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Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

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Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#241
The article mentions Mark Zuckerberg only in passing but it is worth noting that Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are another visionary-CEO + world-class-executor "dynamic duo" in Silicon Valley. Who will replace Mark Zuckerberg after his departure? If it's Sheryl Sandberg, the same Steve Ballmer / Tim Cook scenario will repeat itself and we can look forward to future articles like "Why Sheryl Sandberg is the next Tim Cook and why she still has her job at Facebook".

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#242
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Ballmer got hate because Microsoft's consumer products consistently flopped. The stuff that those of us who flipped to Apple while he was in charge used (Zune, Windows Vista, original Surface, Windows Phone) were consistently underwhelming. However, Ballmer was simply inarguably an effective CEO from the perspective of investors. He grew the enterprise business consistently (which has a huge amount of value for l…

For the kids out there: “original Surface” isn’t what you think. It was a “smart table” and its most compelling use case was to present a menu right underneath your place setting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxk_WywMTzc

Don't forget this classic parody video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...he's nothing like Steve Ballmer... Your response was also short on details with regards to your major point, quoted above. Meanwhile, here are the points from the article. Like Ballmer, Tim Cook: - is an executor, not a visionary. - doubled revenue while also doubling profit for his company. - announced very few new products. - has the same kinds of challenges (facing disruption). - lacks passion for the product…

> announced very few new products. Look it up, he's actually announced plenty. Just they're kinda underwhelming. Off the top of my head: MacBook, Mac Pro, iPad Pro, iPhone+,MacBook HDMI Dongle, iPhone Headphone Dongle, Apple Pay, Apple Music, Apple Pencil.

How does this list not include the Apple Watch, which Cook also announced?

Speaking of which, how does this not include Swift, which also debuted under Tim Cook? And Metal?

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Ballmer got hate because Microsoft's consumer products consistently flopped. The stuff that those of us who flipped to Apple while he was in charge used (Zune, Windows Vista, original Surface, Windows Phone) were consistently underwhelming. However, Ballmer was simply inarguably an effective CEO from the perspective of investors. He grew the enterprise business consistently (which has a huge amount of value for l…

> No, Ballmer got hate because Microsoft's consumer products consistently flopped. Doesn't that ignore the XBox and the dominance of Windows in the consumer market?

Let us know what consumer market products you think MS will have by 2018.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#245

The article is short on details why he thinks Tim Cook is like Steve Ballmer, except for saying that Apple is slowly missing the boat on AI. I don't know what Amazon does for AI, I haven't seen anything convincing from them, but I'll trust the author that they are working on it. However it's tough to beat Google in this space, because AI and machine learning is what Google has focused on since their beginnings . Goog…

> I don't know what Amazon does for AI The Alexa/echo ecosystem. > However it's tough to beat Google in this space...they also have a lot of data on users... Agreed, the amount of data is key. This is where Apple will struggle when looking to upgrade Siri/AI capabilities in coming years. > Tim Cook's Apple is making a stand for privacy and security, which is actually quite rare to witness in this day and age. He's a…

> Privacy and security (and, secondarily, a full physical keyboard) was Blackberry's key differentiator before they lost to the touchscreen-enabled iPhone app ecosystem.

Was it? Blackberry often co-operated to provide governments with access to BBM message content[1][2].

[1]: http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/07/10/after-a-lengthy-battle... [2]: https://news.vice.com/article/exclusive-canada-police-obtain...

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#246

Tim Cook is a "Bozo" - He has moved the focus away from computers and the companies core professional users and turned Apple into a fashionable health services company. They will coast for a while on their dominant mobile market share but eventually the stagnation and lack of new products will catch up to them. He built a watch, which was a "me too" product and answered a question that no one asked. Jobs would never…

[deleted]

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 10 is not a disaster and never has been. There's great stuff for everybody. It's the same rock-solid OS that every business depends on, that is still able to run all the software from 20 years ago, yet it also offers a ton of new functionality. What other desktop OS can you say that about? IMO, there isn't a better desktop OS out there. Just last night I was actually running some games from 1995 on my 5 year…

Windows 10 is still a schizoid failure to merge the "desktop" and "modern" worlds: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/control-panel-and-settin... . High-DPI scaling is a disaster that is only now being fixed in the Anniversary update: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askcore/2016/08/16/displ... . There are battery life regressions even on Microsoft hardware : https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/3isuu4/windo…

Wow. So, your evidence that it's a "disaster" is one random blog post and a handful of reddit complaints...

That's a BIG deal. I guess I should go uninstall Windows 10 from all the High-DPI devices that I'm running it on right now and install...what? I'm guessing that anything that's not perfect qualifies as a disaster in your opinion.

Could you recommend an OS for me? I'll go and make sure that there are no critical articles about it and that the OS manufacturer has never had to fix anything because every major release came out perfectly the first time. Thanks!

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#248

Tim Cook is a "Bozo" - He has moved the focus away from computers and the companies core professional users and turned Apple into a fashionable health services company. They will coast for a while on their dominant mobile market share but eventually the stagnation and lack of new products will catch up to them. He built a watch, which was a "me too" product and answered a question that no one asked. Jobs would never…

This image http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2015/10/slide-06... , to me, simbolizes the recent Apple.

Do you actually own a Magic Mouse? I do. I only charge it every month and a half, and for less than an hour at that. It warns me ahead of time when its battery is running low. I have absolutely no complaints about the way it charges, and I even appreciate the resulting seamless design.

That image symbolizes Apple to me too. For me it represents how many seemingly poor decisions made by Apple often turn out to be less severe than they initially appeared—many even reasonable.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know what Amazon does for AI The Alexa/echo ecosystem. > However it's tough to beat Google in this space...they also have a lot of data on users... Agreed, the amount of data is key. This is where Apple will struggle when looking to upgrade Siri/AI capabilities in coming years. > Tim Cook's Apple is making a stand for privacy and security, which is actually quite rare to witness in this day and age. He's a…

> Privacy and security (and, secondarily, a full physical keyboard) was Blackberry's key differentiator before they lost to the touchscreen-enabled iPhone app ecosystem. Was it? Blackberry often co-operated to provide governments with access to BBM message content[1][2]. [1]: http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/07/10/after-a-lengthy-battle... [2]: https://news.vice.com/article/exclusive-canada-police-obtain...

Both of your sources (2010, 2013) don't apply to Blackberry pre iPhone (2007). Even so, I'm speaking to brand perception rather than reality - BB may might have given out keys/built in backdoors pre 2007 and still maintained the perception of being trustworthy.

Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know what Amazon does for AI The Alexa/echo ecosystem. > However it's tough to beat Google in this space...they also have a lot of data on users... Agreed, the amount of data is key. This is where Apple will struggle when looking to upgrade Siri/AI capabilities in coming years. > Tim Cook's Apple is making a stand for privacy and security, which is actually quite rare to witness in this day and age. He's a…

I disagree. Apple's stance on privacy has everything to do with the personality and life experiences of Tim Cook. Stop for a moment to imagine what being a homosexual teenager in 1970's Alabama was like. Also it's well known that his career at IBM was torpedoed over a gay "glass ceiling." Tim Cook is a man who understands that privacy is a human right.

Maybe. I don't know Tim Cook personally, so I'm in no position to judge his character. I'd like to believe his case for privacy is a moral one, grounded in his own challenging personal experiences. That would certainly be refreshing.

What I do know for a fact is that he is the CEO of a public company, and as such he has a duty to maximize shareholder value. This isn't a judgement of his character, it's simply a description of his job. I believe he is very capable of performing his job.

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