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Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

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Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

#91

Post by ianburrell »

827a wrote: post #7
bnchrch wrote: post #2

If you check my comments Im a routine critic of Apple. Specifically its mis-management of Siri. But, in my mind, Tim Cook is also responsible for the only exceptional qualities of Apple. Namely its production of the M series chips and the Vision Pro (yes really). They better have someone outstanding in mind as a replacement. Otherwise I could easily see the successor mildly improve Siri/AI functions, while continuing…

Ternus is the leading candidate; VP of Hardware Engineering. He was very likely more directly responsible than Cook for all the things you liked about Cook's Apple. My fear for Apple right now is how most decisions they make appear to incentivize them toward becoming a perpetual middle-man in all aspects of your interactions with their products. They don't manufacture much of anything anymore; its on-contract. They d…

Very few tech companies make the whole stack. Making chips requires specialization and is required for high end chips. Samsung is probably the only company that makes chips for their own phones.

Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

#92

Post by ianburrell »

javman wrote: post #87
tptacek wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs shipped a cordless mouse with a charger port on the bottom, the infamous hockey puck mouse, and a laptop that visibly discolored in the shape of handprints where your wrist rests. iTunes happened under Jobs watch and was unwound in the Cook era.

I'm a huge critic of the mouse with the charger port on bottom, but that was the 2nd gen magic mouse released in 2015. Is there another mouse that had charger port on bottom? The 1st gen from 2009 used AA batteries.

They just released the Magic Mouse (USB-C) with the port on the bottom.

It is weird that stuck with bottom port for so long. It would be smarter to put it on the front then it could be used as wired mouse, but I guess that wrecks the design.

Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

#93

Post by majormajor »

tptacek wrote: post #49
lbourdages wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would not want to be running Snow Leopard. And remember, that's a release they had to do because 10.5 was so rough!

Why not? Other than "because they're old"?

Tiger and Snow Leopard in particular were very solid releases.

Heck, the aluminum Macbooks from that era are still the foundation of Apple's laptop design. And they didn't have the butterfly keyboard fiasco!

But this is a bit of a irrelevant distraction. Apple under Jobs wasn't loved for quality of hardware, it was loved for telling a better story of progress of personal computing. From the iMac "make it simpler by going back to basics, but future-looking basics" to "easier to manage, funner to use music players" through showing how smartphones and then tablets could be far more functional and usable than MS', Palm's, or Nokia's visions. The watch is the next best category-definer since then, and the iCloud cross-device stuff generally feels better-done than competitors still, but otherwise... refine, refine, refine, and slowly add more ads and upsells. Microsoft or anyone else could run that playbook, in a way that they never could match the Apple playbook from 1997 to 2011.

(One side question here is "are there new segments out there waiting to be invented?" which I don't know the answer to. But even so, "becoming just another upsell-pushing, ad-driven, software-subscription-service provider" wasn't a necessary path.)

Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

#94

Post by blaufast »

Almost every top comment is negative. This negativity about apple has existed since the 90s.

Apple has been the most profitable example of betting against the herd for the last 20 years. And possibly the easiest if you’re willing to look at the world plainly. I’m glad to see the herd hasn’t changed and I have plenty of gains left.

Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

#95

Post by amelius »

usui wrote: post #10
vlark wrote: post #9

Bring back Woz.

How serious is this comment? As a thought experiment, this intrigues me. Imagine Steve Wozniak suddenly pops in as CEO. What might happen to the company in the following years?

With Woz:

- Apple M-series CPUs become fully documented

- iOS is ditched. iPhones and MacBooks now run the same OS

- no developer fees

- fixed price to have an app in the App store

- App store and content filters become orthogonal. Anyone can start an app store. Anyone can make content filters.

- Apple starts releasing stuff for the maker-community such as Apple 3D printers

Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

#96

Post by m463 »

verelo wrote: post #43
ryandrake wrote: post #13

Cook'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.

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.

they also added a filesystem to the phone.

Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

#97

Post by whiterock »

harshalizee wrote: post #61
verelo wrote: post #43

Earlier 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

Oh my, I have found my soulmate on hacker news <3

Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

#98

Post by wmichelin »

verelo wrote: post #43
ryandrake wrote: post #13

Cook'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.

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.

My iPhones last at least 3-4 years.

Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

#99

Post by trenchpilgrim »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #68
paxys wrote: post #64

Appointing John Ternus is going to be a pretty clear indicator to investors that Apple plans on continuing its iterative hardware, supply chain and operations focus and isn't looking to shake things up from a product or vision standpoint. Which may be the best move for the company (this strategy has definitely worked wonders for the last decade and a half), but I can't help feel that among all the large tech companie…

> might not come tomorrow or even in the next decade …what company do you think is immune from disruption beyond the foreseeable future?

The big banks (unless they do fraud again), health insurance companies in the US, the major telecoms, Airbus, Bayer, Tyson, JBS SA, Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, Cargill

Re: Report: Tim Cook could step down as Apple CEO 'as soon as next year'

#100

Post by wahnfrieden »

ryandrake wrote: post #13

Cook'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.
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