I also don't believe for one second that all those tens of thousands of employees are there hoping the expensive mobile phones, cables and colourful over-priced headphones keep selling and that one day somebody will have a new 'great idea'. A good guess would be a long list of product lines nobody on here has a clue about are being developed. In time some will be released, most will sell and Apple will make further tens of Billions in profit and continue to grow.

Investing in companies and products in China isn't a bad idea, I wish I could afford to do it. I doubt everyone has had to stop developing the new gadgets so they could all rush to China to help there, it's a way of spending some of the ridiculous amounts of money that isn't even in the US, and rather than paying tax by repatriating the cash they have invested in a company that may well see the relatively small (in Apples world) investment generating significant profits. It could also lead to further sales of other products. If it doesn't work they've wasted a small percent of the profit they were sitting on - it won't do them much harm.

Lastly, Apple isn't owned by Tim Cook, Tim is simply an employee with a job to do, and he can be fired. The board know what's going on, they are there to ensure the profits keep flowing, they are intelligent people and unlike anyone on this forum they actually do know what's going on inside Apple. Worst case scenario there are many very talented people in the world who could be brought in to Apple if things were going wrong, the board would not wait until the company was dead before doing something about it.

People on here post as if they know what's going on inside Apple, and you don't. I don't, so I don't pretend to know, I just sit and laugh at the same 'Apple is doomed' posts I've seen over the past 13+ years. Apple isn't doomed, Apple makes money that most companies can't even dream of, they do it with intelligence too, they don't try and sell more product, have the biggest catalogue, have the fastest turnover of new lines. Apple can sell a small percentage of a product compared to other companies yet still take a larger share of the profits than many of their competitors combined. That's clever, that takes skill. 'Stack it high and sell it cheap' works for some, but it's a hard way to make a living, and releasing a new line every month shows you are in a hurry to make money and can't wait around to get it right. of a product doesn't sell it doesn't matter as another will be along a few days later.

I guess some are just annoyed Apple doesn't do what they want them to do. I'm not sure if people get this upset with any other company out there, it's all very strange. They make tech products, they are good at it, and I bet they won't be going anywhere. You all have choices, if someone else is doing it better for you and will make you smile go with them, Apple doesn't care, they are still making more money in one hour than most of us will make in many years - $4.8 million+......

If nearly $5million an hour in profit is failure I genuinely have no idea how people can put a value on success.
 
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