5 things Apple has done since Tim Cook took over as Apple CEO

“One year ago, I was sitting on the floor in my living room with my laptop after work when the news came in: Steve Jobs had resigned as CEO of Apple,” Jacqui Cheng reports for Ars Technica.

“Apple’s then-Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook was named by the board of directors as Jobs’ successor as CEO, ‘effective immediately,'” Cheng reports. “Apple kept on trucking as Cook confidently took control of the company that Jobs had cofounded and helped steer it through another successful—sometimes wildly successful—four quarters. But Cook didn’t run the company like a Steve Jobs clone; after all, Cook said that Jobs taught him to “never ask what he would do.” Instead, Cook ran it the way he would like to run Apple, for better or for worse.”

Below are five of the biggest things we think Apple has done since Tim Cook took over one year ago:
• Charity contribution matching
• Dividends
• Left (and rejoined) EPEAT
• Fighting the DoJ on e-books
• New ad campaigns

Read more in the full article here.

35 Comments

        1. We will find out what’s what on September 12th.
          It might not be available right away.

          Usually, (usually) the first time Apple comes out with a new device, they announce it some time before it’s available so that developers can get the software going on it.

          Then again, a mid-size touch device would not be completely new, and likely run much of the current iOS software. (at a snappier pace)

        1. Yes! My time is valuable to me, I pay for content I don’t want or watch now as it is hopelessly bundled. How is paying for what I actually want worse?

          I see no reason to subsidize a dozen spanish channels, faith based nonsense channels, and on and on. I watch a handful of things, I’d like to pay for a handful of things, and I have no need for commercials. Yes this is the way I want to go.

    1. I don’t know about the iPad mini revolutionizing anything, but it will add yet another major new revenue stream to Apple’s bottom line and wipe out any hope the “other” tablets had.

    1. Oh yeah apple abuses store workers, They were among the highest paid retail workers in the US (~$12/hr) and also report among the highest in job satisfaction. Then Apple gave them a huge raise (making them well above the average for the highest paid retail workers in the US).
      There is a reason apple gets dozens (or even hundreds) of applicants for each job they post.

      Apple’s EPEAT “blunder” forced EPEAT to stop covering for manufactures still using BFR’s (bromated flame retardants, known to be serious environmental hazards) and large quantities of plastics in their products. Oh what a blunder that was.

      Any other keen observations you have made (with equal acuity and information)?

  1. “Charity contribution matching” was done when Jobs was still CEO. He sent support letter to Apple’s Japanese staff when the tragedy of earthquake and nuclear plant disasters happened in March of last year, and charity contribution matching was one of measures at the time.

    1. It’s not the same thing. When Steve was around he was asked if the company would match employee donations or make charitable donations, and he said employees are free to do with their funds and stock whatever they wish. Tim changed that.

    1. Facebook had a high opening price but look at Amazon. It took them years to start making any profit at all, and now they are finally squeezing out a profit, they have a crazy high PE ratio. I’m not sure that Facebook entirely deserved the beating that they got, we will have to see how fast they can grow their revenue.

      I think it’s too early to tell how fast and how big Facebook can grow.

  2. Can’t wait for the second part of #6.

    #7 Opened relations with DC.
    #8 Traveled to China to visit factories
    #9 Cheapened the look of MBA packaging
    #10 Expanded Data Center Locations

      1. In 2011, I bought a MBP and as always, I was amazed at the packaging, how thoughtful it was. I opened a buddy’s MBA package and was unimpressed by the cheapness of the the plastic tray housing the computer. Everything I have ever bought from Apple has had exquisite and classy packaging – I look it as attention to the detail, you get the big things right, than if you have time, do the little things.

        It’s worrisome that they are cost-cutting the little things.

        Now, maybe, MBA’s have always shipped in Plastic cheap looking trays but I doubt it. Chime in MBA owners…

        1. Just checked the boxes to my two MBAs from last fall, an 11″ and a 13″ — true: the thing that holds the Air is plastic and I guess you could call it a tray, but I wouldn’t call it cheap by the standard of most products that come packaged like that. The plastic is thick enough and has enough angles and creases and whatever to not be flimsy. It might be as thick as the plastic used as the trays in the iPhone, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, but it’s bigger so harder to say for sure. I certainly didn’t give it a second thought when I was opening the Airs.

          I’d like to say the plastic tray is less flimsy than a Samsung tablet I handled at Office Depot the other day, but that might be stretching things out of spite 🙂

    1. Add to that, Browett reminds me of a parallel example of a fictional corporate character type.

      His Gordon Gekko like profit decisions do little to comfort the legions of Apple employees and customers.

      Let’s hope the search is on …

      Cook can do better.

  3. Whether it’s fair or not, no one will give Tim Cook full respect as Apple CEO until Apple releases a new successful product that’s not merely an upgrade of a Jobs-era product.

    ——RM

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