“I’ve been writing about Apple for more than 15 years, and in recent months I’ve found myself looking at this company, which once seemed unique, as though it is just another purveyor of beige boxes,” Kirk McElhearn writes for Kirkville. “Naturally, they are no longer beige, nor are they really boxes. They are pocket computers, wrist computers, and more traditional laptop and desktop computers. But they’re not exciting anymore; they’re not edgy.”
“In the past few years, Apple has been gliding along on their success, unable or unwilling to make new products that make me say ‘aha!’ Yes, there was the Apple Watch, that clunky device whose first iteration contained a kitchen sink of software feature,” McElhearn writes. “Apple used us as beta testers to determine what we might want in a smartwatch.”
“And what does Apple shown us lately? Yet another iPhone, thinner and lighter, with a better camera, blah, blah, blah. (Thinner, rather than with better battery life.) And AirPods; Apple’s new Bluetooth earbuds. They are interesting devices, but you’d be hard pressed to be able to buy any, as Apple doesn’t seem to know how to manufacture them,” McElhearn writes. “So what would it take for me to see Apple in a positive light? Perhaps the company start by exercising a bit of humility… Stop saying, as Tim Cook often does, ‘we have great products coming up this year,’ when there’s not much new stuff, and it’s not really great.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Apple Watch now – Apple Watch Series 2 and Apple Watch Nike+ with watchOS 3 – is what should’ve been released to the public originally, if Apple were running as they ran under Steve Jobs. Steve would have thrown the original Apple Watch back in Kevin’s face and told him to “get back to work,” not shipped it. (And he couldn’t even ship it in any quantity for months!)
As for Tim Cook, well, they don’t call him “Pipeline Tim” for nothing. He’s the CEO who cried wolf.
Put up or shut up, Tim.
We’ve been following Apple closely for decades, have been covering the company’s every move here on these pages for a decade and a half, and some of us have been using Apple products since the Apple II, and we’ll tell you something:
Apple could do worse that Tim Cook, but they could also do better.
Cook, for a so-called “operations genius,” cannot, for the life of him, seem to get products produced and into customer’s hands in a timely, orderly fashion. Once or twice, we can see there might be some extenuating circumstances, but this is an ongoing pattern. It’s not the work of an “operations genius,” it’s an operational failure. And, don’t get us started on Cook’s vision or on-stage charisma, or lack thereof (total lack in the latter case).
Again, Apple could do worse that Tim Cook, but they could also do better.
Now, Tim Cook will likely announce massive, potentially record corporate profits later this month and it’ll look great from the outside, but the fact of the matter is, for those results, he can largely thank Steve Jobs. Pretty much any competent CEO could’ve accomplished the same or, likely, better since a competent CEO would’ve upgraded Macs routinely, have had a far better Apple TV product available today, had AirPods in sufficient supply for Christmas, etc., etc., etc.
“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 Jobs 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.
SEE ALSO:
Tim Cook assures Apple employees that it is committed to the Mac and that ‘great desktops’ are coming – December 20, 2016
Why this ‘Apple optimist’ is getting nervous – December 1, 2016
Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, and Apple’s monster hits – November 25, 2016
Apple CEO Tim Cook still hasn’t introduced a mega-hit and investors are growing impatient – November 23, 2016
1. Shitcan Pipeline Timmy.
Nothing short of Tim Cook’s firing would quell the rage of the Apple faithful.
Tim Cook has decimated Apple and is gutting its product line. He is LAZY, GREEDY, and woefully INCOMPETENT.
The only thing he cares about is gay rights and accumulating stock options for SUCKING UP AIR!!!!!!!!
Shit Meister geriatric GeriBot soils his underwear again.
To the farm you pathetic bribler!
Yes if course. Cause anyone can run Apple. /s.
And look at all the smart watches that came out before Apple cause they are just so easy to get right. After all in my imagination, I am also using antigravity and teleportation. So when Apple invents them, I can bitch how slow Apple is there too. Right? /s
You accept mediocrity, I don’t. Nor did Jobs.
Viva le difference!
Your rose colored glasses fool you. There were many mediocre products released under Steve Jobs. iPod HiFi, G4 Cube, Hockey Puck Mouse, iTunes (kept getting worse and worse), original Apple TV, various dud versions of iPod, MobileMe, Ping, Mighty Mouse, and that’s just more recent ones.
Hey, they all can’t be winners kid, even under Jobs.
How about Cook produces one winner that wasn’t created by Steve Jobs, kid?
Isn’t that a Yankees logo…?
27 World Championships.
I see…living in the past.
Is that why you’re partying like it’s 1933?
O ye of little faith.
PS: The New York Giants won the World Series in 1933.
Ain’t the only ones that won something that year…
Easy.
Fire Tim Cook and don’t let Ives touch anything that isn’t Industrial Design.
Or we can just fire them both and start fresh.
How about up-to-date user-friendly Macs at prices equal or better than the competition?
Tim Cook should stop with the talk about ‘exciting new products and pipeline’. Just do it..
You must be blind too
Why if I didn’t know better I’d think there was Tim Cook dissension in the MDN ranks. 😉
Speaking of which – where’s my 2017 Mac Pro tower?
Ole Timmy could win back a lot of us by taking the prior Mac Pro design and simply updating it to the latest Xeon processors and memory, NVIDIA processors, and NVMe SSDs.
PCIe slots, Timmy!!!
The Mac Pro already uses an nvme ssd as do all apple computers. The processors I agree with and the graphics do need a bump up to next generation. While very powerful in 2013, the dual fire Pro cards have been passed up. Although the 7 teraflops of the D700 is still very competitive, a dual MI25 system would be more than 3x as powerful if the leaked specs are to be believed. And give us a choice between dual Nvidia in SLI, or dual amd in crossfire depending on workload and if you need better OpenGL/Vulcan performance (AMD) or cuda acceleration (Nvidia).
Ah, it’s in the pipelines.
But the pipe is very, very, very long. Maybe 5000 miles long. Maybe even 50,000,000 miles long.
Glad. to see MDN waking up more and more about pipeline Tim.
Now they need to come around in the same way about Arendts. She is is a bigger bozo sneeking up the power ladder almost unnoticed. The Apple Store experience is dreadful right now. Don’t get me started about when she came out and said, “I didn’t realize Apple customers were so passionate”. Jeezuss!!
Tim Cook should stop pining for Steve Jobs (“I think about him every day”) and get on with it. Tim, that’s why you’re paid the big bucks.
Two questions to everyone here:
1. Does Tim Cook read any of this shit?
2. Does he give a shit about any of this shit?
1. Yes.
2. No.
Sadly, Botty, you’re likely correct on both counts.
I guess not. He really ought to to do both. My nail paint keeps chipping as I drum my fingers waiting for a new Mac Pro. Rip Van Winkle thinks Apple is dragging their heels. There must be some misunderstanding; there must be some kind of mistake.
Ii believe
He gets a report on all of these and more …and sometimes he reads them directly. ….
As for the 2nd point… logically, if i believe the above, i have to conclude that he does give a shit or he would not bother.
then again thats just what i believe.
how about a few simple things, for starters, like:
1. escape the “one trick pony” label of heavy reliance upon the iPhone, and start producing and advertising upgraded desktop macs, from mini’s, to iMacs, to Mac Pro. there are hundreds of millions of people using desktop computers at work and home and will be for a very long time. own that market ! don’t dismiss it.
2. reassert emphasis upon exceptional customer service
3. quite nickel and dining us. i.e. soldered in ram, glued and hard to service iMacs and other screens, this stupidity with dongles.
4. refocus on intuitive, reliable and well executed software.
5. just quit with the anorexic approach to phones and laptops, they are thin enough already. give us power, flexibility and give us better battery life.
6, and… quite over promising and under delivering – it is supposed to be the other way around. enough with the pipeline and the roadmap b.s. do your job and produce.
7. and finally try to remember how you became the worlds most valuable company – by producing exciting, innovative and high quality products across a broad field of products.
quit being obsessed with money and get obsessed with your product line and the money will come – just like it used to – and for all the right reasons.
if you can’t do that then it is time to go.
👍👍on all but one point… i love thin… it pushes the limits and thats a good thing ……… plus there are alternative battery solution……
. but when it comes to PRO thin should Take a back seat..
Ohhh two more thing to add to your list ….
– superduper emphasis on AI and contextual understanding.
– dont be stupid secretive.. but smart secretive…. … a certain degree of roadmap and excitement inspires confidence . Hence a better PE…
It would take a lot, something well out of reach, they’d have to be like the number one most profitable company in the world before I would go bullish on them.
Oh wait….
“MacDailyNews Take: The Apple Watch now – Apple Watch Series 2 and Apple Watch Nike+ with watchOS 3 – is what should’ve been released to the public originally, if Apple were running as they ran under Steve Jobs. Steve would have thrown the original Apple Watch back in Kevin’s face and told him to “get back to work,” not shipped it. (And he couldn’t even ship it in any quantity for months!)”
But…but…weren’t you advocating everyone buy this watch? Is it now also a stupid watch? Which orifice was speaking when?
It was the best smartwatch on the market at the time, even given its many issues (all of which, besides the lack of GPS, were software issues: UI, usability, etc.). We’re glad we bought them. But, we’re happy to be beta testers; even paying to do so.
Steve Jobs would have never shipped it in the state that Cook did, it would have been just another prototype on the way to a shipping product under Jobs, in our opinion. Cook obviously rushed the process, likely feeling the mounting heat over having nothing new at the time, since he had no real supply for months after launch.
Fine, but if you would advise Apple to wait, why not your readers?
I remind you that we often agree. This is not a drive-by.
We didn’t advise readers to bet their house on black. It’s a smartwatch (and we were clear that we were going with the Apple Watch Sport to start, a $399 product; less than we spent on our first iPod).
We wrote, to quote:
“You only get one chance to experience and grow with a completely new Apple product. Always take it!”
This, of course, presupposes the reader has the means to do so. As always, we trust our readers’ judgment.
Even with what are now glaring UI issues, the Apple Watch was, again, the best smartwatch on the market at the time, and proved useful enough to us to recommend the product. We would not trade our experience with the first gen. product, even if it wasn’t as fully baked as Steve Jobs most certainly would have demanded.
From day 1 I’ve felt that the watch was pointless. It still is. I appeals to a very small segment of the market. Geeks+Fitness+Gifters. It’s not going to change most of our lives.
What will it take to get more people bullish on Apple? Less bull from Apple.
We’re not the same people who used to buy new products simply because Apple added magnets.
Have you ever worn and really used an Apple Watch?
It doesn’t matter. Perception matters.
I don’t give a shit about sending my heartbeat to anyone. I don’t care about emojis. I constantly see notifications on my mac and iPhone anyway. I am not obsessed about fitness, nor do I have any condition that I want to monitor. I don’t want a smaller screen, I want a slightly larger screen than my iPhone. It turns out that no, I don’t want to talk to my wrist like Dick Tracy. I have YET to use Apple Pay. I don’t need all the information my other devices give me mashed down to something smaller and I really don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars for that. I experience Apple’s continuity on overkill as it is.
I believe people who want those things are special. Special people might care about 30 seconds a day the watch might save them.
Most people simply do not, and it is not just the AppleWatch. The wearables market is small and specialized, relatively speaking. Apple owns it. If you think that market is going to dramatically grow, invest away.
I look at what is happening around me. I take public transportation everywhere. I see iPhones all over the place. I have clients in all walks of life. Every age group. Every so many weeks I might catch glimpse of an AppleWatch. Wearables in general are about as popular a chatbots.
Except for this website, and others like it, the subject never comes up. In contrast I frequently get questions like should I upgrade to the iPhone 7 or wait for 8? Is the Mac going away? Should we be looking at moving our firm to Windows? Is the MacPro dead? Is Apple dead? Got any iPhones you want to sell? Should I get the new MacBook Pro or wait? The watch and wearables in general are just not in the vibe.
I’m looking at an iPad right now. I just got a payment notification from PayPal and a client. It went to the MacBook Pro, iPhone, and other tablet in the other room. Do I really need to look at my wrist as well?
Because you’ve never worn or used an Apple Watch, your opinion on the product are meaningless. You don’t get it. That’s fine, the product isn’t for you – or maybe it is, but you’re too pigheaded to find out. Regardless, your opinion on the value of the product is baseless and therefore to be completely ignored. As per Apple Watch, you do not know what you’re talking about and you sound silly rambling on about it.
Totaly disagree TTM.
Pleae use the watch for a month with an open mind….. your perception may completely change..
Its way way more than 30 seconds of time saving a day…
Way more…. if i line up the list you wont feel it..
Just use one ..for a while… then assess again.
I for one will not leave home without it,… And even if i forget to put it on before i leave… i will walk back and get it…. feel a void without it.
I liked the original Apple watch… it got me hooked to the idea of a smart watch…
watch2 is of course better.
I have been trying to give Apple $1000 for an Apple Watch Series 2 Stainless Steel 42mm with basic brown leather band and AppleCare, and a set of AirPods. I have been unable to order the Watch for the past week. The nearby Eton Apple Store has none. Also no Air Pods. I tried on the Apple Website and the one I have chosen is prominently advertised there. When I hit BUY I am told “IT IS SOLD OUT”. That is very odd as I know there are Stainless Steel watches being sold and I think leather bands are easy to restock. Nevertheless, Apple tells me nothing more than the model they advertise is SOLD OUT and will not take my order for future shipment, whenever. The chat person told me “just keep coming back every day until the website says it is available”. This is the action of a company that cares nothing about its customers or making the most for its shareholders.
I have been a faithful Apple customer for 25 years. All Apple computers and laptops and iPads and iPhones from the beginning with each of these. And all along the way I was always 100% satisfied and loved the experience and evangelized with all my friends an family. Now, with this type of awful experience, and the constant preaching from Tim Cook about lifestyles and how states must act if Apple is to do business with them and the insane obsession with skinny products without regard to function and the odd problem supplying leather bands (vegan pressure?? – don’t they know plastic comes from the evil oil which is going to kill us all) makes me now refrain from speaking positively about Apple. In fact, Apple just pisses me off. I still use the products, but I actually am developing a deep dislike for the company.
Buy a stainless version with a sport band.. Then search online for aftermarket leather bands… there ate a lot of real nice looking bands out there… and are cheaper too. ( i gave you some refersnces on Your previous post )
Even bestbuy has some selection of letter bands in stock.
😤my typos even get on my nerves… my appologies .
I don’t want a Sport band. That is actually another gripe. Why can’t I just buy the watch I want and the band I want. Why does Apple say I can only get the brown leather with the Stainless Steel? Why do I have to get a band I don’t want and pay again for the one I want? What kind of customer hatred is going on here? Anyway, Day 7 and I still have not been able to order my Apple Watch.
I hear you… its sloppy at best !
Im just offering a solution …. its not ideal .. but it will get u there… and cheaper …. . plus u will have the sport band in case u go swimming or do some other water sport where water may damage the expensive leather .
Guys, let us be honest. Cook is a very nice guys. HOWEVER He doesn’t have the vision and charisma to be an effective CEO. We need a better replacement ASAP. I would like Apple to buy Tesla the same way Apple bought NeXT. Musk would be a much more effective CEO of Apple.
Tesla is a good idea if Apple wants a “welfare check” from the government. Tesla (Elon Musk) has received about $5 billion in government subsidies to make electric cars that are recharged by plugging in to a power grid mostly served by coal plants and natural gas or nuclear. Apple has always made money the old fashioned way – by selling great products at great margins. Tesla is a crony capitalist company that lives off of government cheese. I say no to this idea. And no Apple Electric cars either. Just one more dumb idea.
Nice parroting of the “Citizens of the Republic” smear campaign, kent.
I hope you realize that the oil industries and entrenched auto industries around the world have ALWAYS collected government welfare at a very high level. Some analyses show that Big Oil receives $5 Trillion per year via over 970 difference state and federal subsidies in order to keep SUV fuel cheap in the USA. That’s before you count the U.S. Army defense of foreign pipelines.
Harping on new technological development subsidies exposes your ignorance to the dramatically unfair playing field maintained by a corrupt crony capitalistic political system in the USA and across the world.
The oil industry receives zero taxpayer subsidies. It is like all taxpayers allowed to deduct business expenses from gross revenues. Nice job being unable to understand what a government subsidy is. That makes you a perfect Democrat. By the way oil and gas are the absolute best fuels in the world and the best for the environment based on their total use versus pollutants and other possible dangers. Finally the sun is the heat source of the earth and its energy output varies which causes changes in our weather. Very basic and very true science.
I strongly disagree with your selective / narrow definition of subsidies. The USA has bowed to the oil lobby for a century and the special deals are well documented.
http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/
No, they receive war subsidies, as in “we go to war for them on our dime”!
Oh, and next time, leave science to a fifth grader, they will be less wrong!
Contrary to MDNs scree…
The initial Mac was not what it should have been. It was not until the Mac Plus that the Mac came into its own. (Even Steve Jobs didn’t want to ship the original with 128 k of RAM.)
The initial iPhone was not what it should have been. The iPhone 3GS is when the iPhone came into its own.
I’m not surprised the initial Apple Watch did not live up to what the Apple Watch should have been. Personally, I don’t believe the Apple Watch 2 is there yet either. Hopefully the Apple Watch 3 (or whatever it will be called) will live up to that devices true concept.
I didn’t feel like a “beta tester” with the original Thin Man Mac. I didn’t feel like that with the other first generation items I’ve bought from Apple. Hopefully, I never will.
WHAT DOES APPLE NEED TO DO FOR ME TO BE 100% BEHIND APPLE AGAIN? Apple needs to stop being run by the bean counters and the marketers. Period. It’s not about creating a company that the media and Wall Street loves. It’s about making products that people love to buy and use. When was the last time that Tim Cook said to anyone, “I can’t wait until I can have that Mac on my desk!”?
Rather Tim Cook is saying, “How can we borrow more money to make the bankers on Wall Street love us?” and “How can we add more styles to the Apple Watch so the fashion industry loves us?”
Remove the bean counters and fashionistas from any power at Apple, and I suspect within a year at most, I”ll be 100% in love with Apple again.
Two ideas:
1 – Step up product design improvements especially on the Macs to offer better value to the user. Objective numerical stuff like battery life needs to be clearly better than the competition. Deliver user friendly, customizable Macs.
2 – Fire Ahrendts, Cook, Ive, and other leaders who seem to be oblivious to the importance of #1.
Just as car companies need to have a race car to prove they can be a cut above and gives us hope for trickle down technology, I think Apple should have a kick **s MacPro. I have 2 iMac’s and an older MBP but no confidence that Apple can build a great computer as in the past. Welded on RAM, no way to upgrade . . . I am becoming discouraged and I’ve had Mac’s since the middle 80’s.
How about Apple “promoting” Timmy to chairman of the board? It would be a face-saving maneuver for everybody. Thing is…there is nobody out there who could fill Steves shoes (not even Elon Musk, although he would come close), so maybe there should be a larger restructuring of the management.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Wozzie in the board as well, for inspirational purposes =)
About a year ago I was kinda disappointed in Pipeline Tim.
Now I’m DONE! SO DONE with this jackass!
I want every single person on MDN to sign this petition to get this guy GONE. At this point ANYONE in the world could run the company better, that is how bad of a job he is doing. All over the place. Sometimes, you just gotta know when someone is in over their head and abilities… and Tim falls in that category. Please sign this.
https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple