“Mr. Cook, who declined to be interviewed for this article, finds himself not only in the limelight, but also under scrutiny. Of late, [Apple] has hit a snag that was years in the making: Its sales now are so large that many investors worry that it can’t continue to match the growth that brought it from $65 billion in sales in the 2010 fiscal year to $171 billion in 2013,” Matt Richtel and Brian X. Chen report for The New York Times. “In fiscal 2013, sales grew a mere 9 percent, far below an average just shy of 40 percent a year from 2004 to 2013. Profits slimmed. And the stock price fell nearly in half from its 2012 peak to the middle of 2013, vastly underperforming the market.”
“Investors have clamored for Apple wizardry — a much-anticipated iWatch or iTV, perhaps. To these critics, Mr. Cook is uninspiring, his social views window dressing, when what they want is magic,” Richtel and Chen report. “To shore up shareholder faith, Mr. Cook split the stock, increased the dividend and engineered a $90 billion buyback — steps that helped shares rebound almost entirely. He has taken other steps to strengthen the company, like pushing Apple products into China, a potentially huge market, and acquiring talent, most recently spending $3 billion to buy Beats, a music company that brings Apple two major music-industry shakers and deal makers, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.”
“Reflecting his personal views, Mr. Cook is trying to broaden Apple’s brand, too, taking to Twitter and other public venues to express support for environmentalism and gay rights (and for Auburn University football). He has also emphasized the use of sustainable products at the company. Early in his tenure, playing catch-up with other corporations, he established a program to match employee charitable contributions; he has upped the company’s own giving, too,” Richtel and Chen report. “Jonathan Ive, the head of design at Apple and a name nearly as adored by its followers as Steve Jobs, says Mr. Cook has not neglected the company’s central mission: innovation. ‘Honestly, I don’t think anything’s changed,’ he said. And that includes the clamor for some exciting new thing. ‘People felt exactly the same way when we were working on the iPhone,’ Mr. Ive added. ‘It is hard for all of us to be patient… It was hard for Steve. It is hard for Tim.'”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve written in various forms many times, as recently as May 31st:
Those who underestimate Tim Cook’s Apple are in for a rude awakening.
Related articles:
Jony Ive hasn’t been given too much power at Apple – because he’s always had it – February 5, 2013
Steve Jobs left design chief Jonathan Ive ‘more operational power’ than anyone else at Apple – October 21, 2011
This is just another phase in the entity that is Apple.
Correct. The previous “phase” was Jobs-Cook. Jobs the “creative” leader and Cook the “operational” leader, with Jobs in charge overall. The current phase is Cook-Ive. Cook the operational leader and Ive the creative leader, with Cook in charge overall.
At some point, Cook will leave Apple, and the next phase will likely be Ive-(the next operations guru). Ive is in a position now which oversees both hardware and software design.
This is why Jony Ive does not see any major changes in how Apple operates. There is continuity. Before Jobs’ departure, Cook was already a key part of Apple’s leadership. And now, Ive is the other key part.
And THAT is what many in the media fail to understand. Because the last Apple CEO was Steve Jobs, they expect Tim Cook to like Jobs. That is not possible; Cook will never be Jobs. It would be very difficult to find one person who is both a creative and operational genius. However, Cook-Ive has a good chance of matching (even surpassing) Jobs-Cook. And they are just getting started…
Surpass Jobs? WTF are you smoking. Cook is an incompetent baffoon. Ive is the court jester. Both are running Apple into the ground. It will be fun when even the heaviest koolaid drinkers on here eventually figure it out.
Tim Cook was half of the leadership responsible for Apple’s HUGE success in the 00’s, making Apple the model of efficiency and profitability. Jony Ive was responsible for Apple’s hardware design during that time. Both were key lieutenants in the success of Steve Jobs. Apple is now flying so high, there is no “ground” in sight.
You’re probably one of the “Apple is doomed” fools from the latest 90’s, too embarrassed to ever admit how utterly wrong you were… 🙂 And you’ll keep screaming “Apple is doomed” no matter what happens.
Running into the ground? That’s amusing to the point of comedy. You are being sarcastic, right? Best hardware, best software, best profits. Oh, I know what’s happening! The competition is so full of hot air that they are lifting the ground up to Apple’s altitude, so it’s actually the ground running into Apple!!! Ah ha! You just had the wrong perspective!
A lot of Ballmer’s supporters were in denial too. Unlike last time Apple was driven into the ground, there won’t be a Steve Jobs to ride in on a white horse to save it this time. The sooner the board fires Cook and Ive, the sooner they can rid Apple of the rot before it contaminates the rest of the proverbial Apple. It might already be too late, Cook is stiffling innovation, holding Apple back, hiring the wrong people, firing the wrong people. He is a baffoon and needs to go.
@Joe
ha ha ha ha ha ha
tim cook led Apple to make 10,200 million last quarter (10.2 Billion) vs
google’s 3600m, Facebook 600m, Lenovo’s 200m, Netflix’s 50m and Amazon’s 108m
(Tim Cook’s apple makes more money than Dell, Amazon, Netflix, Google, HTC, Pandora, Facebook COMBINED!)
Yep the FIRE the guy who makes 3 times Google, 3 BILLION BUCKS a MONTH !!!
WHAT Harvard school did YOU come from???
LOL
HA HA HA HA HA
(trolls are hilarious!)
Joe – You’re not even a good troll.
Joe, you don’t understand where Apple is right now, do you? Jobs was great for making Apple Great, Cook is the man to make it function now that is really big. Do you remember in 2007, when OSX release was delayed by 6 moths do to resources being moved from OSX to iOS? Just look at the last keynote, and thing just how profound Cook has changed Apple. Letting go of Scott Forstall had a profound impact for example.
If by profound, you mean, negatively, then yeah, I 100% agree. Scott would have NEVER put out the shite that is IOS7.
I was with you until you suggested Ive would become operations chief. There are few jobs that are duller, and offer less glory, than the ops manager. This will never happen, and Ive will leave long before Cook does. Not that I think he’s leaving soon. I think the Cook-Ive partnership will carry on for a several years yet (hopefully), but all good things end and Ive will eventually depart/retire and another brilliant designer will be found. While rare, the world has room for more than one brilliant designer at a time. 🙂
No doubt about it. Critics are about to remove their asshats in shame.
Unlikely, they usually become even more desperate in their ranting in anger at being made to look idiots. You see it here regularly.
It must be frustrating trying to constantly insist and try to prove a point of view that ultimately bears no resemblance to reality.
The POV of the critics that is.
The article confirms that the iPad mini is a product of Tim Cook’s leadership while the idea remained shunned by Steve. Could you imagine the iPad’s fortunes today if it weren’t for the mini? The same with big screen iPhones, another major course correction after Tim took over. If he puts the full force of the company behind Apple TV and introduces a successful subscription service for music and other content, I would have to question whether the picture at Apple has actually improved since Steve died, at least temporarily.
Still iterative. Even if they produce a successful iWatch it will have been conceived under Jobs tenure. The massive challenge for Cook will be sorting through the 1,000 no’s and green lighting the 1 yes, something the press are unable to connect to Steve. I mean a new product not a financial or policy initiative. He is clearly not a product visionary but he’s certainly proving to be excellent leader for Apple’s next phase. They say try to manage people who are better than you!
“Conceived” under Steve’s leadership. Quite possibly. I bet there is a backlog of things conceived under Steve’s leadership from iWatches to direct brain interfaces. I am sure Steve and his team thought of a million ways the tech industry could go forward.
But conceiving something and building it are two different things. Bill Gates conceived of tablets and many other things that his company failed to get right. The fact that Apple is pumping out things that are getting developers excited about is to the credit of the people who FINISHED the products over the last year or two, which is the hardest thing to do.
Also, most things are iterative. Even big changes often look iterative at the time.
You don’t sound like someone has any experience creating products.
You make a good point. Just because it was conceived under Steve doesn’t mean the design was settled, I’m certain it wasn’t. And if the product is as beautiful and useful as their previous releases that’s a win, it doesn’t have to sell like the iPhone. But I still maintain that the jury is out on his leadership until he has rallied his incredible forces to take a new hill.
Well if the jury is out on Tim Cook, that would be news to Steve Jobs who worked with him for many years and viewed him as prepared to take the role.
All this talk about Tim Cook not being proven seems very odd to me. It doesn’t have any perspective. He is has already proven more than almost any other CEO out there. The only thing he hasn’t done, above and beyond, is release a major new product line, but Steve only did that once every several years on average.
If Cook was going to screw up a new product line, the most likely way would have been to release something too early, not too late. He is showing great restraint which can only be a good sign.
In the meantime Apple is transitioning their whole mobile line to 64-bit and other new developer foundations faster than any competitor is able to match. This is the clear sign of long term success people seem to be looking for, but I guess not everyone can read it.
Actually, Steve Jobs was beginning to recognize that the mini was a good idea. Emails to him from Eddie Cue were revealed in court.
Clarification:
Emails from Eddie Cue encouraged Jobs to reconsider the mini. It was revealed in court that Jobs said, ‘you may be on to something’.
Jobs himself gave green light to iPad mini, so it was not shunned.
He just didn’t want to compromise on features, performance or quality. When the first mini came out, it was no compromises. Same for mini retina. Most companies would have put out a scaled-up iPod touch instead of a scaled down iPad. Apple took the harder approach, because it gets better results. Design is: sacrifice immediacy; patience means care and thoughtfulness.
The authors of this article did not fail to expertly distill the cistern of FUD accumulated since 2008 into a rank-odoured cocktail of the sort favoured by Chicago bartender Mickey Finn. At least they freshened it with a sprig of WWDC 14, and disguised the character assassination with a bland headline (“Making Apple His Own”) and a flattering portrait by Minh D. Uong.
This is as good as the “new” NY times can get, you can’t take the spots out of a leopard any more than you can the bias out out the New York times.
Honestly, I don’t think anything’s changed at the New York Times.
Then we can still refer to it as the New York Slime(s).
Buried in the rubble of Apple’s past is a now seemingly forgotten stone foundation that was rather quietly set inside of One Infinite Loop.
It was set in place by the man that endured so many ups & downs and wanted to insure that the best of the best would succeed and move Apple continuously forward.
Steve knew that to have a corporation go on & upward ‘forever’, that principles could not be lost.
With the iPhone released, Steve set up the Apple University to keep the changing of the guard on track.
MDN: instead of picking out the few balanced or pro-Apple snippets from this piece, why didn’t you pick up on the massive amounts of lies, distortions, and cherry-picked facts that make this piece smack of an anti-Apple agenda?
I mean, the entire last section about WWDC was an absolute joke. I honestly wish I hadn’t given this article a click to reward the NYT’s whoring.
Oh, for more reasons as to why MDN shouldn’t be trying to put a positive spin on this article, read DED’s latest editorial at AppleInsider.
MacDailyNews did not in any way “put a positive spin” on the NYT article.
MDN simply (and rightfully) castigated those who underestimate Tim Cooks’ Apple.
Learn how to read.
Let’s see … title points out Jony Ive quotes rather than it being another NYT hatchet job, check … does not attack NYT’s biased (but accurate to the views of financial analyst idiots) recounting of Apple’s fiscal performance, check … focuses on the positive aspects of the article, specifically surrounding the Jony Ive quotes, check … does not point out any of the far, far more egregious positions and statements expressed in the article, check.
Compared to how MDN usually treats thinly-veiled attacks on Apple like this, they practically endorsed it. Again: if MDN had actually gone and done their usual work pointing out the idiocy of this piece, I wouldn’t have clicked the damn link and rewarded the NYT for their whoring ways.
As usual Jony brings simple clarity to the masses.
Just let em get on with it guys, the products will be ready wen they’re ready.
To be fair, look who is making the remark. For Jony nothing probably has changed. He still makes a zillion dollars a year, he’s still getting richer and richer, picking up awards here and there, and generally having his ass kissed everywhere he goes in Apple. It’s like asking a billionaire how bad the recession is for him. He might say, “What recession?”
I suspect amongst the rank and file, people have noticed changes. Some will say for the better, some will say for the worse, depending on the specific change.
If you sat at a desk on Steve Job’s path to his office everyday, you might think things were a bit more relaxed now.
Probably right TM.
Yeah that’s right, Jony was going to diss’ Apple to a couple of nyt fucxwits, one of whom was the antithesis of Apple Inc. back in the day!
MDN take is right on. Tim Cook is laser-focused and made out of steel. He’ll also fire your butt if you don’t work out. Steve chose him. Steve was no dummy, so let’s not start insulting him now.
Steve would have came around to the iPad mini eventually. It is well known that he dismissed the idea of the iPod playing video, and he didn’t initially want outside developers to make apps for the iPhone. Apple has done a great job with the iPad mini. I’ve had one for nearly two years, and I will be buying another in the near future. I think that there are a lot of tech “analysts” who are banking on Apple’s failure. This is why they keep trying to sew the seeds of discontent with Tim Cook. Steve Jobs made a lot of mistakes, and a lot of products failed under his watch (G4 Cube, iPod Hi-Fi and others). There will be failures under Tim Cook too. What will happen after those failures is that Apple will pick up and move on the same way they did with Steve’s failed products. The new Mac Pro, and the Mac mini achieved the same purpose that the Cube tried and failed to do, and accessory makers gave us better iPod accessories in the end.
Of course Ive would say this, he is covering his ass. Tim is a moron, and it is only a matter of time before people stop being wowed by minor increments in hardware specs, and pushing out updates to IOS that Google and Microsoft’s platforms have had for years. Eventually, the public will see that the emperor and his jester have no clothes. The sooner Ive and Cook are fired, the better it will be for Apple.
And your a fuckwit loser posting stupid tripe on the internet.
Split-adjusted price of AAPL the day Steve Jobs died = $54.04. Price today = $91.28. Not exactly terrible results.
“Eventually, the public will see that the emperor and his jester have no clothes.”
And the public already sees that you have no logical or cognitive abilities. They are rich and successful, while you are still flippin’ burgers and poppin’ zits, and that’s what really scalds your useless little balls.
No doubt ‘Yeah Whatever’, anonymous coward, carefully proofread his post before posting, believing he was enlightening us with his own ‘logical or cognitive abilities’. Dear oh dear. 😛
Was it the comment about “useless little balls” that upset you? Go back to your circle jerk with Joe little man. The only one that enlightens you is yourself, and apparently you are your biggest fan.
It’s my pyschopathic anonymous coward stalker! Your life must be uber-miserable to have nothing better to do. So should I feel sorry for you? No. You’re just another rectum.
I’m a stalker? Scroll up dummy and see who the stalker is.
But you make such a terrific fool of yourself. When you post your HATE responses, how can I resist? You know you want it. That’s why you ask for it. You love being fed the bile. Nummy num. You self-loathing has been satisfied. And anyone can see that self-loathing is your prime motivator. It’s always there. Every time.
But you live for my taunts, don’t you. It’s called masochism, and it’s not a good thing kiddo.
And you know how to run a global multi-billion company?
Thought not.
When will apple fans realise Steve Jobs IS DEAD.
I WAS DISTRAUGHT WHEN HE DIED – get over it and move on.
Tim Cook isn’t steve jobs, he’s a different leader, and I think one that is bringing openness to apple which is a good thing.
Tim is more accessible the Steve jobs was and not as much a megalomaniac either.
People who worked with Steve Jobs were living on a razors edge. Say the wrong thing you get sacked, don’t work 7 days a week you get sacked.
Tim isn’t a product guy or a visionary but he’s got people who are. And this stable has been greatly boosted with the beats deal.
Jimmy iovine is an innovator – see see the Walt moss berg video and you can see that. He talks like Steve jobs used to talk like.
Apple is in safe hands, all they have to do is bring out top notch service and products.
No move on you twats and get over the Steve a jobs thing!
The disgruntled ‘Apple fans’ you are addressing are not what a reasonable person would call fans. Some of them are trolls—a pathology of the internet that permits the expression of antisocial sentiments for personal jollies; some are even paid to spread dissent, an offshoot of online political shenanigans. Others are contrarians, tech workers with a bone to pick. Oddly, some of the more vocal critics, to establish their rectitude, recite lists of Apple gear they own going back to before they were born.
True Apple fans live in the present, do not waste their breath and everyone else’s time decrying the lapses of current management, and instead enjoy the sweet anticipation of wonders to come. Fans do not rub out the joy with sober warnings, shaking a finger of admonition in our faces and making children cry. Fans do not try to “wake us up” to a reality where we are losing to the forces of mediocrity.
All this is not to say that the Apple religion, and its followers, are beyond reproach. It’s to point out that apostates need to shed their cloaks of righteousness, and posers and shills ought to get the hell out.
I gave up trying to decipher your point buried in a volume of words.
Loyal Apple users, stock buyers and fans can also be constructive critical.
Capish?
I do tend to get chatty.
I appreciate all points of view except the phony ones.
That’s a load of nonsense. All you have to do is see Ive’s very own video introducing the iPhone 5c. There was so little to talk about that he literally has to talk very slowly: It has a plastic case. It comes in five colors. Apple offers colored shells with holes in them, again in five colors. It’s costs $100 less than the 5. And that is it!
This video was totally embarrassing to watch and for Ive to say that nothing has changed – despite his very own video showing a product with nothing but case color to talk about – this is total B.S.
When it comes to class, having Craig Federighi on stage returned us to a whiff of the Jobs days. Way better than the chief stiff whose only nod to coolness is pulling out his shirttail.
I’m glad you pointed out the 5C Ive self loathing debacle video.
After seeing it, for the first time in 30 years thought Apple lost its way.
Pushing a derivative product as game changing was the first time Ive insulted legacy users.
The second time was Ive out of his league designing the flat and hideous iOS7.
I know firsthand how the truth can hurt, sorry …
Apparently you are in the minority as far as IOS7 is concerned. It has the fastest adoption rate of any of the previous IOS’s.
Correct.
Now tell me how many options and choice users have when buying new or adopting?
Answer: Zero.
Let’s do a poll. How many users absolutely love/prefer iOS7 design over iOS6?
Second question: How many users have just accepted it because they have NO CHOICE.
Apple gulag.
You left out the biggest part of the so called iPhone 5c debacle.
The iPhone 5s was the best selling phone on the planet since it was released. The iPhone 5c was the second best selling phone on the planet since it was released.
You definitely just got caught with your dick in your hand.
Not up on sales numbers of iPhones versus all the others.
If true, good for Apple.
Where I disagree is sales success is not always an indicator of product quality.
More hot dogs are consumed and sold than filet mignon.
So there you have it. Even Jony Ive said it now. It takes time to do that new thing everyone keeps asking about. Apple is on course and you heard it straight from Jony Ive himself. Backing up Tim Cook as things are moving along like always.