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If you check my comments Im a routine critic of Apple. Specifically its mis-management of Siri. But, in my mind, Tim Cook is also responsible for the only exce
by bnchrch 11mo ago
If you check my comments Im a routine critic of Apple. Specifically its mis-management of Siri.
But, in my mind, Tim Cook is also responsible for the only exceptional qualities of Apple. Namely its production of the M series chips and the Vision Pro (yes really).
They better have someone outstanding in mind as a replacement.
Otherwise I could easily see the successor mildly improve Siri/AI functions, while continuing Apples new disastrous design language and drop the ball on the supply chain and vertical integration that makes their hardware products second to none.
- dude250711 11mo agoWith the right visionary, $2k phones and $500 textile cases will not be impossible...
- wtallis 11mo ago$2k phones has been a thing for a while now, with the folding phones. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold currently starts at $1700 and Google Pixel Pro Fold starts at $1800, and both are over $2100 for the 1TB models.
- epolanski 11mo agoChanging chip is way too little of an accomplishment in 10+ years of leadership of what was once the biggest tech company on the planet. The company isn't growing from years, and it's only saved by the positive offset coming from advertisement and app store growth.
- pshc 11mo agoMacBooks outclass any other laptop in the market thanks to those chips.
- wk_end 11mo agoListen, I don't really like the direction Apple has taken either, but since Tim Cook became CEO of Apple in August 2011 the company's stock went from like $15 to like $275; it had a value of $400 billion and now it's worth $4 trillion, ten times as much. Any characterization of him as some kind of failure who killed Apple ("once the biggest tech company on the planet", "isn't growing", "only saved"...) is completely out-of-touch.
- sharts 11mo agoHow can we be sure this is specifically due to Cook and not the ecosystem overall? A lot has changed since 2011. Some was likely Cook continuing execution of things lined up by Jobs. Some could just be tech sector in general, etc.
- JKCalhoun 11mo agoIn some ways it doesn't matter. A bad CEO would have fucked up the ecosystem.
- matwood 11mo ago> likely Cook continuing execution of things I love how people say 'execution' like it's an insult. Execution on the scale of Apple is an incredible challenge. Apple sells something like 425 iPhones per minute. It could be argued that execution is the biggest Apple innovation ever.
- manmal 11mo agoIt sailed on Jobs‘ monumental accomplishments, and still does. Including AirPods and Vision Pro, much of what fell into Cook‘s era was already well underway when Jobs died. Cook is a fantastic executor, fulfilling Jobs‘ legacy. But the tank is empty now, has been for a while.
- epolanski 11mo agoAs a customer and tech enthusiasts I couldn't care less about the stock performance of Apple, truly. It's a tech company, I'm interested in the tech they produce. On that front, the company hasn't been innovative for ages.
- victorbjorklund 11mo agoIt’s not the only thing. The scale up of Apple is massive and so is the supply chain. Those are not really things consumers don’t see directly (just indirectly)
- JKCalhoun 11mo ago"…and it's only saved by the positive offset coming from advertisement and app store growth" That has been part of the plan for a decade now since Eddy Cue was tasked with boosting Apple's income from "services". (It's worked pretty well for Microsoft.)
- 827a 11mo agoTernus is the leading candidate; VP of Hardware Engineering. He was very likely more directly responsible than Cook for all the things you liked about Cook's Apple. My fear for Apple right now is how most decisions they make appear to incentivize them toward becoming a perpetual middle-man in all aspects of your interactions with their products. They don't manufacture much of anything anymore; its on-contract. They design the M-Series chips, but don't make them. Their software sucks; they'd rather just take 30% of your interaction with actually-good software. Their AI and search sucks; they just pay Google $30B a year for theirs. Etc and etc.
- nadermx 11mo agoWhat incentive do they have otherwise?
- rhubarbtree 11mo agoWait, Apple Pay Google for search?
- gsharma 11mo agoNo, it’s the other way around. Comment above is confused about the relationship.
- SauntSolaire 11mo agoHe's referring to the AI part of his sentence.
- bobbylarrybobby 11mo agoReports say that Apple will be paying Google a billion a year for a Gemini‘d Siri
- 827a 11mo agoNo, but Apple is likely to be paying Google for access to Gemini in the upcoming Siri revamp, and relies on Google's technology for the default safari search experience, which is what I was referencing.
- dyauspitr 11mo agoI think it should be Sabih. Having worked with him he has a great head on his shoulders.
- ChrisMarshallNY 11mo agoI think we’ll be seeing a lot more, from Vision. The Liquid GlArse thing is because they want to make every app a Vision app. Don’t forget how unimpressive the iPhone was, when it was first introduced. It has probably become the most successful product in history.
- linkage 11mo ago> Don’t forget how unimpressive the iPhone was, when it was first introduced We have very different recollections, then. People audibly gasped when Steve demoed slide-to-unlock on stage. The first generation was sold out for a long time despite being eye-wateringly expensive compared to competing devices like the BlackBerry.
- ChrisMarshallNY 11mo ago> despite being eye-wateringly expensive compared to competing devices like the BlackBerry. That’s sort of what I meant. The people who poo-poohed it, were marketing folks at more traditional companies (like the one I worked for, at the time). They literally laughed themselves into the poorhouse. I watched that happen, right in front of my eyes.
- xwowsersx 11mo agoHow unimpressive the first iPhone was?? Yeah, totally... a full touchscreen computer in your pocket with no physical keyboard, pinch-to-zoom magic people thought was CGI, a browser that wasn't a joke, visual voicemail, and an OS so smooth it made every other phone look like it ran on car batteries. Truly underwhelming stuff. It literally redefined an entire industry, vaporized half the product lines at Nokia/BlackBerry/Palm/Microsoft, and set the blueprint for every smartphone that exists today. But sure..."unimpressive." This is the weirdest revisionist history I've ever heard. If you mean that the iPhone has come a long way and that it was unimpressive relative to the phones we have 18 years later, sure. But unimpressive it was not.
- ChrisMarshallNY 11mo ago
- creer 11mo agoAs to succession, Cook is an operations maniac. Hopefully that carries to preparing and planning potential successors.