I think Cook left easy money on the table by not competing against NVIDIA. They could've tested the waters by loading up Apple Silicon on PCIe riser cards, maturing the toolkit for AI workloads, and selling them at competitive prices. Yes I know they're in the business of making entire widgets, but it would've been easy money. The hardware and software stacks are there. Unlimited upside with nearly zero downside risk.
Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'
101–110 of 446 posts
Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
If he hadn't tried to self-treat his cancer with acupuncture, fruit juice and herbs, he'd probably be around now to do that. The man was clearly a lucky idiot, and shouldn't be revered, but used as a cautionary tale of unbridled arrogance.
I'd consider myself a Steve Jobs hater (and I think his treatment choices were bad) but the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is in the 10-15% range. "Probably", he'd not be around today. Even with his money, it'd be improbable.
He had a much more treatable and slowly growing variety of pancreatic cancer - it was a neuroendocrine cancer in his pancreas (an islet cell tumor). The 5-yr survival rate for stage 1/2 is something like 95%, and even stage 4 is still around a 25%. The more common and deadly pancreatic cancer you’re thinking of has a 5yr survival rate of under 15% and under 3% if it’s advanced to stage 4.
If he had received real care immediately after diagnosis, he’d almost certainly be alive and cancer free today.
Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
> might not come tomorrow or even in the next decade …what company do you think is immune from disruption beyond the foreseeable future?
No company is immune to disruption, but plenty of them have innovation and adaptation in their DNA. IMO over the years Apple has lost that. Look at Google, or Meta, or even Microsoft. Diversified income streams. Clutch acquisitions. Massive capital investments. Data centers. Nuclear power plants. Moonshot factories. Self driving cars. AR glasses. Robots. Venture investing and dealmaking. Massive AI ambitions. Stuff t…
I don’t think Google is a great example to hold up here. They throw so much random crap at a wall hoping for another golden goose. Then kill anything that isn’t after a few years. If you can’t tell, I’m still salty about Google domains.
Many of the things you listed need time to bake and Google never cooks anything more than a quick sear in the pan.
Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
What was different in the jobs era were the goals and trajectory toward achieving them. The tibook was just a first step.
Seems like a just-so story. They shipped some rough computers over the course of that trajectory.
It used to be a case of, always avoid the first generation of a product as they would only get it right the second time around.
They were brilliant at pushing for new stuff but it came with the issues of pushing a little to fast at times.
Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'
#105Cook's been great for massively scaling Apple (and its stock price) up, but the art, vision, and soul of the company is gone. It's just a stock price maximizing lawnmower now, just like every other corporate stock price maximizing lawnmower. If that's what shareholders want, fine, I guess. But I'd be bored just manufacturing the same boring rectangles every year. I think Steve would have been, too.
Arguably he overshot innovation, tried to kill the pocket bricks and failed (with a v1 that wasn’t meant to replace the rectangles but was supposed to be a first step toward that). Sounds like you’re ignoring Vision Pro.
Vision Pro is a perfect example of a greed-driven failure. Apple pissed off both devs and megacorps by keeping the ecosystem closed, fighting tooth and nail in courts such that every app needed to pay them 30% and couldn't be installed without their blessing, and unsurprisingly very few massive companies (or hackers) wanted to support Apple's fledgling closed garden. Without software, it's just a gadget.
Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
You forget, the camera gets better every year! I've had an iphone for 15 years. I mean, it's fine...i just wish there was incentive for durability and sustainability v's replace it every 12-24 months. I guess sustainability concerns at Apple ends at ensuring their stock price is sustainable.
What do you do with your phones that it doesn't last more than 24 months? I've had only two iPhones for almost 11 years. An iphone 6s and currently an iPhone 13 mini there entire time. They're solidly reliable
I was using an iPhone 7 up to this year when I got a new 17. The 7 just kept on trucking for a long time, even if the battery did suffer near the end.
Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you do with your phones that it doesn't last more than 24 months? I've had only two iPhones for almost 11 years. An iphone 6s and currently an iPhone 13 mini there entire time. They're solidly reliable
Oh my, I have found my soulmate on hacker news <3
Its a threesome! (cringe) Yes, our iPhones really get pounded on and end up with so much street credibility as they look like they were shot with bullets but they keep working.
Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Arguably he overshot innovation, tried to kill the pocket bricks and failed (with a v1 that wasn’t meant to replace the rectangles but was supposed to be a first step toward that). Sounds like you’re ignoring Vision Pro.
Vision Pro is a perfect example of a greed-driven failure. Apple pissed off both devs and megacorps by keeping the ecosystem closed, fighting tooth and nail in courts such that every app needed to pay them 30% and couldn't be installed without their blessing, and unsurprisingly very few massive companies (or hackers) wanted to support Apple's fledgling closed garden. Without software, it's just a gadget.
> Apple pissed off both devs and megacorps by keeping the ecosystem closed
This was so incredible to see play out in real time.
You know where else this is happening now? Car makers and CarPlay.
CarPlay might be objectively better but car makers are giving them the boot, for very good reason.
Apple overplayed their hand (or as you say, was incredibly greedy) and now they get to live with the consequences.
Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I couldn't disagree more. Some of the worst Apple computers I've owned date to the Jobs era. All of the best have been from the Cook era. Apple Silicon has been an enormous success. (My first Apple was a TiBook, for what it's worth.)
Well, the current hardware is solid - great build quality, powerful, insane battery life. However, software-wise, the peak was 10.6. There hasn't been the same level of quality ever since.
Peak was System 7!
Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'
#110I believe that Apple is planning for succession, which of course they should, as an obvious responsibility to shareholders, especially given the health issues of the previous CEO Steve Jobs. However, I don't believe that Tim Cook is on his way out. I certainly don't believe that Cook wants to retire. It's not like he has a family to spend time with. Apple is his family.
The final but crucial paragraph in the Financial Times story is a quote from Tim Cook talking about Apple: “I love it there and I can’t envision my life without being there so I’ll be there a while,” he told singer Dua Lipa on her podcast in November 2023.
The story appears to have a lot of hedge words and mere speculation: "as soon as next year" (so how late could it be?), "no final decisions have been made" about Cook's successor, "The company is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report", "An annoucement early in the year would...", "the timing of any announcement could change" (not that there is any specific timing!).
My impression is that the reporters don't have the faintest clue when or if Cook is leaving.