5 ms·

They shipped AirPods and the Apple Watch during his tenure. And the ahem, Vision Pro. The M-series chips are probably the biggest win for Apple in the past 15 y

by LarsDu88 11mo ago

They shipped AirPods and the Apple Watch during his tenure. And the ahem, Vision Pro. The M-series chips are probably the biggest win for Apple in the past 15 years. There hasn't been lack of category killers during his stint. If anything they are running out of places on the human body where you can stick a small computer. Surely the next CEO will hopefully not ruin the company and brand by cramming ads into everything.

simonklitj 11mo ago
> … cramming ads into everything We don’t even have to wait for a new CEO for that! https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/26/ads-might-be-coming-to-apple-maps-next-year/ https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/26/ads-might-be-coming-to-app...
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
squigz 11mo ago
> If anything they are running out of places on the human body where you can stick a small computer. Well when the exterior is full, it's time to look inside!
- simonh 11mo ago
  We call it the Gonad Touch, and we think you’re going to love it. Apparently the name iBalls was considered, but just well it was rejected. The Gonad Pocket accessory is on hold pending litigation by Borat over his Mankini patents.
pqtyw 11mo ago
> The M-series chips are probably the biggest win for Apple in the past 15 years. In a way yes. But from a business perspective there was a significant spike in Mac sales in 2021-2022. It has mostly levelled off and not that massively above what it was back in the Intel days. They probably also inadvertently increased the upgrade cycle too since there is no longer that much point to upgrade more frequently than every 4-5 years for most people. As proportion of Apple's total revenue Mac is actually lower than what it was back in 2015. Even lower than iPad revenue last quarter (which peaked ~2012 for that matter). And well.. as great as the M series is they are pretty much just a scaled up A series chips. IIRC my iPhone was already technically faster than my i7 Macbook back in ~2018.
- tyleo 11mo ago
  Your point reads as pro Cook to me. We got hardware that decreased obsolescence. If anything I’d be pissed if Cook was out and the new CEO’s strategy involved making chips that needed upgrades every other year again. Or if they were like, “Macs don’t sell well, let’s cancel the product line.”
  - pqtyw 11mo ago
    I don't necessarily see any reason to attribute this specific outcome to Cook, though. But from a stockholder perspective this is a bit mixed. Of course Macs are still very profitable compared to what PC makers are making. Now they share a lot of the hardware and software stack with iPad/iPhone. So it shouldn't be too costly to maintain. And well Apple's entire ecosystem is built on them anyway. It's not like anyone besides masochists would consider actually developing apps on iPads...
    - tyleo 11mo ago
      > I don't necessarily see any reason to attribute this specific outcome to Cook I do: he was CEO when the outcome was realized. Shouldn’t CEO performance be judged by outcomes the company realizes during their tenure?
      - pqtyw 11mo ago
        Yeah, I suppose there was a point he had to sign off on the decision so there is that. Hard to say if his role amounted to anything more than that (maybe it did). > judged by outcomes In a general it depends? Of course in Apple's case its not that ambiguous. But then you have companies like Intel where it seems kind of hard to pinpoint the specific individuals responsible for its demise. e.g. Gelsinger presided over what was probably the company's darkest period (remains to be seen of course) and the situation was reasonably stable when he took over. Is he the one to blame for all of it?
        LarsDu88 11mo ago
pavlov 11mo ago
The M-series chips are a continuation of the in-house chip design strategy that Steve Jobs initiated in 2008 when Apple acquired P.A.Semi. So while Cook deserves credit for execution, the roadmap was laid in place by his predecessor.
- dh2022 11mo ago
  Cook is definitely one of the world’s best operators (I think he was COO during Jobs’ tenure). But he is not a visionary by any stretch. Maybe Apple itself does not need a visionary, but I think tech needs one.
  - alwillis 11mo ago
    Yes, Cook was the COO during Jobs’ tenure. Before Cook, Apple’s supply chain and manufacturing was a mess—too many of some products and not enough of others. Back in the day, it was a running joke trying to buy products as an organization—they would announce a new Mac but you couldn’t buy it for 4-6 weeks. It was Tim Cook who implemented Apple’s build to order system after Dell demonstrated its success. We take it for granted now, but it was a huge development at the time.
- LarsDu88 11mo ago
  In the startup and business world you reward execution not ideas. Ideas are easy. I have an idea for a memristor based neural processor for low power on device AI, but its worthless because I dont have the 9 billion dollars to realize this idea...
  - nsagent 11mo ago
    > Ideas are easy. Let's not get into absolutes. Ideas can be as hard or harder than execution. Not many will claim ideas like Special Relativity are easy to come by. It really depends on the idea and what you're executing. Often in business both the idea and the execution have to work out to captialize. In this case Jobs might have set the direction and Cook capitalized. Both deserve a share of the credit.
- 11mo ago
tyleo 11mo ago
I’m with you. I think Cook has done pretty well. A replacement is not automatically going to be better. I’d wager there’s a good chance we get someone who just wants to squeeze margins rather than invest in risky and logistically complex hardware like the M chips on the Macs.
NaomiLehman 11mo ago
The M silicon is the best thing that happened to computing in this millennium, in my opinion. And it will change the future of other OSs.
estimator7292 11mo ago
Yeah, but a $250 sock though
- LarsDu88 11mo ago
  You don't make a trillion dollar company by selling $2 socks...
JauntTrooper 11mo ago
The AirPods have been my biggest source of tech wonder in recent years. The noise cancelation features, and now the live translation function? So cool.

simonklitj 11mo ago

> … cramming ads into everything We don’t even have to wait for a new CEO for that! https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/26/ads-might-be-coming-to-apple-maps-next-year/ https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/26/ads-might-be-coming-to-app...

deleted 11mo ago

[deleted]

squigz 11mo ago

> If anything they are running out of places on the human body where you can stick a small computer. Well when the exterior is full, it's time to look inside!

simonh 11mo ago
We call it the Gonad Touch, and we think you’re going to love it. Apparently the name iBalls was considered, but just well it was rejected. The Gonad Pocket accessory is on hold pending litigation by Borat over his Mankini patents.

pqtyw 11mo ago

> The M-series chips are probably the biggest win for Apple in the past 15 years. In a way yes. But from a business perspective there was a significant spike in Mac sales in 2021-2022. It has mostly levelled off and not that massively above what it was back in the Intel days. They probably also inadvertently increased the upgrade cycle too since there is no longer that much point to upgrade more frequently than every 4-5 years for most people. As proportion of Apple's total revenue Mac is actually lower than what it was back in 2015. Even lower than iPad revenue last quarter (which peaked ~2012 for that matter). And well.. as great as the M series is they are pretty much just a scaled up A series chips. IIRC my iPhone was already technically faster than my i7 Macbook back in ~2018.

tyleo 11mo ago
Your point reads as pro Cook to me. We got hardware that decreased obsolescence. If anything I’d be pissed if Cook was out and the new CEO’s strategy involved making chips that needed upgrades every other year again. Or if they were like, “Macs don’t sell well, let’s cancel the product line.”
- pqtyw 11mo ago
  I don't necessarily see any reason to attribute this specific outcome to Cook, though. But from a stockholder perspective this is a bit mixed. Of course Macs are still very profitable compared to what PC makers are making. Now they share a lot of the hardware and software stack with iPad/iPhone. So it shouldn't be too costly to maintain. And well Apple's entire ecosystem is built on them anyway. It's not like anyone besides masochists would consider actually developing apps on iPads...
  - tyleo 11mo ago
    > I don't necessarily see any reason to attribute this specific outcome to Cook I do: he was CEO when the outcome was realized. Shouldn’t CEO performance be judged by outcomes the company realizes during their tenure?
    - pqtyw 11mo ago
      Yeah, I suppose there was a point he had to sign off on the decision so there is that. Hard to say if his role amounted to anything more than that (maybe it did). > judged by outcomes In a general it depends? Of course in Apple's case its not that ambiguous. But then you have companies like Intel where it seems kind of hard to pinpoint the specific individuals responsible for its demise. e.g. Gelsinger presided over what was probably the company's darkest period (remains to be seen of course) and the situation was reasonably stable when he took over. Is he the one to blame for all of it?
      - LarsDu88 11mo ago

pavlov 11mo ago

The M-series chips are a continuation of the in-house chip design strategy that Steve Jobs initiated in 2008 when Apple acquired P.A.Semi. So while Cook deserves credit for execution, the roadmap was laid in place by his predecessor.

dh2022 11mo ago
Cook is definitely one of the world’s best operators (I think he was COO during Jobs’ tenure). But he is not a visionary by any stretch. Maybe Apple itself does not need a visionary, but I think tech needs one.
- alwillis 11mo ago
  Yes, Cook was the COO during Jobs’ tenure. Before Cook, Apple’s supply chain and manufacturing was a mess—too many of some products and not enough of others. Back in the day, it was a running joke trying to buy products as an organization—they would announce a new Mac but you couldn’t buy it for 4-6 weeks. It was Tim Cook who implemented Apple’s build to order system after Dell demonstrated its success. We take it for granted now, but it was a huge development at the time.
LarsDu88 11mo ago
In the startup and business world you reward execution not ideas. Ideas are easy. I have an idea for a memristor based neural processor for low power on device AI, but its worthless because I dont have the 9 billion dollars to realize this idea...
- nsagent 11mo ago
  > Ideas are easy. Let's not get into absolutes. Ideas can be as hard or harder than execution. Not many will claim ideas like Special Relativity are easy to come by. It really depends on the idea and what you're executing. Often in business both the idea and the execution have to work out to captialize. In this case Jobs might have set the direction and Cook capitalized. Both deserve a share of the credit.
11mo ago

tyleo 11mo ago

I’m with you. I think Cook has done pretty well. A replacement is not automatically going to be better. I’d wager there’s a good chance we get someone who just wants to squeeze margins rather than invest in risky and logistically complex hardware like the M chips on the Macs.

NaomiLehman 11mo ago

The M silicon is the best thing that happened to computing in this millennium, in my opinion. And it will change the future of other OSs.

estimator7292 11mo ago

Yeah, but a $250 sock though

LarsDu88 11mo ago
You don't make a trillion dollar company by selling $2 socks...

JauntTrooper 11mo ago

The AirPods have been my biggest source of tech wonder in recent years. The noise cancelation features, and now the live translation function? So cool.