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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

#141
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s going to be a while before China can own either the top (the OS) or the bottom (the silicon) of the stack, but ultimately you are right.

Genuinely curious - why do you say that? It might not be something they can export to other countries, but that’s mostly because of the rap that they have for surveillance and data collection and not because of a lack of resources. For the domestic market I don’t see why they can’t make their own silicon or software. I’d love to hear thoughts on the matter.

It’s not that they can’t. I’m sure they will eventually.

It’s that they are very complex iterative processes that take time to organize and are hard to get right. You can’t just quickly ‘own’ either one. Consider how long the iOS and Android of today took to build, or how long it took Apple to get from the A4 to the M1.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This still sounds pointlessly inconvenient compared to a wired mouse, not to mention reliability and latency issues that come part and parcel with wireless peripherals. I tried a wireless keyboard once and every 10 minutes it would hang and repeat the last key I pressed for 10 seconds. How much better is the situation today?

It is obviously not the case with all the wireless peripheral devices out there or they would not exist. Did you really believe that there is people out there putting up with keys being repeated randomly?

I'm sure it's better now, I just asked how much better.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#144

Steve Jobs built consumer products that he wanted for himself, his family and friends. He would push for out of the box ideas while scrutinizing every detail of the product, optimized and repeated. Tim Cook builds the supply chain that he wants for himself, his shareholders and coworkers. He pushes for out of the box ideas while scrutinizing every detail of the supply chain, optimizes and repeats. Tim Cook builds sup…

> But no other company will be able to out compete Tesla at manufacturing.

This is the reason I feel people are betting Tesla to get an outsized pie of the EV market even when the legacy OEMs catch up. When Tesla started manufacturing things in-house, folks were rightly skeptical about their manufacturing capabilities and their stupid refusal to rely on the automobile supply chain. The stubborn insistence to vertically integrate nearly killed the company.

Now that it has a market cap several times its nearest competitor, it can raise enough capital to focus on capital efficiency of new manufacturing plants to scale up production. In their battery day video, that's what impressed me the most - they have control over every cost center in their supply chain, and can optimize for quicker/cheaper manufacturing much faster than anyone else.

In some aspects, Tesla completely reversed Cook's playbook, and might even succeed at it if demand for Teslas remains high for the next decade or two.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#145
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…

The good thing for them is that Microsoft Windows' quality decreased so much that I decided to buy a Macbook for the first time in my life.

Decreased... recently? I feel like Windows 10 has been a pretty predictable experience. If you didn't hate it in 2016, then I'm wondering what happened in the five years of marginal and incremental changes since then that would cause such a change of heart

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#146
post #58

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.

I think there needs to be a name for this type of baseless argument. COMPANY would never do UNPOPULAR_CHOICE under OLD_BOSS.

No True CEO!

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#147

I think it’s naive to expect that American companies like Apple that outsource everything but design and software and reap enormous profits are going to be able to do this indefinitely. China is getting better fast at doing these things too and will have tremendous advantages when it owns the entire stack. If American companies want to stay competitive in the long run they’re going to have to break their addiction to…

Why wouldn't they just move production to another, cheaper country besides China?

I think you are underestimating how much more expensive an iPhone would be if it was made entirely in the United States:

https://fee.org/articles/a-made-in-america-iphone-would-cost...

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The good thing for them is that Microsoft Windows' quality decreased so much that I decided to buy a Macbook for the first time in my life.

Decreased... recently? I feel like Windows 10 has been a pretty predictable experience. If you didn't hate it in 2016, then I'm wondering what happened in the five years of marginal and incremental changes since then that would cause such a change of heart

Compared to Windows 7 times, when I loved the Mac hardware, but bought Windows / Linux laptops all the time because of the software ecosystem.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know, I feel like Steve Jobs hated mice in general, or at least didn’t understand the use of them. Look at the “puck“ for example.

The puck-mouse was a good mouse if you're a person that moves the mouse by flicking fingers or with hand movements rather than with arm movements - and if you tuned the mouse speed and acceleration curve - but most people don't set their mouse speed to their liking though, hence the ergonomic issues.

Sharp learning curves aren't a feature of good, mainstream UX.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#150

Apple is the best company in the world at operations. I don't know how they do it but: 1) Ever year they manage to diligently upgrade iphones/ipads, macbooks and watches. 2) Every year they make some progress in their quest of removing suppliers by becoming vertically integrated. They don't only remove the supplier. They beat their former suppliers specs. (e.g: M1 chip). 3) Every year they make some progress in their…

On 2)... TSMC produces the M1 and it will be interesting if they eventually enter the fab business... Apple is one of the few companies with the required capital. This is all on the heels of the news that Samsung is planning a foundry in the U.S.
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