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Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

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Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#341

Post by jauntywundrkind »

Apple has such interesting systems. I'm so fascinated to see if they try to become something more, or if they stay dedicated to consumers.

They already have very passionate users stringing together ultra high throughput inference systems, using highspeed thunderbolt mesh topologies, or just using single high memory ultra chips.

But Apple has some very interesting patents out there to keep scaling up! Holy cow! It's very exciting to think of a hardware guy getting to pioneer this company forward, that has the systems visioneering to navigate really wild systems building. https://bsky.app/profile/ogawa-tadashi.bsky.social/post/3mif...

This feels like such a tension though, of having these wildly bleeding edge systems, that you are trying to shoehorn in to your friendly Think Different consumer brand & product offerings. Meanwhile Apple is out of stock for their new iPhone chip powered laptop. And their high end Ultra. There's this bifurcation of the market. It feels weird imagining Apple trying to serve both sides well. How Ternus can navigate an age of brave mew hardware is exciting but also seems so high tension. An Apple that no longer serves the mass market, that starts doing more, is wild to consider.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#342

Post by twoodfin »

121789 wrote: post #335
twoodfin wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but clearly the tech & regulatory environment was such that the use of a general purpose computer beyond the infotainment screens wasn’t going to add enough value. If self-driving had worked, and a fully vertically integrated tech stack could have controlled your “mobile experience” end-to-end, maybe a different story. “Siri, take me to pick up Grandma from her flight. Let me know when she lands and send her a…

I feel like your original comment was phrased as "Apple wouldn't build this", when in reality I think (we might mostly agree) is that they would build it ideally, but it might be too early or it might not be a good strategic business to be in. Outside of the premium brand/build quality, I think Tesla was actually a successful proof of concept of what they could have done or could do. Computer/software-powered, batter…

Indeed, Tesla is probably the bull case for an “Apple Car”. IIRC there were rumors a decade ago that Apple even considered buying Tesla rather than develop “Titan” entirely in-house.

But I think Tesla shows the limits of Apple’s approach in the car market: Imagine a Model S that is maybe 50% better across design, materials, features, UX. That’s still not a “leapfrog” product the way the iPhone was years ahead of the smartphone competition when it was launched. It couldn’t justify also being 50% more expensive.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#343

Post by divbzero »

havaloc wrote: post #9

Cook seems to be dragged for some of his decisions ( like China ), but he was the right CEO for the time. Ternus in turn seems to be the right CEO for this phase of Apple. I'm excited to see what Ternus does in the role! It's a homecoming of sorts having a product person and there has already been chatter he'll be more like Jobs in the role. If they can maintain their hardware lead and tighten up the software a bit,…

I know what you mean by stronger product focus, but phrasing it as “more like Jobs” makes it sound daunting.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#344

Post by poncho_romero »

heathrow83829 wrote: post #228
havaloc wrote: post #9

Cook seems to be dragged for some of his decisions ( like China ), but he was the right CEO for the time. Ternus in turn seems to be the right CEO for this phase of Apple. I'm excited to see what Ternus does in the role! It's a homecoming of sorts having a product person and there has already been chatter he'll be more like Jobs in the role. If they can maintain their hardware lead and tighten up the software a bit,…

>> the next era looks bright. but what could they possibly build that hasn't been done on iphone and ipad yet? these devices seem finished to me. all the latest features on these devices are getting increasingly useless, to be honest. are you imaging them creating whole new devices?

They could make the software good again.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#345

Post by Forgeties79 »

Groxx wrote: post #328
Forgeties79 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s rare but I’ve definitely seen my touchbar lock up or go dark and require a restart. It also could get mad hot on my 2016 MBpro when video editing. Still love(d) that computer though…

Yeah, it locked up on me every couple months or so. Very glad to see it gone (as the primary ESC + F-row input). I also would not mind it in addition to regular keys, there are some great interactions in there. But it's an extremely poor keyboard-emulator. Splitting off the escape key made a huge improvement, but it's nowhere near enough.

Yeah Apple has had a few missteps like this over the last 5 to 10 years. They assert themselves with that Steve Jobs mentality of “we know what’s best for you,” but he got it right more often than the current iteration. The touch bar was definitely not properly assessed by users before shipping.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#346

Post by aworks »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #338
aworks wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For general medical coverage, it was better for my Mom and now it seems better for me. Some things are not covered with traditional Medicare e.g. dental and vision.

Dental and vision aren't covered by private medical insurance either, and private dental insurance typically has max annual payouts low enough (like $1k/1.5k) to make it basically a scam unless you know you'll actually get use out of it.

I had a separate dental insurance policy but as you suggest, it didn't make much sense and I dropped it.

So yes, dental/vision was a wash versus private medical insurance. There are some other therapies I no longer have any coverage for under Medicare.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#347

Post by achenet »

tsunamifury wrote: post #285
jordanb wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ive got way more credit than he deserved. And he had to run all his ideas by Jobs. Once Jobs was gone we got to see Ive's true colors (it was garish pastels and a butterfly keyboard). https://jonyiveredesignsthings.tumblr.com/

He has designed 4 consumer prodocts that a good portion of humanity use every day. By every measure he is the most successful product creator in the history of humanity, no single other product comes close to impact and quality. (Believe it or not the Dorritos Locos Taco is likely the closest 5th place product) The arrogance on hacker news is insane, or the self agrandizement and misunderstanding of how rare that is.…

> He has designed 4 consumer prodocts that a good portion of humanity use every day.

Yes, but how much of that was luck and how was extraordinary talent?

It's like saying "Donald Trump is really rich, ergo he must be a financial genius"... getting really rich isn't that hard if you're born into money and invest in New York real estate.

Now someone like Jobs who had fairly working class parents and founded a multi-billion dollar (now trillion dollar) company that radically changed the modern world, that, I would argue, is extraordinary talent.

While I don't personally have much an opinion on Ives's skill as a designer, I understand the GP's point of view - any "good but not great" designer could have done what he did, Ives was just lucky enough to win the lottery w.r.t. what company he worked for.

For a similar example, consider the case of Hollywood - you'll have plenty actors as talented as Brad Pitt (or whatever big name you'd like to choose) that don't end up staring in massive blockbusters, not because they lack talent, but because they weren't quite as lucky to get that first big break, which led to more recognition, more job offers, all of which compounded into making him a proper movie star. Obviously Pitt is a really good actor, but part of his success is likely due to luck as much as it is acting talent - he has tons of talent, but others might have equal talent and less luck, and therefore be less successful/have fewer people influenced by their work.

To use a software metaphor, consider the relative popularity of FreeBSD and Linux. Both are good OSes, but Linux got "luckier" because they didn't have to deal with a lawsuit, which meant it got more attention, more features, which led to a compounding "Matthew effect" where it now has a far larger market share than FreeBSD, despite them originally having roughly the same 'quality'.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#348

Post by zdp7 »

gedy wrote: post #78
pjc50 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When people discuss this subject, I wonder what they think the counterfactual world would have looked like. Do people think China could have been kept backwards forever? I notice nobody goes around accusing Maurice Chang of doing this. Or W Edwards Deming.

I think it's more the taking (or at least not growing) skills, jobs, know-how from the US and giving to China, irrespective of if they would have developed on their own in any case. It's not about keeping China down, etc. People like to compare this with Japan in the 1980s, but Japan was indisputably an ally of the US, whereas China has never been.

> Japan was indisputably an ally of the US, whereas China has never been.

Except for the time we were indisputably not allies with Japan and were with China.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#349

Post by gedy »

zdp7 wrote: post #348
gedy wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more the taking (or at least not growing) skills, jobs, know-how from the US and giving to China, irrespective of if they would have developed on their own in any case. It's not about keeping China down, etc. People like to compare this with Japan in the 1980s, but Japan was indisputably an ally of the US, whereas China has never been.

> Japan was indisputably an ally of the US, whereas China has never been. Except for the time we were indisputably not allies with Japan and were with China.

Correct, I mean PRC, not China per se. Japan as ally meaning post war we have military bases there.

Re: Tim Cook's Impeccable Timing

#350

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

layer8 wrote: post #199
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t compare Apple to any other company. Apple is the only successful consumer hardware company (with Samsung being a distant second). They can afford to sit out the AI arms race. You can’t be a software company without an AI story to tell.

That must be a very restrictive definition of “successful consumer hardware company”.

Name one other successfully computer hardware company? PC makers are barely profitable commodities, other phone companies aside from Samsung are making pennies, the Microsoft XBox division is on life support, Sony sold off its TV division. The PS5 is going okay but doesn’t sell in near the numbers of iPhones. Who is left?
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