“A few weeks ago, the ‘fire Tim Cook’ bandwagon appeared to be gaining steam. Then Apple followed through on lame promises, spewing the most hollow of band-aid approaches — an increased dividend and stock buyback,” Rocco Pendola scribbles for The Street. “Shares popped on the rumors and maintained steam on the official announcement, adding roughly 16% since April 19. As far as most critics and cynics go, everything must have changed.”
“The ‘can Cook’ talk mysteriously ceased,” Pendola laments. “Yet nothing really changed at Apple. The story should have remained the same — dividends and buybacks do nothing other than provide temporary relief for the stock price. They provide a lift and some sort of relatively shaky floor, but they do nothing — at least nothing we should perceive as a tonic — to alleviate the root issues at Apple. Matters dealing with long-term innovation — the ability to do something other than improve (or so we hope) existing products and services — under Tim Cook.”
This is, Pendola claims, “a time littered with uncertainty that hasn’t existed in years as Steve Jobs rolled out hit (iPod) after hit (iPhone) after hit (iPad).”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iPhone was released 5 years, 7 months, and 19 days after iPod. iPad was released 2 years, 9 months, and 5 days after iPhone. Tim Cook has been Apple CEO for 1 year, 8 months, and 19 days.