
Apple’s Heir Apparent Is More Like Tim Cook Than Steve Jobs - tareqak
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-22/apple-s-heir-apparent-is-much-more-like-tim-cook-than-steve-jobs
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jedberg
That's unfortunate. There is a lot of literature out there that talks about
how after the founder leaves, usually the COO takes over, because they would
leave if they don't get the job, but after that, usually they look for a more
"visionary" person, because the COO makes things efficient but not
interesting.

Look at Microsoft. When Gates left, Ballmer took over, and did great things
for the company financials. Profits and revenue were consistently up year
after year. But the company stagnated product-wise and lost favor among
enthusiasts and investors. He left the stock 10% worse than when he got there,
despite the profits and revenue.

But since Ballmer left, Nadella has done an amazing job continuing the profit
and revenue story while also winning back the hearts and minds of developers
and investors with some great new products and product vision.

Apple needs a Nadella -- a long time insider who has a strong product vision.

~~~
Despegar
People with this line of critique against Tim Cook don't actually know how
Apple works.

By your own metrics Cook is Nadella. The stock more than doubled under his
tenure and the installed base for Apple products has grown massively since
2011 (to 1.4 billion). More people than ever own Apple products.

~~~
dmix
That seems to be a result of scaling vertical with the existing product line,
not horizontally with new better product categories. Even the new ones are all
connected to prior innovations (Apple Watch -> extending iPhone's mobile
computing to a new screen ala iPad), (Apple Services -> extending iTunes
selling mp3s and video).

Their latest 'new' venture which is the TV play is basically derivative of
Netflix and Amazon. Going into finance with the credit card thing is semi-
interesting but it was also the thing that killed GE (they became a finance
company and lost sight of what made GE great, the best products [1]).

The Beats acquisition was an excellent investment and their Airpod's business
is doing amazing. So that's something. They need more of that IMO... if they
need anything at all.

[1] [https://www.wsj.com/articles/ge-powered-the-american-
century...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/ge-powered-the-american-centurythen-
it-burned-out-11544796010)

~~~
chubbyrabbit
> That seems to be a result of scaling vertical with the existing product
> line, not horizontally with new better product categories.

Nothing wrong with that. It doesn't imply a lack of innovation as well. They
provide a good enough improvement on all software, hardware and service fronts
to keep customer buying year on year.

A lack of a new breakthrough product doesn't mean lack of innovation from
Apple. In my opinion it only means two things:

\- The technology is not there yet for a new "iPhone" type of breakthrough.

\- The expectation of people on Apple is so high considering their success in
the past decade.

------
llbowers
"Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, who has now also taken over the
company’s legendary design studio."

This might be a dumb question, but does the COO usually manage design? Our COO
is very much a supply chain, logistics, procurement and day-to-day
administration type manager. I can't imagine him having any sort of sense of
good design.

I'm sure he's (he as in Apple's COO) not there in the design trenches on the
daily, but he would have final say on overall design, unless I'm
misinterpreting what it means in the article.

To be fair I probably would've said the same thing for a CEO before Steve Jobs
came along but he's proven himself to a be very rare exception.

~~~
claudiawerner
This also confuses me in politics. In one administration a particular member
of the cabinet is justice secretary, and in the next election he's an
education secretary. I am highly sceptical of the idea that they've studied
the intricacies of effective pedagogy in order to get that job.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
The jobs are awarded on the basis of political loyalty, ambition, and tribal
(party) potential, not domain competence.

In the UK - and I guess the US - they're executive roles. The Prime Minister's
office sets policy, with varying levels of debate and pushback, and the
department heads implement it.

Executives who climb high enough are allowed to suggest policy of their own,
under the oversight of the PM. Ministers direct implementation, but the
_details_ of execution are handled by the Civil Service.

No competence is needed. In fact in the last decade or so in the UK most of
ministers were absolutely incompetent dolts elevated to purely political
appointments - with results that surprised no one.

~~~
claudiawerner
There seems to be no other explanation for the borderline ridiculous proposals
that keep making their way into laws, including but certainly not limited to
CAJA 2009 which criminalizes sexual drawings of fictional underage characters
- which they admitted in their own reports wasn't based on any empirical
evidence and in fact only on hearsay and faulty reasoning from the likes of
children's charity workers.

This is an egregious case with the chance to ruin lives (in fact, a
substantial number of people are convicted under it each year according to
stats in the VAWG report) but I wonder what other deplorable incompetence I'm
missing out on seeing from the UK government.

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geodel
Which would make complete sense. Anyone like Steve Jobs would be launching
their own companies. People running fortune 10/50 companies would have risen
through corporate ranks to be CEOs and be more like Cook not Jobs.

~~~
applewww
Interesting point, I'm inclined to believe this is the case as well. Ive
would've been a good candidate but he left to do just that.

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lostgame
The sooner Cook is out, the better. There have been no current offerings in
Apple's lineup I would purchase since 2012-2015, and I know I am not alone in
this sentiment.

The RAM and SSD being soldered to the logic board is beyond inexcusable. I
_count_ on upgrading my laptops over time, and have, for every Mac I've ever
owned, to get a few extra good years out of them.

Even the environmental impact is nonsense.

~~~
wvenable
Jobs himself wanted Apple 8-bit computers to have sealed cases. If anything,
the latest moves by Apple (the new Mac Pro) shows a trend towards what you
want not the other way around.

But I think expecting Apple to become a radically different product company
than it's been for the last few decades is asking a lot.

~~~
lostgame
The new Mac Pro is a terrible example of _one_ move in an upgradable
direction, which has moved to a ludicrous price point that received many
laughs while we watched the keynote in one of the senior dev rooms at a top 5
Canadian bank that I work for.

What about Apple _removing_ the non-touchbar model of the MacBook Pro - is
that a direction _anyone_ asked for? The words 'touch bar' are the equivalent
of 'Voldemort' in the IT world, with 'butterfly keyboard' maybe second.

Or, let's take the Mac Mini - which, when I was 15 years old, was inexpensive
enough that I was able to save up myself and purchase it, new, from an Apple
Store - which has now jumped up several hundred dollars in it's basic
configuration. That 15-year-old kid, who justified saving up $500 over a whole
summer just to get an Apple computer, couldn't have even afforded it now.

What I'm seeing is hardware I don't want - that none of my friends in either
the creative professional media industry (audio / film) want - and all of the
devs I've seen complain avidly about the first chance they get.

The new Mac Pro only shows me a trend towards more impractically expensive,
locked-down hardware, designed basically to increase Apple's year-over-year
instead of provide year-over-year excellence in their products.

I used to love Apple, for years and years. I'm forced to use a 2017 15" MBP at
the office and I can't stand it. It's disappointing. I still keep an iMac G4
from all those years back in use almost every day as I've filled it with every
season of the Simpsons, Futurama, Seinfeld, etc, and I just love the
design...it's a sad reminder of how the mighty fall.

~~~
wvenable
> The new Mac Pro only shows me a trend towards more impractically expensive,
> locked-down hardware, designed basically to increase Apple's year-over-year
> instead of provide year-over-year excellence in their products.

Literally nothing has changed for the last few decades! I'm not defending
Apple. However, if you think this is anything _new_ you're crazy.

I avoided getting on that bandwagon in the first place and my wallet and my
sanity is happy with the choice.

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DoofusOfDeath
I'd love to see what Steve Wozniak would produce if given Apple's current
resources. My impression is that he's a real engineer's engineer.

Or barring that, I'd love to just be his neighbor. He seems like a great guy.

~~~
michaelchisari
The history of the CL-9 says it'd be a lot of fun toys for engineers and a
stock price jump for Apple's competitors.

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paxys
Number 2 at a company does not automatically mean heir apparent. In fact it
has historically been very rare for a COO or other such executive to get
promoted to CEO.

~~~
pwinnski
At Apple, it's the norm in the sense that Cook replaced Jobs.

There was the interregnum during which Apple was more like other companies,
but then Jobs returned, and here's what we have.

~~~
paxys
It has happened once, so not exactly the "norm". Also I imagine the
circumstances that would require them to pick a new CEO will be very different
from last time.

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adammenges
I honestly wouldn't mind this at all, I think there's a lot he could and does
add to the company

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sys_64738
I think Eddy Cue would make an excellent CEO. He seems very charismatic which
is what Cook never had.

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Razengan
Didn't Steve Jobs apparently groom the ousted Scott Forstall to be his
successor?

~~~
scarface74
No. Every time he took a leave of absence, Tim Cook was the acting CEO.

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tambourine_man
Bring back Forstall! Just kidding. A little.

