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How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

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Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#31

Post by fire7000 »

mtalantikite wrote: post #18
elktea wrote: post #9

"The 2014 iPhone 6 was “the poster child” of this transformation, according to a person involved in the product’s development. While the device had complex internal components and a larger screen, it dropped the diamond-polished edges and the precisely cut glass parts of the back of the iPhone 5 and 5s, which had been difficult to produce." well, that explains why the iPhone went from such a unique design to generic…

Agreed, I think the 4S was my favorite version — felt substantial without being excessively heavy and easy to use with one hand. The 7 and 2020 SE I’ve had since then were all just purchases because they were the smallest option when my last phone died out. I’ve never really liked either of them.

4S was too fragile

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#32

Post by imron »

nextos wrote: post #15
elktea wrote: post #9

"The 2014 iPhone 6 was “the poster child” of this transformation, according to a person involved in the product’s development. While the device had complex internal components and a larger screen, it dropped the diamond-polished edges and the precisely cut glass parts of the back of the iPhone 5 and 5s, which had been difficult to produce." well, that explains why the iPhone went from such a unique design to generic…

I don't buy Apple products and I don't use a smartphone. But in 2014 I borrowed an iPhone 5 from a friend and I found it truly well designed. Thickness and weight were very satisfying for 1-handed operation. I haven't found the successors to be anywhere close.

The 12 mini is comparable in size and weight.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#34

Post by rektide »

908B64B197 wrote: post #26
rektide wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years of snapping up brilliant companies/minds[1]! * PA Semi, 2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.A._Semi * Licensing then hiring most of the Imagination Technologies GPU engineers, including setting up an office down the street from them in St Albans, 2017-2020. * some of Dialog Semiconductor, 2018 * Intel's smartphone division, 2019 * Intrinsity, who had some cutting edge chip design, 2010 There's also an unbeliev…

> But I also just am so very very sad to see so much talent disappear off the open market, distressed that the lead seems to only grow & grow over everyone else. All that talent was up for grab: What were the other players waiting for?

> All that talent was up for grab: What were the other players waiting for?

That's exactly the problem with monopolies. As one two or three companies get to be ever more outsized giants (Apple: 2.2T$, Amazon & Microsoft: 1.6T$), owning more of the talent pool, there's less other players with any chance to build up success, to acquire talent.

People can keep making small, successfully-acquired companies, but this idea that it's everyone elses fault for not challenging the monopoly is not a statement I'm very sympathetic to.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#35

Post by gvd »

thebrain wrote: post #33

For what it's worth, I don't think Steve Jobs would have ever allowed the charging port for the Magic Mouse to ever be on the bottom and forced the user to have to leave the mouse on it's side to charge.

It's so retarded. I have 2 magic mice. One is always charging so I can swap them out

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#36

Post by nabla9 »

908B64B197 wrote: post #26
rektide wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years of snapping up brilliant companies/minds[1]! * PA Semi, 2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.A._Semi * Licensing then hiring most of the Imagination Technologies GPU engineers, including setting up an office down the street from them in St Albans, 2017-2020. * some of Dialog Semiconductor, 2018 * Intel's smartphone division, 2019 * Intrinsity, who had some cutting edge chip design, 2010 There's also an unbeliev…

> But I also just am so very very sad to see so much talent disappear off the open market, distressed that the lead seems to only grow & grow over everyone else. All that talent was up for grab: What were the other players waiting for?

Monopoly power from two sided markets. Apple is in the position where it outbid competition. They take 20% cut from app sales and sell 200 million units.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#38

Post by rektide »

mushufasa wrote: post #27
rektide wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years of snapping up brilliant companies/minds[1]! * PA Semi, 2008 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.A._Semi * Licensing then hiring most of the Imagination Technologies GPU engineers, including setting up an office down the street from them in St Albans, 2017-2020. * some of Dialog Semiconductor, 2018 * Intel's smartphone division, 2019 * Intrinsity, who had some cutting edge chip design, 2010 There's also an unbeliev…

This comment has a negative tone, but this doesn't seem to me to be a tragedy. Acquiring talent and putting them on the bench to stave off would-be competitors stifles innovation (re: Palihapitiya's criticism of Google). Acquiring talent and putting them to use on projects that achieve more scale and impact, sooner, than could happen at a small company -- that seems like innovation and the free market market at its b…

> Acquiring talent and putting them to use on projects that achieve more scale and impact, sooner, than could happen at a small company -- that seems like innovation and the free market market at its best.

So, you're a fan of a free market, where free is defined as whatever direction Apple wants to go. Got it. Free for Apple to do as they please.

I don't know if there's quite "consensus", but definitely one of the top 3 greatest, most important events in all computing was the Gang of Nine taking & extending IBM's AT Compatible bus to build the new, intercompatible ISA[1] bus. It took the fractured, proprietary world of microcomputers by storm, savaged many great company, by creating a genuine open market for personal computers. It commodified the system, allowed anyone to compete & to deliver peripherals & changes & innovations. The Gang of Nine freed a locked down proprietary computing market. Without their actions, we might not be typing on laptops, we might not have smartphones today. They freed the market. Innovation churned greatly, because there was so much going on, so much creativity, so many different things being tried.

Today, only a very very few have the power to shape things. There are only two major smartphone OSes on the planet. There are only a couple scrappy hopefuls about, intent on freeing the market from this stagnancy, from everyone being on the same OSes for the entire next decade too: folks like Pine64, who are building a Linux PinePhone project, who are building great low cost open source dev boards, who are building DIY low-bandwidth long-distance LoRaWAN[2].

Society needs to support healthy competitive free market innovation. Simply measuring how quickly one company is free to do whatever it wants, how quickly it can iterate, is not enough. All great events in computing, the modern saga of computing as we know it, came from a genuine freedom to explore & tinker with what might be possible. Leaving Tim Cook in charge of this human project is drastically against the human spirit of liberty & progress, and there's no good in computing that has ever come from these kinds of totalizing powers, extreme vertical integration, & closed systems. These players have always ended up ossifying, off in some crystal palace they've built themselves, direly needing to be disrupted. Being free from competition, alone in your innovating, is a tragedy.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Industry_Standard_Arc...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26145684

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#40

Post by mushufasa »

rektide wrote: post #38
mushufasa wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment has a negative tone, but this doesn't seem to me to be a tragedy. Acquiring talent and putting them on the bench to stave off would-be competitors stifles innovation (re: Palihapitiya's criticism of Google). Acquiring talent and putting them to use on projects that achieve more scale and impact, sooner, than could happen at a small company -- that seems like innovation and the free market market at its b…

> Acquiring talent and putting them to use on projects that achieve more scale and impact, sooner, than could happen at a small company -- that seems like innovation and the free market market at its best. So, you're a fan of a free market, where free is defined as whatever direction Apple wants to go. Got it. Free for Apple to do as they please. I don't know if there's quite "consensus", but definitely one of the to…

> Free for Apple to do as they please.

What other definition of free do you suggest?

The companies and employees they hired also had the freedom to reject the offers if they so chose. Freedom is consent.

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