“Steve Jobs didn’t judge people solely on the quality of their work,” Ken Segall writes for Observatory. “He also put a high value on time — and wasting time was an unforgivable sin.”
“I saw this more than once in our regular marketing meetings. Someone would confidently present their ideas, Steve would ponder for a moment, and then let it out: ‘That’s it? You could have done this one day after our last meeting. What have you been doing for the past two weeks?'” Ken Segall writes for Observatory. “Of course, it was entirely possible that this person had been slaving away every day, at great personal sacrifice. But if the work didn’t show time well spent, Steve’s fury was unleashed.”
“Fast forward to Apple’s recent product unveiling,” Ken Segall writes for Observatory. “As much as I like the new MacBook Pro, I can’t help imagining Apple as a person making this presentation to Steve. When it’s finished, Apple sits back with a smug smile, expecting praise. Instead, it gets broadsided. ‘That’s it?’ Steve says. ‘You could have done this one year after the last Mac event. What have you been doing for the last four years?'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Some might say something about Apple brass being fat and happy after gorging on RSUs. Others might say that Apple has outgrown a management system from a time when they were much smaller with fewer product lines. Or that the company is distracted with moving into their spaceship or other issues that are, at best, exceedingly peripheral to where Apple’s focus should be: Delighting their customers and shipping high quality, dependable products.
Whatever the reason(s) for Apple’s seeming malaise, we’ve said it before, so we’ll say it again: From the outside, Apple, you look lazy and/or somewhat lost. Is that how you want to look to the world, Apple, much less to us “rabid fanboys?”
Excuse us while we go listen to our AirPods. Oops. Operations genius, our collective ass.
Sometimes Apple, the world’s most profitable and most valuable company, still operates as if they only have five guys from NeXT working around the clock trying to do all the work on a shoestring budget.
Can’t manage to have a compatible Remote app or Apple Music-capable Siri for the Apple TV launch… Can’t have enough Pencils and Keyboards for the iPad Pro launch. Seriously? Can’t have any stock on hand for two months after the so-called the Apple Watch launch date. Can’t update their professional Mac for nearly two years and counting?
Why are these amateurish mistakes and lapses happening with startling regularity? You know, besides mismanagement?
Oh, you say, but Apple is making tons of money! Why, yes, they certainly are!
Listen, let’s be honest, Steve Ballmer could’ve generated the same kind of money “running” Apple Inc. given the massive momentum Steve Jobs handed over at his death. Sometimes, in fact, it looks like Steve Ballmer is running Apple. Although, no, it doesn’t really, because even Ballmer would have updated the Mac Pro by now, made sure he had enough Apple Watches ready so as not to pretty much totally kill launch momentum, and also had enough Pencils and Keyboards on hand for the iPad Pro launch. Of course, Ballmer would have never had the handle on the big picture that Tim Cook has – our issues with launches under Cook have to do solely with launch supplies and software polish.
We’re coming up on two years now (this December 19th) since the Mac Pro debuted with no updates which, along with the rest of the string of snafus (going back to John Browett, Apple Maps, no iMacs for Christmas 2012, no iPad 2 units for launch, etc.), is what understandably prompts this sort of “joke” and “failure” talk and the feeling that Apple is a bit sloppy in recent years.
We hold Apple to a high standard and we expect the company to execute better than they have of late. (read more) — MacDailyNews, November 27, 2015
I could think of an incredibly insensitive comment about Tim Cook and what he has been doing for the last 4 years, but I’m in a good mood today…so….. 🙂
I’m not a Tim Cook fan, I think he is in way over his head and built a team of similars, however your remark is totally crude and unacceptable even as you attempt to disguise it.
Warning don’t take the bait embedded in his remark.
LOL
then say precisely what you meant in full, unbaited terms
Ok. FUCK OFF. How’s that?
You sissies take umbrage at anything, eh Nancy.
Huh? What are you talking about? How can it be crude and unacceptable if he hasn’t said anything.
I can tell you exactly what Cook has been doing the last 4 years.
Nothing. Nothing but being lazy and sloppy with his product line. Failure to innovate, sending out updates that brick iPads, copying the competition so they have 2 lenses on their phones and the list of failed accomplishments go on.
Another thing he’s been doing is Apple watch. Another epic failure. Such a fail, he won’t even let us know the actual sales numbers.
Yeah, that’s the last 4 years.
How can you slight the watch? I mean you can send your heartbeat to someone! How useful.
did you vote for him to GO!?
https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple
People feel very strong concern about Apple’s future. Suspended product lines, no clear vision, little progress. Post Jobsian era looks to me like a lost time and TC is the face of this era.
I do not blame Tim. The problem may be in the top brass – the fat cats. They are no longer hungry, they are fullfilled and satisfied. They will do anything to keep their powers as long as possible even if it damages the company.
Mourning is over. Its time for Apple to stand up, to fight, to spread wings, to innovate, to risk, to rise and sometimes fall. To push forward on all cylinders.
“People feel very strong concern about Apple’s future. Suspended product lines, no clear vision, little progress. Post Jobsian era looks to me like a lost time and TC is the face of this era.
I do not blame Tim.”
So, do you blame jet black helicopters?
I thought about lazy fat cats blinded by iPhone success.
elo: I side w/ your thinking. It’s can’t be just one person, esp Steve’s choice. Fat cats–yes–esp when I read about Eddy Cue’s cocky impression left with media execs when negotiating content for TV. Phil Shiller and confidence (my) don’t associate well.
“To me, Apple exists in the spirit of the people that work here, and the sort of philosophies and purpose by which they go about their business. If Apple just becomes a place where computers are a commodity item and where the romance is gone, and where people forget that computers are the most incredible invention that man has ever invented, then I’ll feel I have lost Apple. But if I’m a million miles away and all those people still feel those things and they’re still working to make the next great product, then I will feel that my genes are still in there.”
“Steve Jobs: The Unauthorized Autobiography.”
https://itunes.apple.com/nl/book/steve-jobs/id924800720?l=en&mt=11
“I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this transformation is going to make some people uneasy… because the PC has taken us a long way. They were amazing. But it changes. Vested interests are going to change. And, I think we’ve embarked on that change. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it be next year or five years? … We like to talk about the post-PC era, but when it really starts to happen, it’s uncomfortable.”
–Steve Jobs
And it totally is!
Entry level and mainstream workstations are the ones going out, but high end workstations are healthy and growing today and will keep growing. Those computers going out may represented 80-90% of the computer market. Not any more.
But now we are talking about the healthy high end workstation market. And is there where Apple is being questioned.
High end workstations will always be needed to push the limits further with every generation even if they are sold in smaller numbers. Even powerful computers for gaming are in higher demand today, contrary to entry level and mainstream desktop and mobile computers.
For Chevy and Ford, the money is in the trucks. That’s where most of their profit comes from.
While it seems like this forum is collectively coming down on Apple for lack of innovation, I on the other hand am content with Apple. I’m satisfied with incremental improvements. A lot of small refinements go into new products that often gets overlooked and it’s the sum of all of these improvements that increase the overall user experience.
Nobodies talking about the all metal hinge construction on the new MacBook Pros and the fact that you can still open them seemlessly with one finger.
The next time your iPhone gets liquid on it, you will likely just wipe it off and go about your day without giving it a second thought.
I’m old school. I like Snow Leopard, and the simplicity and refinement. Sure new things are fun, but it’s the benefits that truly matter to me.
Apple has room to improve in display technology, on the iPhones. There is room for improvement in other categories as well, but overall the Apple ecosystem is pretty wonderful. I’d personally rather see further refinement than new gizmos I don’t need or will never use.
Btw, I don’t think Steve Jobs would expect something mind blowing at every meeting either.
When was the last time you saw an “incremental improvement” in the Mac Pro?
June 11, 2012
It’s been trash since then 😉
On a serious note, If you do own the current Mac Pro, what are the real world benefits that you are not getting out of the current model that you need to upgrade. Which model do you own?
I ask this because I often find, my professional clients aren’t always running the newest hardware. They usually purchase machines when they need a new machine or their budget permits it, regardless of product lifecycle. I also find the people who are waiting for the latest greatest thing, often aren’t even using current technology to it’s fullest.
Most users could typically improve productivity through smoother workflows, training etc. vs. machine upgrades.
Truth is it isnt just Apple that suffers from lack of innovation. Moore’s law us supposedly alive and well but transformative horsepower increases do not seem to change the industry as happened in the age of the gigahertz wars.
That apple is unwilling to experiment with niche markets may help the bottom line at the expense of long range growth and mind share. Theres no excuse for the lack of a new pro mac. There is no excuse for more innovative mobile computing than the gadgety touch bar and the removal of more ports.
Apples.spending is going into titan, the car project that is looking like it will never ship, and the giant spaceship-donut-palace theyre building on the grounds of the old hp campus instead of functional products that bring all of us forward.
Heres hoping that the new year brings renewed focus on products, better macs, more useful wearables, more user friendly phones and ipads. And just maybe, a few of these things could be made in fremont ca, usa, instead of by foxconn in asian factories.
Kind of tempted to pick up some refurbished hardware before Apple lazily removes all the ports from everything in the name of progress.
People often fear what they don’t understand. How is that parallel printer port working out for you? Is your 3.5″ floppy serving you well? Is your SCSI OK? Getting a lot of use from your dual cd drives for copying your music collection? Are you finding enough dialup services for your 56k modem?
I wouldn’t have bought a USB scanner if my AGFA SCSI scanner was still supported. Now the much crappier and slower USB scanner I replaced it with is no longer supported. OS X just won’t see it and there is no driver support from Canon.
Along the lines of CD/DVD technology, my external Sony USB DVD writer is no longer supported by OS X (same… OS X just won’t see it). It was replaced it with a crappier LG USB DVD writer, which works just fine. However, I sold it to my buddy about a week ago because he will be taking it to Cozumel, where he will be using it to burn DVDs of dive videos for fellow divers. He has a 15″ MBP Retina display.
There was a time where I purchased quality accessories because they lasted as I replaced computer systems. I’m not so sure that is the way to go today. We might be better off buying the cheapest crap on the market with the intention of replacing it every 2 to 5 years, due to incompatibility.
So what is it that we don’t understand exactly? Some of us what to use the accessories we already invested in.
BTW, there are still over 2 million dial up subscribers in the USA.
There are reasons for those dial-up subscribers. Not all of them are cretins living in the Ozarks with outdoor privies.
Ah, yes. I too lament the loss of the buggy whip holder for my expensive buggy whip that my new Tesla has. It would be a real seller if Musk would have at least included a buggy whip holder on his new cars. Nobody should buy Tesla because of it now.
What you describe sounds like today’s Apple. Old processors, limited memory, piss poor GPUs…in short, old technology.
When SJ removed a port he had a reason. What is the reason for removing the SD card port? Is HDMI dead? Hardly. The MagSafe power adapter a bad idea that needed to be ditched? Nope, was still the best solution for a laptop. LAZY
When Jobs came back, they were fighting for their very survival. Basically, Cook was the beneficiary of Jobs’ hard work.
Jobs dies and Cook now has zillions of dollars. He has no vision and doesn’t push Apple forward. Instead, he plays it safe and puts all his bets on the iPhone ensuring he never stumble. After all, how can you fail if you don’t try?
That’s Cook for you.
What product lines? They barely have any today. Apple is a company for aniPhone.
Hallelujah MDN take. Any “yup” on Rob’s message too.
Lazy is an overly kind way of saying — clueless.
At the very least when it comes to the PRO MARKET. Be it Macs, software or support. Yup, Apple is clueless.
The bling crowd of Apple management does not ignore the shiny new gold watches, runway fashion shows in Paris, iPhones, watches and pride parades. Too narrow minded a focus IMHO.
Let’s make our routers the best in the business. Nah, don’t care, kill the division for all time.
Let’s make our Macs the baddest and best at every price point. Nah, don’t care anymore.
Let’s make software that appeals to Pro needs, yet is easy and intuitive to use for everyone. Nah, too hard and just forget it and kill it off, we’re done.
But let’s continue to focus our overwhelming resources on two iPhones a year. Hey, that’s where the money is and that silly notion of changing the world through desktop publishing is a quaint reference to a bygone era decades ago … 😥
We need to focus on WHAT MAKES MONEY FOR APPLE! The rest be damned!
Tired of trying to buy a new MacBook Pro only to find out they are out of stock until some time in January; same for the Apple/Nike Watch,; and same for iPhone 7 Plus Jet Black. I love Apple, but someone at Apple needs to be held accountable for their failure to have product in the stores. If they worried less about having trees in their stores and more about having product in their stores, it would be a good thing.
You raise a valid and nagging critique of Apple during holiday sales for years after Clueless Cook took over.
Anyone remember no new iMacs, Apple Pencil at launch and now out of Jet black several weeks before Christmas?
I believe Cook would be a great CEO of the Apple diversity division. Then get someone in charge who understands all the needs of Apple customers that Cook and their elitist sycophants continue to IGNORE.
Apple owner since my Lisa.
Apple is just ahead of it’s time. Their current supply model is suited for home/community, high level 3D printers that will make your product on demand.
I tend to be pretty relaxed when it comes to Apple, after becoming a total convert from Wintel five years ago. One of the best decisions I ever made, and now, i and my family are pretty much all Apple everything (iMac, Macbook, Macbook pros, iPhones, iPads).
That said, there doesn’t seem to be much question that the Macbook Pro line should have been updated long ago. The same with the Mac Pro and iMac.
Now that I (we) are totally invested in Apple, we want the company to do well. However, they have bit off a lot. The death of someone as close to the key members of the team as Jobs was will have a lasting impact, no matter what people say. You don’t get over that in a year or two. Moving in to the new spaceship campus has to be a major distraction, too. These are large issues that cannot be ignored.
However, Apple HAS to get back to job one: Producing great computers. Computers are and will remain the core of tech. Apple must not be seduced by the siren song of peripherals, no matter how much revenue that they bring in at the moment. For more everyone, their computer is still at the core of their tech experience. Don’t mess up Apple. Keep the main thing the main thing.
Key with Apple is meetings endless meetings and aggressive managers that are abusive according to some who left Apple.They are now a gov agency as in were. They need a Trump like CEO that will reorganize and get rid of abusive ladder climbing over other others managers, sups,etc.
Northern CAhas always been slow moving on things not like NY or the Eastcoast or even Southern CA.Jobs knew this so he got things Done by force of will. He was too abusive though. You can ‘get it done’ without histrionics
the other day someone argued with me that Jobs didn’t really care about Mac, that he sort of half heartedly made a ‘few fruity iMacs’.
My reply was that AFTER the said the “PC wars are over” quote he returned to Apple , about faced and did the fantastically difficult transition of OS9 to OsX (complete different as OSX was based on Nextstep) and PowerPC to Intel.
AND he did all the Macs below ( incomplete list as different models in each segment not shown. Note also the GIANT changes in design for each line like iMac from Bondi Blue Plastic to Lampshade to Flat).
For the Article ABOVE the list is relevant to emphasize HOW HARD WORKING JOBS and his STAFF (much much smaller those days with less cash) was. In just a few years he did ALL this plus all the other stuff (IPOD, ITUNES, APP STORE, IPHONE, IPAD, APPLE STORES etc… )
IMac :
bondi blue,
multicoloured,
Graphite IMac
Lampshade flat Panel
G5 Flat Panel
Intel Aluminium
Macbook:
iBook Colored Clamshell
Powerbook g4 Plastic
iBook White
Powerbook G4 Aluminium
Macbook Intel White
Black Macbook
Macbook Intel Aluminium
Macbook Pro
Macbook Air
Macbook Aluminium Unibody
Desktops:
G4 Cube
Mini G4
Mini Intel
Unibody Mini
Tower:
G4 Graphite Plastic
G4 Silver Plastic
Power Mac G5 Aluminium
Mac Pro Intel
—–
“WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THE LAST FEW YEARS ” indeed would have been Jobs question.
SVPs ” we did charity furniture, A Coffee Table book, Christmas trees, Sponsoring a Fashion Show the Met Gala and working for several years on the epic mini series “Sex filled Romp of Dr. Dre’s life”.
alright, alright my SVP jibe at the end wasn’t too fair as besides the fashion shows they DID make iPhones which make a heck a lot of money, (although some models aren’t in stock … )
THIS is why TIM COOK HAS TO GO!!!!!!!!!
sign this
https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple
pass it on
Apple needs to heed the lessons of Steve Jobs returning from NeXT. CEO & top inner circle leaders should make $1/year salary with bonuses & stock options based on performance & healthiness of the corporation.
Skate to where the puck shall be in the future not to where it is today.
OK is not good enough. Failure is not an option. People need stern warnings & quick dismissal if they cannot perform.
Focus. Streamline. Jettison old products. Dream big. Think Different.
He gave you a roadmap to success follow the directions & go boldly into the future!
#timidtimcook
TIM COOK MUST BE REPLACED ASAP!
Please sign this.
https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple
replaced… by whom ?
complete your proposal or its nothing more than a useless rant
An engineer or product development expert would be a good choice. Any one but clueless Cook.
An engineer might be the better of the two if you’re looking for innovation, where the product dev expert would probably shape, package and market products better. 😀
Indeed …!!!!!!
(too many Toga parties?)
I will share an anecdote from a relative who has been wirking at Apple fir 10 years or so …….. on the programing end of things..
About 6 months ago ..when he was visiting town, over a dinner conversation i asked him…” how are things at Apple… im a bit concerned …….” he hesitated a bit ..contemplating how to respond then made the following remark ” well, there are a bunch of Steve Jobs wannabes running around acting like they are Jobs and pissing everone off …more destructive than productive… ……people play around their work and things drag on… …. But dont worry .. we have a few incredible gurus around who come and fix thing last minute “.
But on the other hand his respect for Tim is undeniable ..”he is an amazing person , do not underestimate him”
While is comment re Eddy Cue ” he looks like a rat and he is a rat ”
2 cents…
Apple
WAKE UP AND SHAKE UP !
MDN
“our issues with launches under Cook have to do solely with launch supplies and software polish……….”
“understandably prompts this sort of “joke” and “failure” talk and the feeling that Apple is a bit sloppy in recent years.”
“We hold Apple to a high standard and we expect the company to execute better than they have of late. ”
imo ..Wrong in some areas MDN… its not solely launch supply and software polish.
Absolutely not..
its about stupid product decisions… disconnect from their user.
To name a few..
The Igore battery case
-The stupid round pencils design.. slippery … rolls off.. has no pin to secure on shirt, has no way of saying attached to its companion device.. bogus ridiculous charging solution. plus missing basic functions.. (it draws nice with minimal latency… but as a complete solution is half baked )
-Magic mouse.. incredibly bogus charging solution,
-MacBook pro… battery life is a joke… limited Ram … all soldered components and un-upgradable … on a pro product?
-Touch bar…well nothing amazing or revolutionary … ..just good. I personally think Touche’ , touchbar’s onscreen equivalent to be more productive … (but must admit… the touch bar is a piece of beautiful execution)
-iPad pro…. bogus use of Pro name….. without an IOS PRO no ios product is even remotely close to a pro product. user manageable file sys is a must… full blown application are a must ..not fragmented snippets of apps that make one have to move between 10 apps to complete s simple task. mind u ,all this with no user manageable file sys …its a joke.
-nN macpro refresh… this has nothing to do with supply chain….its a deliberate negligence.
-Mac pro’s bogus ( cant innovate , my ass ) design .. useless to a pro in a pro environment.
– Imacs. no news. long overdue..
-Apple displays.. non existant… one has to flash LG on their desk while using an apple product WHY? …(your solution of sticker noted ..lol )
-Ives clutter free obsession… bogus… its bullshit sales talk……
-The only thing this philosophy has done is remove clutter from their device , reduce functionality and transferred all the shit to my desk”s top and carrybag in form of dongles, cables, hubs and external devices . massively off balance
-iPhone… 3 years no form factor change.
-Apple tv.. disaster in os/UI and functionality and design. its the worst thought out product by Apple. A tv that has zero predictability in UI .. each channel is a universe of its own…. no centralization of favorites.. no reminders… very poor discovery …nada… a bogus fragmented experience. and then the remote and its d- ergonomics .
-iTune’s convoluted mess.
-Promoting movies in Apple Music… WTF… music is music , movies are movies…
-Apple music app interface… no landscape mode… why?
-Airpods….. its just absurd that they announced to release it in october..but to this day they have not resolved a most fundamental aspect of it: synchronizing sound between both pods….! … feels like a joke. ……..makes me wonder how far ahead is Apple with their gems(if any ) in their labs and their R&D…. if they are still working on a past product .
-The mysterious place called iCloud. where i am commonly loosing music or photos…or am unable to move things around easily .
-Ditching awesome products.. or washing them down to uselessness.
-IMO the worst/Jurassic spell checker , contextual word/sentence recognition engine(that seems to get worse everyday ) ….pooooor dada analytics – AI engine.. miles and miles behind the competition . . ..
add on top.. supply issues and botched product releases.
the list can go on…. and on…
Apple has become an idiosyncratic Dogmatic entity.. my way or highway … Focused on fashion rather than function. way out of balance ..way !
Worlds most valuable company.. a Fashion company?… no F-ing way…. that is massively shortsighted. Fashion is here today ..gone tomorrow.
Apple has to deliver 110% on all fronts , Zero holes!… for them to justify their Premium.
Or mark my words.. others are standing in line to eat Apple’s breakfast, lunch and dinner….and they are Hungry !
We who are knowledge workers in the new global economy are beginning to have serious misgivings about our choice of career, because our chosen computing platform, Apple, has seemed to founder. We may be on the point of abandoning ship, and swimming toward the SS Microsoft.
All this fuss reminds me of the empire that Alexander the Great carved out of the Earth using by using brilliancy prize moves against entrenched, unimaginative armies of entitled nobility crippled by enfeebled imaginations.
When Alexander died, his world empire crumbled and history took a nasty detour through dissolution and decay of social institutions, and the rise of unworthy feudal systems and inbred monarchies.
If the analogy holds, Apple is going down fast and upstarts are soon to take over. As far as I’m concerned, it can’t happen soon enough. Loss of position, and change of status, are bad enough without enduring the whining of the holdouts. Get it over with, and bring back Steve Ballmer, someone at least worth hating and ridiculing.
Tim Cook, worst mistake Steve ever made.
Apple has over 100,000 employees these days. The Apple that created OSX from NeXT, did the original iTunes, the iPhone, Motion, Final Cut, iWork and all the rest was a fraction of that. Even allowing for retail, the bloat at Apple is significant.
Other than a lot of headcount at Gay Pride Parades, I am not sure what all those people do. To translate what Apple has become, imagine a huge 20 story hospital that could only treat one patient at a time that had developed from a 5 story hospital that could treat hundreds at a time. Apple’s neglect of the Mac is unacceptable. To Phil, Apple cannot innovate and seems determined to remain a One Trick Pony.
Why can the Mac mini not be like the HP Elite Slice, modular, expandable and highly customizable. And Jony, users can even open the case to upgrade the innards.
I will tell you exactly what the problem is.
You can not possibly run efficiently with that many employees.
All of Apples biggest breakthroughs were done by small nimble groups os people driven to create something special.
Apple I 1 Man, Apple II < 10 People, Mac <20. Just communicating with a team of 10 to 20 Thousand kills the project. We are not creating the space subtle here it is personal devices with minimal components and less with every iteration.
Where Tim shined was with logistics, and like Steve he put someone less that himself in charge of that, and this is why so many products have shipping delays.
Your best post to date. Amen, brother.
Keep the faith and the pressure on Clueless Cook!
Again, very much appreciating MDM’s take on this and not leaping to the defense of Apple. When “rabid fanboys” stop drinking the KoolAid, they don’t stop being fans just because they offer objective criticism.
Well said, MDM.