“Happy anniversary, Tim Cook!” Chris O’Brien writes for The Los Angeles Times. “Today marks two years since you were appointed chief executive of Apple. Such a loaded moment, ascending to the helm of such an iconic company but knowing that the man you were replacing was probably close to death. You handled it with grace and dignity.”
“You managed the transition so well. The one-year anniversary stories last year were pretty glowing. Stock price soaring,” O’Brien writes. “Labor troubles being addressed. Opening up the company a tad bit more. Launching lots of new products. Good times.”
O’Brien writes, “This year? Well, not quite so rosy. Pretty good, on the whole. But the aura of invincibility is gone for sure… It should be noted, however, that despite the gyrations, Apple’s stock is up since you took charge. And on the bright side, this fall should be action packed. New iPhones. New iPads. New iOS 7. iTunes Radio. The Apple faithful should be totally stoked. Still, there are a few challenges ahead.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple; Tim Cook named CEO, Jobs elected Chairman of the Board – August 24, 2011
It is easy to criticize Tim Cook when he is not there to defend himself or reveal what he has done behind the scenes with new products and new businesses. I am so tired of everyone taking a swipe at Apple and Tim Cook when they know nothing about it and just want to get their ‘hit counter’ up.
Maybe some people have higher expectations of Apple than yourself. Besides Tim Cook, nor anyone else leading Apple, should be considered above criticism.
I have got to tell you that the Apple secrets, that you don’t know a damn thing about yet, will easily be way beyond your expectations.
Sooo, STFU.
Expressing my opinions seem to disturb you tremendously. Too bad.
Have you considered what it is that makes you so insecure and irritable? Just to make it absolutely clear, you are as impotent and you are puerile.
You are just a troll who gives itself far to much credit.
It must be frustrating knowing that people don’t share your narrow-minded bigotry and there is nothing that you can do about it. Imagine, every day people with opinions contrary to yours exist and your intolerant little mind cannot bear it. It must drive you fricking bonkers. It must really suck to be you.
Sounds a lot like cliche troll-speak to me MacFreek. Criticism is fine but be aware you do so in a vacuum not knowing what’s truly going on. Criticism becomes mere speculation & spin in the absence of facts that might explain Apple strategy. We see that everyday with Anal-ysts who strike and then retreat when they are proven wrong but can do damage to Apple’s stock in the meantime. We can guess pretty accurately Ballmer T. Clown has nothing up HIS sleeve but I wouldn’t make that bet against Mr. Cook. If you think Apple’s been a slumbering giant well I think that giant’s been awake all along and plotting new effective products and services. Time will tell. Criticism is fine but probably best dished out sparingly and thoughtfully.
Blah, blah, blah. If you had an Informative and intelligent point just post it rather than boring me with some incoherent and speculative drivel.
Bravo MacFreek. Those of us with high expectations don’t need to stop just because the rude Cook apologists can’t take constructive criticism. Keep up the good work.
Criticism without basis is just trash talking. Uninformed people on the Internet are notorious for being guilty of this.
We have very high expectations of Apple, ‘Freek. And we have very low expectations of you. You seldom surprise us with your incredibly negative opinions based upon such lofty evidence as phlogiston and humors.
By all means, criticize Tim Cook to his face.
I won’t speak to him face to face until you do the same to me, you pompous twit. However, if you could arrange a meeting between Tim and myself, and cover all the expenses, I’ll go. Agreed?
The community here, who post with icons and claims membership; feel their view points are more righteous and above all other opinions. They group here to entertain themselves don’t dare step out of line without membership or apparently you be dubbed the sites troll.
Members on MDN, do not have any more credibility over anyone else posting comments here be that by an anonymously or a random nickname.
Individuals disagreeing to your posts disrespectfully are in deed agitators. Do not be bullied by their perspective of grandiose or some higher self-appointed authority. They are no more genuine or trust worthy by what they say or post. They are no more factual or righteous either. We all have a choice and we all have the freedom to express our own opinions – that is the nature of this blog.
Rather a cooked up bunch of nonsense. The article mostly compares factoids to memes. Factually, Apple is doing extremely well over the last two years. Someone, not too long ago, did a comparison of PC sales including tablets of all the major players. If tablets are included in the comparison, Apple came out as the number one PC seller in the world.
The stock price went up rather exuberantly last year to 705. If Apple’s stock valuation was rationally compared to companies it competes with, Amazon with a P/E of over 300, say, AAPL would be trading for thousands of dollars per share, right now. Smart investors sold a few shares and bought TSLA at 30/share with the proceeds.
When I bought my first shares of AAPL in 1999 they had just missed analysts predictions by a penny a share. They were YoY more profitable for the quarter. The stock nosedived from 62.50 to 25 almost overnight because the analysts guessed the increased bottom line wrong by a penny. I continued buying AAPL on its way down to 15. Over the years and stock splits, the same drivel is repeated over and over by people watching the train go by.
New, ground-breaking, market-changing products have been coming out of Apple at about 3-year intervals since the second coming of Steve Jobs. iMac in 1997, iPod in 2000, PowerBook G4 in 2003, iPhone in 2007, iPad in 2010. Assuming Apple even honors its own unquantifiable orhodoxy, we’re about due. There’s certainly nothing overdue.
The biggest challenge facing Tim Cook is ignoring all the advice from people utterly unqualified to give it. He seems to be facing that challenge fairly well.
PowerBook G4 came out in 2001.
Amazon’s P/E is more than 3 thousand…not 3 hundred.
http://ycharts.com/companies/AMZN/pe_ratio
Amazon is currently losing money. Their PE is negative.
Cook never gets credit for the operating margins of 47% from 2011/2012.
i will credit him this year as iphone 5s will have the same margin.
I bought my first shares as well in 2003 at about $15. You’ve eloquently described those early years. This is priceless:
“…the same drivel is repeated over and over by people watching the train go by.”
Love it!
Quoting the above article, “And on the bright side, this fall should be action packed. New iPhones. New iPads. New iOS 7. iTunes Radio,” it should be noted that the author forgot one main item; Apple’s potentially new TV. Please take a look at what Kevin Spacey had to say over in the U.K about a week ago regarding television watching and the distribution of it. He is right on point.
Cheers.
Nailed it. Thanks.
Put Spacey on the Apple board – he understands it all very well.
Excellent speech by Spacey.
Love to see Apple
buy out or
compete or
provide a better solution then Netflix.
Will Apples iTV be a content store or a content creator?
Apple is a great innovator, it researches the landscape, develops for improvements, leap frogs over the competition on market to the consumers… with the two ingredients Apple does best – SOFTWARE (iOS / OSX / applications) AND the marriage of that to it’s custom HARDWARE.
Apple, give the people what they want…
bigger iPhones – that can be achieved with iPad mini.
Well, of course Apple has “challenges.” But those challenges are largely self-imposed. Apple is in control of its destiny. The primary challenges ahead are what Apple decides to put in its own path.
On the other hand, Microsoft’s challenges are self-inflicted and externally-imposed.
Ha ha some incorect figures regarding the stores, foot traffic is actaully up per store some stores upto 400 people a week.
i know this from someone who knows the figures
Who doesn’t fade challenge ? I also face .
People have higher expectation from Apple but stupid and naive enough to distinguish what is the best product . What they know is big boob is a great woman .
coz of this. the gap is very big
Unlike Blammer/Gates/Microsoft who announces a tablet 10 years before they really try to deliver one after Apple shows them how, Cook quietly develops with his crew and then delivers rather than crowing about it.
That is the way to bring new products into the market.
I see nothing wrong with Apple’s plan. It is to look 5, 10 & 20 years out and start planning now for what is likely possible and then figure out how to do it … quietly … and do it right.
Totally. Ballmer and others do the Pre-announce to boost stock prices and to kill competition sales its all about crap corporate and not about the consumer.
I have said it before and i’ll say it again, FIRE Tim Cook!
He is beyond worthless.
You have said it.
Major improvements take a lot of hundreds of thousands of man hours & major new products can take millions of hours.
Apple already has some of the best products on the market and will make them better in the coming models. Apple does a good job at that based on their history.
Apple does NOT release ne Pez Dispenser phones every 6 months just to keep their nose in the product reviews to get people to notice them.
Every product in the Apple pipeline to be released this fall was already underway when Steve Jobs died. The terrific & experienced design teams with Steve Jobs are still in place carrying out the vision for terrific products.
You noted “He (Tim Cook) is beyond worthless.” Care to cite the internal experience at Apple that you have to back that up?
The most amazing thing about the continued support for the hapless, hopeless Tim Cook is that there is no reason for it. None. About the only thing I see around here from the lemmings is to declare anyone not lining up at the cliff as a “troll” or citing yesterday’s successes – now drifting far into the rear view mirror – as reason to keep him around as CEO of the once great company. This fall’s announcements of what Tim has promised as “great products in the pipeline” will be just as exciting as the last announcements. Crickets. Come on, folks – tweaking, a gold color, a way-to-late cheaper model, and more speed will not make any difference. Apple used to make a difference. No more – and all thanks to the CEO who hasn’t a clue of how to regain the magic.