

Tim Cook's Freshman Year - JoeCortopassi
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-06/tim-cooks-freshman-year-the-apple-ceo-speaks?a

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jaysonelliot
Note to designers: stop overlaying divs on top of your main body content.
Users press the Page Down key, and it obscures the first text lines of the
next page under the navigation, or top banner, or whatever you've placed so
cleverly up there.

It's frustrating, impedes the reader's experience, and makes people not want
to bother with your content.

Okay, done with my UX rant. Sorry. Thanks.

~~~
alexpenny
Why are you using page down? No scroll wheel, old habits, on a laptop?

Its something I've never used and have never thought about while designing,
seems like a lot of websites are ignoring it as well; fb, techcrunch etc.

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jsankey
Maybe because he wants to go exactly one page down as easily as possible, and
this is something that has generally worked for decades. It's pretty simple,
really.

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alexpenny
Wow brilliant!

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JoeCortopassi
Anyone else bugged by the fact that the top two comment threads, for this
article, are about pedantic details of the article format rather than it's
actual content? You have to go halfway down the page before you get a comment
that's even on-topic

~~~
joejohnson
Now I have to scroll past comments complaining about pedantic details of the
article format and comments complaining about comments complaining about
pedantic details of the article format.

You're not helping.

~~~
glhaynes
The only way to win is for everyone else not to play. Hmmmm.

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sami36
Tim Cook's biggest problems so far: Maps,iCloud & iOS. We know he's aware of
Maps & fixing it, albeit slowly. iCloud's idiosyncrasies are mostly a
developer problem. iOS, though, is getting tired fast & it's highly visible to
the consumer.

Siri is still a gimmick. That's bordering on the unacceptable now, esp when
compared to Google's voice offerings & how fast they've reached par & exceeded
it. Stil no APIs, no offline capability, slow response times when it's
working.

~~~
Steko
"iOS, though, is getting tired fast & it's highly visible to the consumer."

This idea is often expressed on HN but I've never seen a convincing argument
that radically changing the UI every year is something consumers want.

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sami36
>..every year is something consumers want...

Consumers were pretty happy with PalmOS & Motorola Q until the iPhone came
out. We, however, the populace of geeks who inhabit HN, should know better.
There are many ways in which Android is pulling away from iOS. From automatic
app updates, to account registration & syncing..to widgets & lockscreens. None
of these are a fatal blow but all taken together start adding up to a
significant advantage.

On the other hand, iOS smoothness & polish are still second to none. I'm not
saying it's a bad mobile os at all. It's an amazing piece of software. I'm
saying I wish it were evolving.. faster. Just look at the amazing update
iTunes just received. Compared to the previous version, It's an order of
magnitude faster on my laptop. I was hoping for a similar leap from iOS5 to 6.
It didn't materialize.

Recently, I saw an Article on The Verge taking on the static weather app icon
that hasn't changed since 2007 & how it's a metaphor for Apple's being overly
careful & protective (or lazy, take your pick) of the UI it introduced with
the first iPhone. I think that's valid criticism.

Full Disclosure : I carry two devices with me all the time. an iPhone 5 (iOS
6.1, beta 3) & a Galaxy Nexus (4.2.1) I've had every single iPhone since day
1, Every single iPad except for the 4 & the mini. i'm typing this comment on
Macbook air.

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jarek
Wait, iOS can't be set to update selected applications automatically?

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sami36
No

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lostlogin
When you say no, I assume you are referring to actual app updates and bug
fixes as opposed to content updates? Not being a pedant, I had never thought
of this aspect either.

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MiguelHudnandez
One of my pet peeves is misleading charts and graphs. While not intentionally
misleading, this chart is pretty sloppy [1].

Apple's 64% looks closer to 75%, because nine percent of the market is just
plain excluded from the chart. Another issue is that Google's five percent is
smaller than Zune's three percent.

I don't understand how an editor can let something like this get through, even
if it's only incidentally related to the story. If it takes some random jerk
on the internet a few seconds to se something is wrong with the chart, surely
they are cutting corners? It undermines my confidence in the other information
they are providing.

[1] <http://i.imgur.com/ImN07.png>

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apaprocki
I pointed out the error to the BW team and they said they'll fix it for the
web/mobile apps. Thanks for pointing it out :)

edit: It's fixed now:
[http://images.businessweek.com/cms/2012-12-06/feature_chart_...](http://images.businessweek.com/cms/2012-12-06/feature_chart_10.jpg)

~~~
MiguelHudnandez
Thank you for pointing out the issue to the right people. :)

It was a trivial mistake in an otherwise great article.

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apaprocki
Single page article: [http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/85278-tim-
cooks...](http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/85278-tim-cooks-
freshman-year-the-apple-ceo-speaks)

~~~
prawks
Thanks, couldn't figure out how to work their site to get that. You really
have to go to a printer-friendly version, rather than there being a "View all"
link?

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epaga
“To whom much is given, much is expected.” is an exciting quote to see Tim
Cook get passionate about. Having an 11-digit cash hoard at your disposal
could be an unbelievable force for good.

Though he does misattribute the quote to JFK - it originated about 2000 years
earlier... Luke 12:48 "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much
required". ;)

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k_kelly
It seems that Tim Cook excels at designing immensely complex supply chains and
manufacturing processes. It's clear this is his absolute passion.

The only thing is that it's begun to shape Apple. I'm much more excited about
his moves to bring manufacturing to America than any product apple has
launched under his stewardship.

I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but there seems no
question that Apple is now a completely different type of company and it's
amazing how much a single person can put their stamp on a global and
multibillion dollar company.

~~~
jdechko
I don't think it's fair to attribute all of the recent Apple products to Cook.
Most of those products, if not all, were probably well into the design and/or
testing phase by the time Cook took over. In another 12-18 months, I think we
can then start analyzing products to find Cook's DNA in them. At minimum, I'd
say that the 2014 iPhone, iPad and Mac lines will be a much more accurate
representation of Cook's product leadership.

~~~
lostlogin
I'm picking that people will call something a Cook product when its
faulty/broken/rubbish. Maybe I'm too cynical.

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jot
"Eighty percent of our revenues are from products that didn’t exist 60 days
ago."

I'm sure last time I heard a fact like that about Apple it was more like
"products that didn't exist 3 years ago." Impressive that they seem to be
speeding up on that measure of innovation.

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Kylekramer
That is more of a weird bit of rhetoric framing than Apple speeding up. Even
though there are new versions of the iPhone and big iPad, very few people
would consider them products that didn't exist 60 days ago.

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lostlogin
First comment I have seen saying this, and I know that there is more to some
of the product changes than just a new plug, but it sure seems bold to call it
a new product. Hell, my body is probably 50% new product compared to 2 months
ago using that kind of measure.

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fuzzythinker
The "Profit share of the smartphone market" graph really sums up the current
state of Apple/iOS vs. Samsung/Android in recent months. Samsung is eating
away a big chunk of Apple's _profits_. If they don't address the 2 main issues
(imho, people are voting with their money for bigger screens and
different/more exciting OS UX), iphone's market share is going to go under 20%
soon. Both are tough issues to crack. Are they going to come out with a 4.5 -
5" screen to address that market? How? Double retina? For different OS UX, it
always carries risk of alienating current user base. Really curious if and how
they address these issues.

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roc
I think 'eating' into may be mischaracterizing things. A decrease in Apple's
profit share when total profits are increasing doesn't necessarily mean
Samsung is taking anything away from Apple.

It's entirely likely that Samsung is simply dominating the formerly-fractured
not-Apple side of the market, consolidating sales under its masthead and,
unlike RIM, HTC, et al is doing so _profitably_.

Given that Android device sales were growing incredibly rapidly during a time
when no manufacturer was making much profit on them, I think Apple's profit
share has been overstated for some time. It was only a matter of time until
someone figured out how to make money selling to the slice of the market that
Apple ignores.

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nthitz
Apple is now matching employee charitable donations? That's kind of surprising
given their previous stance on donations. That change definitely seems a
result of Jobs leaving.

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pooriaazimi
I think that was Cook's first (or one of first) big changes _(apparent to us
outsiders, at least)_ when he became CEO - a month before Jobs's death:
[http://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/08/apple-institutes-new-
cha...](http://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/08/apple-institutes-new-charitable-
matching-program-for-employees/)

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flyinglizard
He doesn't come across as a product visionary. He sounds like a brilliant,
dependable operator and a team player, but I never got the vibe that here is
an unpredictable, disruptive loon like Jobs.

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Tyrant505
regardless of statements, if he is true he will always ask himself what would
jobs do.. and with a bit of filtering that is not a bad thought.

