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I'm wondering how that will turn out. It looks like cars will be seen more and more as a service rather than as a product. And Apple has more experience in making products that people want to own.
>> I’m worried for Apple…If the landscape shifts to prioritize those big-data AI services, Apple will find itself in a similar position as BlackBerry did almost a decade ago: Maybe Apple is betting that AI won't be achieved in the next 15-20 years.
IMO what the article talks about is the business model, not the culture, they are two separate things - not entirely separate, but mostly. Business model is Apple shipping devices and Google providing ad-supported services over the Internet. Culture is how in one company you can't push changes to the central repository without a code review which might take a couple of days, while in another you can work whichever wa…
("Tech culture", such as your example of code reviews, is usually an example of controls and processes. What controls and processes exist for creation and deployment of software? If we were making widgets on the factory floor instead, the fact that these aren't "culture" as being discussed would be more immediately obvious.)
I've come to a conclusion that Cook's reign at Apple will probably mirror Ballmer's reign at Microsoft. Both are biz guys who inherited companies from technology visionaries with massive revenue streams and yet they both lacked vision and tech expertise to create successful new products. Ballmer tried it numerous times and Cook has tried it with Watch, Music and so on. Neither of them have succeeded. Apple's now beco…
One big difference - Microsoft's stock price languished under Ballmer, while Apple's is doing fine under Cook. (I haven't compared versus the market, but I suspect that it will still hold) Cook's legacy will be if Apple pulls off the bet on autonomous cars. Auto manufacturing is very much a logistics challenge, which plays to his strengths. It's too early to write him off.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One big difference - Microsoft's stock price languished under Ballmer, while Apple's is doing fine under Cook. (I haven't compared versus the market, but I suspect that it will still hold) Cook's legacy will be if Apple pulls off the bet on autonomous cars. Auto manufacturing is very much a logistics challenge, which plays to his strengths. It's too early to write him off.
has Apple done anything whatever in the self-driving car domain? I've seen literally nothing about it from them and I've been paying attention. I don't mean rumor mill stuff or "open secrets". Have they announced any products? Have they discussed any actual projects?
I've come to a conclusion that Cook's reign at Apple will probably mirror Ballmer's reign at Microsoft. Both are biz guys who inherited companies from technology visionaries with massive revenue streams and yet they both lacked vision and tech expertise to create successful new products. Ballmer tried it numerous times and Cook has tried it with Watch, Music and so on. Neither of them have succeeded. Apple's now beco…
One big difference - Microsoft's stock price languished under Ballmer, while Apple's is doing fine under Cook. (I haven't compared versus the market, but I suspect that it will still hold) Cook's legacy will be if Apple pulls off the bet on autonomous cars. Auto manufacturing is very much a logistics challenge, which plays to his strengths. It's too early to write him off.
I agree with you on cars though. Apple could strike gold on that one, and Cook may be the person to do it.
¹ http://www.statista.com/statistics/267808/net-income-of-micr...
I've come to a conclusion that Cook's reign at Apple will probably mirror Ballmer's reign at Microsoft. Both are biz guys who inherited companies from technology visionaries with massive revenue streams and yet they both lacked vision and tech expertise to create successful new products. Ballmer tried it numerous times and Cook has tried it with Watch, Music and so on. Neither of them have succeeded. Apple's now beco…
Likewise, it's a bit early to high-five Google on the Deepmind aquisition. The Go achievement is great, but how will it help Google's business? IBM holds the previous big AI-beat-human trophies (Deep Blue and Watson) and neither has done much to help their bottom line. And of course Microsoft Research did a bunch of interesting work under Ballmer.
Also, what successful new products has Nadella personally delivered with his "vision and tech expertise"? The biggest thing he has done for Microsoft is help them get over the loss of the Windows monopoly. He's like Obama in 2009--he gets a lot of credit for just showing up and saying "I'm the new guy, we screwed up, and we're going to do better now."
I've come to a conclusion that Cook's reign at Apple will probably mirror Ballmer's reign at Microsoft. Both are biz guys who inherited companies from technology visionaries with massive revenue streams and yet they both lacked vision and tech expertise to create successful new products. Ballmer tried it numerous times and Cook has tried it with Watch, Music and so on. Neither of them have succeeded. Apple's now beco…
It happens with all big companies. I don't think Cook is a bad CEO, he's just not a -great- CEO. He also had the unlucky chance to step into Steve Jobs' shoes, and also came in so late in the cycle that much of the market is already saturated. Similar happened to Balmer, he came in after the boom was over. But tried to push into new markets (and failed.) I don't honestly think Balmer was a bad CEO, he was just very b…
Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft on June 11, 1980, before DOS on the IBM PC transformed the company. He was a big part of its success all the way through.....
> But tried to push into new markets (and failed.)
When he became CEO the company was under close US judicial supervision (which lasted more than a decade), under attack from the EU, and paying out $billions in fines. So he started with a mess and operated with one hand tied behind his back, but he still managed to triple turnover and double profits.
Ballmer had some spectacular failures on the new product front, but when he handed over to Nadella, Azure was already a success, Microsoft had an online Office suite better than Google's, and it was already moving into Android and iOS apps (of which there are now dozens).
Not the best CEO of all time, but he could have done a lot worse. He certainly beat the forecasts of the Linux/OpenOffice fans of the day, who reckoned the company would be out of business by 2007 ;-)
I'm a huge fan of Stratechery and Thompson. They've given me powerful ways of thinking about the world. Are there others out there? While Thompson does talk a lot about the intersection of technology with business strategy, he tends to focus on large, well-known technology companies that primarily have consumer facing offering. I'd pay to read something like Stratechery for biotechnology, or enterprise software but t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One big difference - Microsoft's stock price languished under Ballmer, while Apple's is doing fine under Cook. (I haven't compared versus the market, but I suspect that it will still hold) Cook's legacy will be if Apple pulls off the bet on autonomous cars. Auto manufacturing is very much a logistics challenge, which plays to his strengths. It's too early to write him off.
has Apple done anything whatever in the self-driving car domain? I've seen literally nothing about it from them and I've been paying attention. I don't mean rumor mill stuff or "open secrets". Have they announced any products? Have they discussed any actual projects?