“Apple CEO Tim Cook still hasn’t introduced a mega-hit like the iPhone or iPad, and investors are growing impatient,” Kevin Kelleher reports for TIME Magazine. “Every time someone asks Apple CEO Tim Cook when the company’s next new products are coming, Cook assures them they’re just around the corner. It’s just that Apple, to maintain its competitive edge, refuses to tip its hand.”
‘When Apple announced its quarterly earnings last month, one analyst asked whether the company was in ‘a gap period’ in which new products aren’t quite ready,” Kelleher reports. “‘We have the strongest pipeline that we’ve ever had, and we’re really confident about the things in it,’ Cook replied. ‘But as usual, we’re not going to talk about what’s ahead.'”
“For some, Cook’s discreet act is starting to look old. Apple released the iPod in 2001, the iPhone six years later and the iPad three years after that. All three have defined or redefined their markets in ways that the Apple Watch or Apple TV haven’t. It’s coming up on seven years since the iPad was unveiled, and Apple doesn’t seem to have its next big hit ready for showtime
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Pipeline Tim.” That sticks until the vaunted pipeline actually delivers.
Until then, Apple has made a number of mistakes, all of which look like laziness from the outside, including:
• No new 4K-capable Apple TV for Christmas 2016 (this would have been so easy, it’s inexplicable and unforgivable not to have this on the market right now)
• No new iMac, Mac Pro, and or Mac mini for far, far too long
• No Apple skinny bundle(s) for Apple TV while other companies ink deals and announce launches – these customers will be tough for Apple to get back once lost, if they ever get the deals signed. (Perhaps, Tim, you need to hire better negotiator(s) who can get the ink? Or make an acquisition that reshapes the industry, causing them to line up to work with you?)
• Flagship iPhone launches without its flagship feature (Portrait mode) and is currently still only in “beta” (seriously?)
• Apple TV remote looks to have been “designed” by Steve Ballmer himself (If Steve wasn’t already dead, the Apple TV Remote would have killed him; he would’ve had an aneurysm the second the mockup was handed to him)
• No new iPads for Christmas 2016 (Even simply “refreshed” with current A-series processors would have created more sales)
These are a few of the reasons why Apple fans and investors are and should be concerned.
On occasion, Steve Jobs teased the product pipeline, too. The difference is that Steve Jobs repeatedly delivered.
P.S. Don’t forget to rate Apple CEO Tim Cook’s job performance in our poll!
