“In and of themselves, Tim Cook’s missteps appear benign,” Rocco Pendola, of course, writes for TheStreet, of course.
“Capitulating to the public on how to allocate capital. Butchering the release of Apple Maps. Allowing people such as David Einhorn to control the conversation that surrounds Apple. Ending the incredibly effective practice of sandbagging guidance,” Pendola writes. “No big deal on their own. Put them together, however, and you look back on each as signs that Tim Cook got in over his head and might ultimately beat Apple into the ground.”
Pendola writes, “When you think about it — how is the situation with Cook at Apple any different than what went down with Ron Johnson at J.C. Penney? There’s one significant difference: Johnson took over a mess, whereas Cook inherited a company firing on all cylinders. The trajectory of the two names, by and large, has been about the same. Of course, relative to JCP, AAPL enjoys a slight bit of cushion.”
“But there are so many similarities,” Pendola writes. “Apple and J.C. Penney hired men who performed admirably under Steve Jobs. Both boards of directors went all-in, convinced that Cook and Johnson delivered true unfiltered results. At this point, however, it’s all but an objective statement of fact — these cats enjoyed the rare thrill of riding shotgun with Steve Jobs.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Same old story from one-note Rocco.
We can’t wait for Tim to prove him wrong!
BTW, Rocco, all Tim Cook did last quarter was to post the most profitable quarter for a tech company in history.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “gavin” for the heads up.]
Agreed. I hope we’re wrong. Tim Cook is like a bad football coach at a great organization for a few years. Eventually they realize he has to go.
Apple is still running on Steve Jobs. All the products, all the profits. In a few years, however, the Jobs juice is going to run out, and a soft-spoken COO with no vision nor inspiration is not going to cut it.
I’m an Apple user and fan of about 25 years, a stockholder, and I read the book (Steve Jobs). Riddle me this: What do you all like so much about Cook (other than the fact that Steve picked him)?
Jensen, I’m right there with you in our time owning and loving Apple products, being a BIG fan, stocks, etc. The one point I don’t share is about Tim. I sensed he was very wrong from the onset. Don’t know why other than I could feel he didn’t exude the strength or star factor, didn’t have the iconoclast look worthy of receiving the torch. This was just a vibe that came to me in to him speak. Didn’t impress, inspire, wow me a bit. And I thought if that’s how he effects me, how could he ever inspire Apple staffers? Perhaps it’s my years in the music biz finding talent and having or developing a sense to see inside a budding star to see if they had the “it factor.” Tim clearly doesn’t. At least to me. But during his watch nothing new or dramatic has come forth. Apple is not based on a “normal” corporate leader. IMHO Apple won’t thrive with even a great leader. Im thinking Apple, to be Apple, will take an extra-ordinary, unusual, way beyond outta the box (as in “what box”), not at all like anyone – else kinda leader.
I think Tim Cook is trying to please Wall Street. He is letting Wall Street to dictate on what Apple should or should not do. Increasingly Cook is letting Wall Street to influence Apple. He might be a good operations man but he does not have the charismatic verve of Steve Jobs.
I do agree with you Steven,
Cook does one thing well – he is the Captain of Supply.
However, the troubles of supply and assembly factories are; they all are owned and operated in Asia. And guess what? Asia is tired of American success. The companies have Droid and will manipulate the game in anyway seen fit. It’s not only Wall Street its Asia and the Markets there too. Cook is in over his head here and he is taking a might pay check as well, which is very un-SJ like. In fact a large amount of head staff are getting well paid. Apple is in a spiral yet I believe they can pull out of this again.
Steven… Coincidentally–or not–I’ve been in a related business for many years also. Creative people tend to develop critical thinking to survive.
Jensen you are totally right. Cook is nothing more that an faggot that wants attention. But honestly I start to believe Steve Jobs knew it, and the reason he chose Cook is because Steve knew he could not do it. Maybe a “no one after me” thing
Lots of negative votes but no takers. Just as I thought. It’s an emotional desire to support Steve’s wishes. That’s cool.
At the risk of feeding the troll, I’ll just address your interpretation of the lack of response. It might be due to people not wanting to do your education for you. Go look up how people have responded before – waste your own time on your opinion – people don’t want to bother debating with you when you haven’t addressed the prior conversations.
That is all I have to say to you on this.
I’m a troll because I don’t agree with the MDN majority? That’s ridiculous. I’m asking a legitimate question. I have responded to many other discussions about Cook. All of his supporters talk about the same issues. They cite the sales and profits of the last year and half. I argue that those sales and profits would have been there with no CEO in place, and with Cook doing the same job he used to do. I argue that moving forward, Cook is not going to cut it, and I ask why you supporters think he will. This is not trolling.
Just because speculating in Real Estate in Miami is no longer making the money you had hoped for doesn’t mean the builder is bad.
Apple is an extremely profitable company posting record profits under Tim Cook. His job is to produce great products that people want to buy which he is doing very well and selling by the boat load.
Your job is to manage your own money and invest it and assume all your own risks. Stop blaming Tim Cook for your loses. Just because a bunch of Stock holders have no imagination and can’t imagine a good future for Apple and are driving the price down, doesn’t mean Apple won’t continue to produce great products, and doesn’t mean Tim Cook is doing anything wrong.
The stock market is all about what YOU think, it has nothing to do with how much money Apple is making. Apple is making more money now than when Steve jobs was alive, yet YOU set the price at almost half.
If you believe Apple should be worth more than $400 then don’t sell it, it is as simple as that, otherwise YOU are driving the price down. The stock price is not a formula based on any form of reality but you knew that going in–didn’t you?
The quick rise in the stock price was based on YOUR collective excitement, and the fall is based on YOUR collective lack of enthusiasm. Apple hasn’t changed a bit, YOU have.
If you want a guarantee that your money will be available all the time and FDIC insured, go to the Bank.
If you are upset that the price of Apple stock is falling, then you didn’t have the EXTRA money you needed to be gambling in the stock market in the first place which means YOU are doing a terrible job of managing your money–not Tim.
You got me all wrong, and you didn’t answer my question! I’m not angry about Cook because of the stock price, per se. I only mentioned that I’m a shareholder as a part of my enthusiasm for Apple. I’ve owned the shares for many years and don’t plan on selling any time soon.
I am a true fan of Steve Jobs, of Apple, of all of its products, and of how Apple products have changed my life and changed the world. I just don’t think Cook is the right guy for the job; not even in the ballpark. I think Steve picked Cook to steer the ship that Steve created. I think Apple needs a new, dynamic, visionary leader who will pick up the rains and lead with enthusiasm. Cook will never do that. It’s not in his nature.
One thing about the stock price. I think Wall Street is basically a load of crap; it’s a big casino controlled by the super-wealthy. I do, however, think that stock price reflects a general sense of the company and what people think about its future. And that sense of Apple has nearly dropped in half recently as people have started to see how Cook runs the company and how he affects perception of the future of the company.
Now… Why do you think Tim Cook is the right guy for the job?
I think you should give Apple a little patience. They still have all the same people as they did before, and very brilliant people I might add. It takes a couple of years for new ground breaking products to emerge. The silence and slow pace of innovation has nothing to do with Tim Cook, but more to do with great things take time to evolve.
The stock price is based on people being fickle, and assuming Tim is not the guy. If you have been holding Apple stock for the long-term than I believe you have nothing to worry about and are in for some big surprises over the next year or two. Although Tim is no Steve Jobs, I believe he has the mindset to delegate the right job to the right person and empower them. That is a great formula for success.
Be patient. ….and remember, Wall Street means nothing and has nothing to do with the state of the economy any more than if a lot of people win in the casino and all of a sudden have money to spend today. It’s a stupid measure of anything.
Although I don’t believe in Wall Street and have money on Apple, I really hope you win when the next Apple “wave” begins. Good luck to you.
Jony Ive is on Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Tim Cook is not. That’s a problem, folks.
Maybe Steve’s team and the products they made were so excellent it makes it impossible for them to decide how to improve them. The iPad is pretty much the perfect device, so, do you take the Microsoft route and try to sell a keyboard cover that clicks as an improvement? A larger iPhone when Apple already made a bunch of statements about how the size is perfect to fit in your hand? I am jonesing for some new products and excitement from Cupertino but don’t envy them having to prove innovation on products that are already top of their class. A class they created.
But the Mac Pro not being updated is a true mystery.
the ‘wider’ iphone will be a reality…. the marjet has decided that just as there was a need to release an ipad mini…
the stock market will always be manipulated. the next time a bull run comes for AAPL… just be ready for it…
Mac Pro is probably not the money maker that it used to be… Apple is dedicated to mobile first… But we know they will build Mac Pros… hopefully, that is what they are using on the back end of their servers (and hopefully not the cause of the outages).
I’m with you Stuck. Clearly they need a larger iPhone. But I don’t think it’s coming anytime soon. And boy are they going to pay for that. I’m still waiting for my new Mac Pros Tim! I think Tim has to be held accountable for some of the problems facing Apple today. He has done little to step up to the plate for Apple. Or at least send up a designated hitter. Somebody who can at least hold their own. Remember, the man at the top is in charge. And he owns everything done on his watch. Accountability comes with responsibility. The two are inseparable.
You are not only “Samscum” “Mole Troll”, but you need a phone as big as your ego and head. YOU YOU YOU – do you really think you’re the only one o. The planet that uses Mac Pros, “all day” prick?
If you only managed Apple for ten minutes in your head you’d loose every Applehead in 3.
Get a mirror.
Open another bottle of scotch dopey. You finished that quart. We can almost make out what you’re trying to say, but not quite. Is it the liquor or the lack of education? I’d like to sit down and have a drink but I have work to do. You know, I have to tend to my Mac Pros. A guy has to make a living. When do you think the new Mac Pros will come out? I can hardly wait. I’ll take four thank you. Oh look, you puked all over yourself. Well, just lay there you’ll sober up eventually. Hey, why is that guy next to you unzipping his zipper? Up oh, I have to go. Good luck. Bitch.
The huge elephant in the room is a stock that has now dropped over 40% in just the last 7 months. Something has got to give at some point soon.
Maybe the recent trial that convicted the guy who fraudulently bought 1.6 Billion shares of AAPL should tell you something, (the day before the stock dropped) or the trader who was just sentenced to will serve 20 years for insider trading AAPL? The elephant in the room is the fraud in the stock market, not at Apple.
This is the perfect illustration why the stock market, Wall Street, many money-obsessed pundits and even some tech junkies are completely misguided and full of S***.
Agreed. There is not one single fundamental metric that says Tim Cook is doing wrong to Apple. The negative stories only come from so-called “analysts” and “industry experts” none which has a resume to qualify them to make the statements they make. Do not be surprised if the negative analysis funding leads back to Google and M$.
How does such a stupid comment get such high ratings? He didn’t trade trade 1.6 billion shares (there are only about 950 million shares outstanding) – he traded $1.6B, or about 3 million shares, give or take. Slight difference, no?
+1
Rounding error
Really? You don’t think people who read that comment were unable to mentally add the word “in” between “billion” and “shares”?
Way to go on picking a minor nit to dodge a person accurately pointing out the REAL issue. You fail at this discussion.
I still do not think the stock price and Apple have much, if anything, to do with each other.
Totally bullshit . What is wrong with Tim ? I think what is likely to be wrong is Apple is earning too big too fast to give space for the market fuxker to imagine HOW good Apple may be . Amazon is an example
Rocco stupido
Bravo, sono d’accordo. È un coglione.
Purtroppo l’unico vero stupido è proprio Tim che si ostina a procrastinare alle calende greche l’uscita del nuovo Mac Pro.
Steve, ti prego…ritorna fra noi e fai piazza pulita…!!!
Magari fosse solo quello il problema…iWork? Logic Pro? Credo che a Cupertino si stiano prendendo tutto il tempo necessario…di cose in sospeso in Apple ne hanno parecchie. Accumulatesi nei mesi, ora sono una valanga che rischia di buttare giù tutto. Preferisco aspettare qualche mese in più piuttosto che vedere le figuracce fatte con Maps, Siri in eterna Beta, Cards (ridicola), Podcast (risistemata solo giorni fa), lancio di prodotti senza accessori (come accaduto con iPhone 5) o introvabili (iMac). Dai Tim!!! Sistema tutto e rompiamo il c-ulo a quei fottuti analisti!
Cards è un servizio modesto, ma profondo. Per consolare la famiglia, in caso di morte.
Lucca Brazzi cysgu gyda’r pysgod!
lol
Nothing personal, it’s just business.
Luciano Pavrotti
Enrico Pallazzo! Enrico Pallazzo!
Anche un stronzo!
Ron Johnson managed Penney into the ground.
Tim Cook delivered the best profit ever for a tech company last quarter. In fact the largest profit ever in the annals of corporate history bar ExxonMobil.
You could say that Ron Johnson tried to run the marathon with JC Penney but his timings were so off the mark that they stopped him midway through the race, and asked him to towel down.
Tim Cook, on the other hand, is still miles ahead of such ‘visionaries’ as Steve Ballmer, Eric Schmidt and Mark F*ckerberg, that it seems they’re running a different race altogether.
I mean let’s face facts – the iPad mini is a smashing success and that came under Cook’s watch. Love him or hate him, he’s the captain on the ship that’s doing better than the SS Titanic steaming over in Redmond captained by Steve Ballmer, who coincidentally is walking around bathed in sweat all the time.
It’s certainly not ‘no sweat’ time for Mr. Ballmer.
well said – BLN
+ iPad mini + retina + telephone capabilities =
Apple with the biggest, best, all-in-one, only device needed on the go, Cellphone (the phone-let).
No need to make an iPhone with a bigger screen, the iPad mini can be revised to fill this need.
yeah Tim, give us the Mini as a phone before, Slumdoggy does their 6.3 inch phone
Steve said people really love iPad.
Guessing here,
people would LOVE iPad mini
to be usable as a real phone.
And yes, the world than would see the largest
phone produced by Apple.
At 101 votes. Seems people want this Apple.
man if apple makes this great but i gotta find a buyer quick to sell off my mini iPad for this new one. apple always makes a newer device grrrrrr hate that but cool well whatever damn
+1 @ Waterfalls
I would love to buy a iPad mini that also is a phone.
Feels to me the right size.
Stand up (Tim or Board members) and defend the company–pick you battles however (WSJ reporting iPhone 5 units have been cut in half due to supplier checks in Jan 2013 comes to mind), Steve would not have been pushed around like this, and one can only imagine that the moral might be reflective of the stock price lately, especially one whom has tremendous stock options within the company or simply holds a sizeable Apple position, it cannot be positive to see your new worth evaporate by the day and going on six months in an up market–also don’t release all new products or updates in six weeks with nothing to say the following eleven months ?? FYI–I am long Apple but getting frustrated
But he was sweating like a pig even before his company’s recent commercial failures. Must be hard work rooting for those truffles.
In one word, Wrong.
Will these losers ever stop? These back-benchers are getting real stale. Cook has been executing Jobs’ plan and doing well. The stock market nonsense is just that, nonsense. There’s no real connection to reality. Pumpers and dumpers and shorts. That’s all.
Getting rid of Scott was the worst that Tim has done; iOS is the key to Apple Inc. and that man was Scott.
umm, Scott Forstall, masquerading as DERP, won’t get your job back! 🙂
what a laugh, wish i was the dethroned Scott Forstall, sorry I ain’t… Droid Eliminated Rest in Peace – DERP
Hmmm… Scott Forstall or Jony Ive and Bob Mansfield. Tough one. [sarcasm]
Jonathan Ive for Apple CEO!
You don’t want Ive as a CEO. You want him exactly where he is. Designing. A CEO spends most of their time working with finances, etc. Perhaps Ive could be a more visible spokesman?
Tim Cook was asked to do the impossible–follow in Steve Jobs’ footsteps! While not a fan, I wanted him to succeed for Apple’s sake. He lost me at endorsing gay marriage, something companies should stay away from if they want our dollars. I think he will succeed, just not at Steve’s level. Steve’s level is unreachable. Like Elvis, there will only be one. So I will cut Tim some slack so long as he stays out of political controversies. Apple will be fine with or without him.
And why exactly should they stay away from gay marriage? Tim himself is gay. Who gives a shit who you marry and why wouldn’t you buy from a company that supports it?
The man is gay- why wouldn’t he endorse gay marriage ?
You lost me with your stupid homophobic remark. You would’ve lost Steve, too.
Well said. “God Hates Fag Haters” like you iMaki
I agree, Apple Inc should stay out of politics UNLESS it directly impacts their business, like trade negotiations with China and etc. Corporations SHOULD NOT take stands on gun control and gay rights/ marriage. They should be grateful for customers and the sales the generate regardless of that customers political or sexual orientations. To do otherwise would be contrary to the interests of the company.
Tim, and anyone else as an individual can support whatever their beliefs dictate. With Tim and others in very high profile positions, even though speaking as individuals, could possibly be misrepresented or misinterpreted as speaking for the company the run, so its tricky they need to be very careful. Nothing gets todays ‘journalists all hot bothered and ready to rock like being able to publish a misrepresented statement to stir controversy, get views and page hits, and hey, if it hurts Apple and AAPL, .. well, super bonus.
Just glad most people are thoughtful human beings, and not the @$$ at Starbucks, tell straight investors to take their money elsewhere and they are not welcome in the Starbucks chains. Gay people have got to wonder what they believe in and practice that Howard Schultz will turn on them for.
The stock decline may be a good wake-up call for Apple. Sometimes companies get so big they get bogged down in bureaucratic empires and lose touch with quality and with the customers (car companies).
OK, Paul, tell us where Apple is bogged down in a bureaucratic empire and has lost touch with quality and customer satisfaction.
Best selling phone, best selling tablet, best selling laptop. best phone OS, best tablet OS, best personal computer OS and best Apps. There is the quality.
Best customer satisfaction in the industry for both hardware and software.
What the Hell are you talking about Paul?
Are you the Paul at Paul Therrott’s Supersite?
That would explain a lot.
No. I’m saying that sometimes when companies get too big — like Toyota — they start slipping up and have recalls, etc. and the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.
Steve believed in Tim, and picked him to be at the wheel. That’s good enough for me for a while.
Apple’s competition would like nothing more than to see Tim Cook fired. Think all the SameDung trolls inhabiting this site since last sept. Maybe Tim should hire Ashton Cushner to do the product introductions. He did sell alot of Nikon cameras. Tim Cook is the competion’s worst nitemare. Just wait and see.
Apple has had its current plan in place for at least a couple of years. Steve Jobs was involved in that planning.
There is so much BS flying in the wind lately concerning Apple. We just have to wait for Apple to show them wrong… (and they will!)
True. If you remember the prototypes discussions from the Samsung trial, the iPad and iPhone were in the labs 10 years ago! So in 2003, Apple was already working on the iPad. Since that was the case, what have they got buried in their lab right now that’s not due for release until 2023?
Apple plans for the long term and makes insanely great products. In Steve’s biography, he specifically said he did not care about the stock price and instructed the Apple execs to not care about wall street. Why should they care now?
They’ve got cool things buried in their labs, just waiting to get out, they’ll upset some other industry or market soon enough, and Wall Street will go through this whole cycle again.
Netcruizer99
A new Mac Pro and a Matte Screen option across the board would make a lot of Mac users very happy and create a surge in sales. And stop trying to incorporate IOS into OS-X.
+1
Anyone else feel like Wall Street is trying to run Apple?
Smart man, Artist. I feel it too.
Let me be the first to say, “The sky is falling.”
All this has really nothing to do with Apple. The hedge funds have merely destroyed the entire stock market. It’s probably broken beyond repair. Maybe the smoke and mirrors will disappear in time and things will be back to normal. Right now, chaos reigns.
I have little doubt Apple will sell tens of millions of new iPhones if the economy allows it. I’m merely frustrated Apple can’t or won’t do more with all that cash in the way of acquisitions or new revenue streams. Whatever it takes, I’m not sure but it annoys me if Apple is just sitting on its hands if it can be doing something to stop the bleeding. Apple should easily have a leg up on all of its rivals with all those profits and cash.
Ron Johnson took over a 1,100 store chain that was failing because of a bad CEO. You can’t change 1,100 department stores on a dime, but the work I’ve seen in the stores close to me were a huge improvement. Maybe if he had been given the 4 years he said the job would take he would have performed. As it is, the Board decided to give the company back to the guy who ran it down in the first place.
People love to hate Tim Cook. They forget one simple fact – Steve Jobs liked the guy AND was sufficiently impressed with his performance to name him “The Successor”. Maybe Jobs had more opportunities over the years to evaluate Cook than we have had. Maybe he understood the level of performance Cook delivered.
Cook certainly wasted no time in firing the senior exec in charge of Maps – and he didn’t hesitate to apologize to customers for problems with the program.
I’ll keep my money on Cook.
TC doesn’t care about stock price, unlike SJ. When a Co. loses its shareholder base, then employee moral goes down and defection follows and as a consequence the brand name dies. Even SJ knew keeping the stock price in check was the key, that’s why his salary was $1. TC is clueless, he’s an operations guy and has no vision. And he doesn’t know how to manage expectation; notice the wide range of estimates out there. aapl needs a Jack Dorsey type vision to get it back on track again.
Uh, no: Steve didn’t care about the stock price. I’m not sure where you get that impression. I got mine from working there for over two decades and listening to Steve talk to employees, customers and analysts.
You’d be clueless if you think he didn’t care about stock price. Where do you think most Apple employees have parked their money? Why do think stock compensations and shareholder dilutions has risen rapidly in past 10 yrs? remember the fiasco of backdating the stock options?; Which cost the CFO his job.
Since your reasoning apparently supersedes my real life experience why don’t you explain why the same reasoning doesn’t apply to Tim.
Some people should be using Apple products to create their own beautiful and amazing products that they can, you know, sell. These people should not be buying Apple stocks in the hope that all their work is done for them. The stock market is not Apple. Get a life.
I just bought some more today. I am expecting AAPL to produce its next life-changing products this year or next. What do analysts know? Nothing. The sell opinions. AAPL is a buy.
MDN claims, “We can’t wait for Tim to prove him wrong!”
But that is exactly what you are doing. You are waiting. Everyone keeps waiting for Tim to take a dump or get off the pot.
But there are so many similarities…
This is what passes for journalism, business and technology analysis these days.
Pathetic.
It’s time for the next generation to kick these dolts to the curb and TAKE OVER. Do it right kids. Know what you’re talking about. That’s a great start.
No please stay mr cook. As long as it takes Tim, as long as it takes.
The stock market is all about perception. I’m an Apple fan, but when I see problems such as maps, when they talked about cutting store staff then pulling back, etc…. all screams we’re about the bottom line now, not engineering the best product ever. Delivering the best profit ever does nothing compare to growing the company in leaps and bounds in a profitable way. The indicators are that they are loosing market share. The iPhone 5 is great, but nothing revolutionary. Apple is supposed to be about revolution and they have lost that.
Tim Cook is a Ops guys trying to to run the business as an Ops guy. Asking him not to follow what he knows is like asking an accountant not to drive the numbers. Steve had the balls to tell the market, “shut up, I’m not here to give your short term returns, we here to transform the world”. He did and the business grew accordingly.
Apple needs the inspiration and design iron fist Steve had. You want people to say “many he is a son of a bitch, but I trust him and the products”. Maybe Ives can be that guy, but not Tim. I want to be inspired by apple. Everything else is just a numbers game.