Even if I generally agree with disappointment at the apparent "maintenance mode" of Apple's product line, I am not sure Ballmer is the best analogy. My understanding is that Tim Cook actually is responsible for many of the supply chain innovations behind Apple's dominant product lines. This is an incredibly hard technical feat, not just blustery MBA crap. I suppose it remains to be seen whether Apple can put its enormous cash hoard to work in R&D and new product development. It could be possible for Apple to go the way of RIM but I think it would be very hard to kill them given their unique supply chain efficiencies (not to mention brand and balance sheet).
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
#12The 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. Google's own Search has always been a limited form of AI on which most humans with access to the Internet have come to depend upon. And it is tough to beat them because they not only have 20 years of accumulated knowledge and talent, but they also have a lot of data on users and haven't been afraid to break users' privacy in order to get that data.
Now say what you will of Tim Cook, but he's nothing like Steve Ballmer, with one big difference being that 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 man with principles and for this I appreciate him a lot, maybe more than I ever appreciated Steve Jobs.
It would also be stupid to try and beat Google on their own turf. It would be like trying to beat Microsoft at Windows or Office, or Amazon at AWS. And for important markets, Apple's secret is that they never had to beat anyone in market share, all they had to do was to take over an important slice of the high-end market, which is something they are really good at.
Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple
#13The 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…
> He's a man with principles and for this I appreciate him a lot, maybe more than I ever appreciated Steve Jobs.
Is he really? I mean from a strategic point of view he currently only has to gain from giving that outward appearance. Occam's Razor tells me that he is just luckily able to tread the high road because for him its the one without toll booths.
Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
How so? To an outsider who knows very little, Nadella seems to be doing great.
Isn't he kind of ruining Windows?
I think sometimes you have to break it to make it good/great again, like the first Mac OS X release. That's my 2¢.
The fact that Microsoft is increasing revenue on Azure, for example, shows they are jumping on a bandwagon that should give them another revenue stream that they can use to reinvest. I might be wrong, but that's how I see it.
Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple
#15Even if I generally agree with disappointment at the apparent "maintenance mode" of Apple's product line, I am not sure Ballmer is the best analogy. My understanding is that Tim Cook actually is responsible for many of the supply chain innovations behind Apple's dominant product lines. This is an incredibly hard technical feat, not just blustery MBA crap. I suppose it remains to be seen whether Apple can put its enor…
If you take a look back, Steve Ballmer was responsible for a lot of the success of Microsoft. He mostly got hate because people hated Microsoft. I'm don't think Ballmer's list of accomplishments at Microsoft is fully appreciated particularly compared to the good press Tim Cook as enjoyed.
Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple
#16Apologies for this most gratuitous of bikeshedding, but if you're going to use proper superscripts, please sort out the line-heights.
I’ve never thought of this and never noticed it until you pointed it out. And now it’ll probably bother me forever.
Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't he kind of ruining Windows?
I think sometimes you have to break it to make it good/great again, like the first Mac OS X release. That's my 2¢. The fact that Microsoft is increasing revenue on Azure, for example, shows they are jumping on a bandwagon that should give them another revenue stream that they can use to reinvest. I might be wrong, but that's how I see it.
Well, I'm going to be honest here, I don't give two shits about Azure. Not only because I don't use that (I don't run any system, etc) but because there are dozens of providers.
Unfortunately Windows is one of a kind, so if he ruins it (and 10 is definitely a step back from 8.1, from what I've seen) he's ruined something really important for some of us, something with no known replacement. (No, OS X and Linux don't count, because they don't run the Win32 API)
Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
How so? To an outsider who knows very little, Nadella seems to be doing great.
Isn't he kind of ruining Windows?
The "consumer" editions have become more restrictive indeed. But the professional editions, Microsoft bread and butter, is the same as always as best i can tell.
Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple
#19The single useful thing the article could have presented was how or why Cook's/Apple's efforts at AI products will fail while Google's will succeed; how Apple's AI products will be the Windows Phone of Cook's tenure (or, for that matter, how Windows Phone failed or could have been done differently). Without explaining how apparently similar efforts will yield different outcomes, this is all jazz-hands about CEO personalities and Fortune buzzwords.
Re: Why Tim Cook Is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple
#20Applies to Pichai at Google too.
Google was a search company that put the browser/mobile guy in charge. You are not going to see stuff like this
http://aurelieherbelot.net/pears/ http://aurelieherbelot.net/how-small-is-the-world-wide-web-r...
come out of Google for the simple reason they are busy playing empire defense all the while the need for a centralized search engine reduces.