“In addition to posting its first profit decline in almost a decade, something else unfamiliar cropped up at Apple’s Q2 earnings call: a sense that Apple gives a rat’s ass about investors, the press and its customers,” Christina Bonnington writes for Wired.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple always gave a “rat’s ass” about their customers and investors.
“Sure, when your stock price is plummeting it’s hard to pull off the ‘we are god’s gift to all that is well-designed and lust-worthy and we don’t need to entertain your little thoughts,’ but Steve Jobs probably would have tried,” Bonnington writes. “On this week’s earnings call, Tim Cook didn’t try to play that role. Instead he offered a far friendlier Apple then we have ever seen.”
MacDailyNews Take: Is that a good thing or a bad thing? AAPL shares are currently up 32 bucks, or 8.5%, since Tim Cook became Apple CEO on August 24, 2011.
Bonnington writes, “The transition didn’t happen overnight. When Cook was officially appointed CEO of Apple in August 2011, the company retained the same rigid, tight-lipped austerity that it did under the leadership of Jobs. But in the year and a half since, Apple’s culture of secrecy has opened up. Its blatant disregard for the opinions of investors, press, and consumers has given way to more open communications, more insight into what goes on behind its walls, and a greater sense of respect for the people that devote their time and money to Apple’s products and services. In short: Apple cares now.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple always cared about those who are important, namely customers and investors. Apple should continue to treat the media as it always has, something which uses and abuses and is therefore fair game to be used and abused in turn. In general, Steve Jobs treated the media exactly as they deserved to be treated. In the case of dealing with the media, regardless of how the media attempts to cajole, Cook should always ask himself, “What would Steve do?”
One thing Cook does need to do is to retain top-notch PR people and allow them to do their jobs, something Jobs seems loathe to do, by manipulating the media to Apple’s advantage; stay out in front of issues instead of needlessly letting them fester and grow in silence.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]