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Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

money.cnn.com

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Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#291

Post by [deleted] »

nilkn wrote: post #275
slantyyz wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Apple has been the butt of jokes at least since 2008 when I first got my first Apple product (an old 17" MacBook Pro). Back when I was looking at laptops then, I saw the same complaints that I see about the new MacBook Pro: too expensive, specs aren't good enough, etc., etc. None of this is new. But actually some of it is new. I go back to the Apple ][ days, so I've seen my share of disdain of Apple products from…

I even saw complaints about MacBook keyboards back then. RAM from Apple was not just limited but hilariously expensive. Even the controversial use of new ports or removal of old ones is not unfamiliar in the history of Apple. I'm not trying to defend every decision Apple has been making, and I don't necessarily agree with them all myself. But, honestly, it mostly feels like business as usual to me.

[deleted]

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#292

Post by chc »

TetOn wrote: post #262
chc wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lightning came out pretty long after Steve Jobs died. And I thought it was generally agreed — not right at the time, but not long afterward — that Apple made the right call getting rid of floppy drives on their Internet-focused consumer machines.

Nope. The reaction to floppy-less iMac was more or less a direct replay of the current headphone jack, escape key, and USB-C "outrage": >Long-time users were outraged that they'd be forced to buy new peripherals and couldn't back up the 4 GB hard drive with a waist-high pile of diskettes. They also wondered about the wisdom of using USB ports, ports that weren't yet widely accepted by the industry. http://www.applema…

You said "nope" and then posted something that agrees with what I said. I suspect you did not read my comment very carefully.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#293

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

ryanSrich wrote: post #206
qyv wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If 2017 turns out to be the year the VR starts to hit the main stream, which it could be, it will be interesting to see what Apple's response will be.

VR has a massive hurdle to get over. You can't expect people to drop $600 on a headset _and_ (at least) $1k on a machine that can run it. Costs will come down, but 2017 won't be the year. I expect VR to grow, but only in the gaming market.

VR could find use in other market segments that existing technologies are insufficient for at a scale that make it affordable.

Take theaters for example. They have been looking for a market for years but since people have screens and streaming at home they don't tend to go as much. However they could find a new life by purchasing VR headsets in bulk and selling livestreams of plays/musicals/operas, and possibly sports games as well. These will always be experiences better seen live, but VR would be a significant step above television.

That way someone could enjoy VR at a very low cost, and possibly spur them to buy a headset themselves, when the price is right.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#294

Post by jrkelly »

karyon wrote: post #138
ChuckMcM wrote: post #90

Like others I don't shed a lot of tears when an exec makes only 89% of their multi-million dollar target bonus :-) I asked an exec at Oracle once about how it was even motivating. For much of my career I've had some sort of bonus associated with my salary, at Sun, NetApp, Google all had bonus programs (with different tweaks). And for an engineer it could be a huge thing. At Google with all the multipliers in place yo…

This sounds a bit like "my income is normal, and everyone above that is rich"-thinking that a lot of people have.(if there's a word for that i'd appreciate any hints :) ) i'd definitely consider engineers at google to be rich and don't see how another 200k makes that much of a difference. you think these execs are rich and don't see how another million makes a difference. and the execs consider billionaires to be ric…

hedonic treadmill is close to word you are looking for.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#295

Post by vlunkr »

rblatz wrote: post #68

People are all up in arms about headphone jacks, USB-C, and dongles. When the real issue is Apple completely missing huge new markets. Apple had Siri out and was in the lead with voice control, then they wasted it. I never use Siri, she is nearly worthless, but I do use Alexa multiple times a day. Amazon is Leading the voice assistant market, and Google is right on their heels. Home automation was supposed to get bet…

I mean, they're making billions a year in revenue in the markets they are in, so maybe they don't care?

(side note: in my experience Alexa is much worse at understanding what I'm asking)

edit: to quote the article: "Shrinking iPhone sales last year caused Apple to suffer its first annual revenue decline in 15 years." Apple is incredibly successful, all of this declaring them dead because they had a bad quarter is kind of dumb.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#296

Post by harryh »

beamatronic wrote: post #147
harryh wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is wrong. It's the tech industry. The world changes fast and requires companies to make big bets if they want to stay on top.

Well one kind of big bet is "Let's make 1 TB of RAM standard on all Mac Book Pros" and another kind of big bet is "Let's remove keys and connector ports", so I would have to say I prefer the first kind of big bet.

Neither one of those are big bets. A big bet is abandoning a major product line in favor of a speculative one.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#297

Post by LordDragonfang »

artimaeis wrote: post #108
chrisabrams wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve and the unified vision is gone. While on winter holidays my fiance pointed out to me: - She just got a new Macbook Pro from her new job, which has only USB C ports - She just got a new iPhone 7 from her new job, which is only a Lightning port She cannot connect her phone to her computer to charge without a dongle. EDIT: a Lightning to USB C cable does exist now. That is still equivalent to a dongle in my opinio…

Here's my personal conjecture based on owning most products in the Apple lineup and trying to predict the future a bit. So far as I can tell the idea is Lightning ports for devices which require charging, and USB ports for devices which require data transfer. All cables designed to provide power utilize a USB A connector - this is the majority of Lightning cables. In their current lineup this can be used to charge an…

>Lightning ports for devices which require charging, and USB ports for devices which require data transfer

Except the new macbooks use USB C for charging, and one of the things Apple emphasized when they switched from 30-pin to lightning was the increased data rate. There's no consistency. This is just another case of everyone moving toward a standard (micro-usb and now usb-c) and Apple ignoring it, except this time Apple doesn't have any excuse.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#298

Post by banach2 »

rblatz wrote: post #68

People are all up in arms about headphone jacks, USB-C, and dongles. When the real issue is Apple completely missing huge new markets. Apple had Siri out and was in the lead with voice control, then they wasted it. I never use Siri, she is nearly worthless, but I do use Alexa multiple times a day. Amazon is Leading the voice assistant market, and Google is right on their heels. Home automation was supposed to get bet…

I know this isn't what you meant by car, but I want to take this opportunity to mention that my least favourite thing about my car is the Apple software which runs on it; Apple CarPlay.

I live in London. Apple maps is a disaster. Businesses which have moved shop years ago are in the wrong place. Traffic routes which are congested every day are recommended. It's literally a waste of my life to use this software.

Despite this flaw (and the fact that the head unit is actually useless until your plug in your iPhone), Apple maps is the only navigation software permitted to run on these head units; even though, it is permissible to use Google Maps or Waze when I am walking on the pavement; even though, it is permissible to mount my phone to my car and use an alternative navigation software.

Additionally, on the subject of "wireless grand unification," you can only connect your phone via USB.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#299

Post by megablast »

chrisabrams wrote: post #88
rblatz wrote: post #68

People are all up in arms about headphone jacks, USB-C, and dongles. When the real issue is Apple completely missing huge new markets. Apple had Siri out and was in the lead with voice control, then they wasted it. I never use Siri, she is nearly worthless, but I do use Alexa multiple times a day. Amazon is Leading the voice assistant market, and Google is right on their heels. Home automation was supposed to get bet…

Steve and the unified vision is gone. While on winter holidays my fiance pointed out to me: - She just got a new Macbook Pro from her new job, which has only USB C ports - She just got a new iPhone 7 from her new job, which is only a Lightning port She cannot connect her phone to her computer to charge without a dongle. EDIT: a Lightning to USB C cable does exist now. That is still equivalent to a dongle in my opinio…

Wow, I love this being trotted out every single time.

Unless the latest macbook and the latest phone are released at exactly the same time, this was always going to happen.

They could have added 2 cables, which is a huge waste since most people only need one.

Or they could have kept a shitty USB-A port on the macbook, which is not progressive enough for Apple.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#300

Post by jclardy »

qyv wrote: post #122
mtw wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unified vision was nice. What interested me first in the Apple ecosystem was its use by high-end pros. Photographers, creatives, filmmakers. Then they announced MacOS X, built upon NeXT/BSD, and the mac pro products. Now Microsoft has dedicated products for high-end creatives (Surface studio won't sell but still shows interest in pros), Linux Bash shell in windows 10. Meanwhile Apple wants pros to use a 9" tablet ins…

If 2017 turns out to be the year the VR starts to hit the main stream, which it could be, it will be interesting to see what Apple's response will be.

I highly doubt it will be. And this is coming from an owner of a GTX 1080 and HTC Vive. There are some really awesome games and experiences, but there is nothing that I really want to keep going back to. No Rocket League or Minecraft (Well, there is vivecraft, but minecraft in VR just isn't that much more appealing to me than the vanilla game.) PSVR might get some stuff but for now it seems like most large companies are just putting their toes in the water by giving out small tech demos.

VR needs a couple of things, and they aren't going to happen in less than a year. First and most importantly, cheaper and better hardware. Daydream is nice, but at most it is good for 360 video and some cheap games. Get some head tracking in there somehow and then it becomes interesting. Also, it needs something like the oculus touch controllers or vive controllers so you can actually use your hands for things.

Secondly, an actual killer app. Some kind of game that only works in VR. Something that you want to keep coming back to.

Lastly - simplicity. Daydream is simple but too limited. The vive has all the features but setting up lighthouses is a pain unless you can permanently mount them. Also being tethered to your computer sucks (A solution for that is on the way, but it will only add to the cost.) Headsets are still bulky and uncomfortable to wear for long periods.

My point I guess is that Apple's typical timing with things would put them entering the market in 2018 at the earliest. This is like the early Windows Phone/PalmOS days before the iPhone (But I doubt Apple will be the one releasing the "iPhone" of VR.)

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