“It’s no secret (and no surprise) that Apple (AAPL) has not been the same since the retirement and death of Steve Jobs in 2011,” Joel West writes for Seeking Alpha. “But with the stock stalled, now some are calling for Jobs’ hand-picked successor, Tim Cook, to get the axe.”
“The public challenge came this week from Trip Chowdhry, head of a small (and little-known) Bay Area stock analyst firm. From my PR background, it appears to be a (successful) attempt to gain publicity by getting ahead (or fueling) a change at Apple,” West writes. “His March 8 analyst note is direct and to the point… Apple Shareholders, Apple Employees and the Developer Community at-large have lost confidence is Apple’s current leadership. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook is being incentivized to operate in a comfort zone of complacency until August 2016. To prevent further destruction of shareholder value, Apple’s CEO and CFO need to be replaced sooner rather than later. The team of Jon Rubenstein [sic] (Father of iPod) as CEO and Fred Anderson as CFO, may be best to revive Apple.”
MacDailyNews Take: As evidenced by that last sentence, Trip is aptly named.
“While I recommend reading the entire document, I’m not sure how much stake I put in his conclusions, and not just because he misspelled the name of his would-be savior, Jonathan Rubinstein,” West writes. “If Apple holds true to form, it will be like any other Fortune 500 company and fight change tooth and nail. The directors will circle ranks around the CEO, either because they believe in him, because they are cautious, or because they know a new CEO will replace most of the board. (Al Gore, in particular, seems unlikely to be retained by a future board, and so can cash his $54m in Apple shares and move on to something else). So if there is going to be change at Apple, it will come from BlackRock, the investment firm that is Apple’s largest shareholder… As someone who sleeps in a house paid for by Apple’s success from 1998-2002, I’d like to see Apple regain its mojo. But at this point, I’m not optimistic enough to place a major bet on such a revival.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple is operating exactly as it did under Steve Jobs: Disruptive innovation happens sporadically and then each product is refined in quest of perfection.
• 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 2 years, 6 months, and 17 days.
Apple is opening a sewage works soon. iOS 7 is just a prelude. That’s their new line of business after Steve Jobs.
Wow I guess as your writing is shit that was a natural contribution.
Fred Anderson – oh please and no thx.
These idiots have no idea what it takes running a company like Apple, so they feel most justified to comment on it and what the company’s leadership is doing wrong. Tim Cook knows what he’s doing, and he’s shown he knows what he’s doing. All Apple needs is time to do what it does best. Produce great products and the stock will follow suit. Chase stock value (or ROI) at the expense of products, and you kill Apple.
Where’s Rocco on this issue? Whenever I see a “Tim Cook needs to go” post, he’s the first person I think of.
I think a change is needed. If we could get Barack Obama to resign early (he’s done all he said he would do) he would be great for Apple. He took a US economy that was growing at a lame 2.5% per year and now it is on fire. He took gas prices that were $1.89 when he came into office and, well, you know what he did with them. He took unemployment, which was about 7% and he was able to double it to at least 14% if you count the people who don’t even have to look anymore because they have the EBT cards, which Obama made easy to get and very rewarding. Finally, he took our health care system, which really was worse than even what they have in Somalia, and he made it work with a website and insurance plans that are more complex than the Agreement Apple has you sign when you log into iTunes. All in all, Obama could do to Apple what he has done to America. That would be great, right?
Replacing Steve Jobs is like finding a Ronald Reagan! There is only one Steve Jobs, so don’t be so silly.
You can always find a “Ronald Reagan” once in a while but not Steven Jobs!
Comparing Reagan to Jobs is like comparing your neighbourhood yokel to Isaac Newton.
Not true. Jobs is almost up there with Reagan. Reagan did help make a whole country great, while Jobs made a company great, and helped the country in the process. And Jobs used unbridled capitalism to make it work, from venture capital to selling shares to the public. Two great American icons.
Ronnie didn’t run the country, it was Dragon Lady Nancy with her astrologer. What a hoot, you revisionists are so funny!
Behind every great man is a great woman, Laura Jobs was keen in managing stocks.
Reagan kicked the super-rich looting of America into high gear. The process he helped build is continuing to destroy the middle class: outsourcing jobs, letting the super-rich offshore all the profits they made off the labor of Americans (and overseas workers), hawkish insanity abroad, and so on. Since Reagan, every President has pushed those policies: Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, and Obama. Here’s hoping someone can turn this around. Whoever runs for President for the R’s in 2016 won’t do that. Sadly, neither would Clinton 2. The two big parties have abandoned the poor and middle class.
Wrongo, Buffalo Breath. Reagan started the strong economic boom built on real financial principles – freedom and capital formation. The destruction of the middle class is being done by the moron Democrats who are every day dismantling our private economy with taxes and regulations. They simply hate business, which happens to be the entity that employs all Americans. Drive though downtown Detroit, once the most prosperous city in the country. Run by Democrats and union thugs for the past 50 years, it is now worse than bombed out Dresden. Chicago is on its way to the same fate. So are Cleveland, Philadelphia and Baltimore and others. All run by one party systems that hate business and drive out all the things that create a prosperous middle class. The entire state of California is on the same track and is losing people and businesses every day because it hates industry with such a passion.
You keep doing what you are doing and the middle class will soon be about 4 people and the majority of the country will be impoverished. What do you think happens when the government just spends and taxes and regulates in increasing amounts every year?
Sorry to have to inform you but it was only a little over half of the US population that though Reagan made the US great. The rest of the world news media made him look like a buffoon and war monger. The people I spoke to from many parts of the world thought less of the US under Reagan and if you don’t remember, the US largess prompted the attacks on the World Trade Centre.
Yes, and most professors in elite universities in America think Fidel Castro and Mao Tse Tung were great leaders. In other words, most people are stupid. But some recognize greatness. Reagan was great. Obama, thought by himself to be great, is a lazy buffoon with big ears who wants to implement communism here without anyone realizing it. And it could happen based on the number of stupid people here.
Communism? Really? Are you aware what communism is? If you can’t convince us, try scaring us? Really?
Yes, communism is the economic system where you “spread the wealth around” like Obama told Joe the Plumber, and where Party officials get special treatment and don’t have to follow the laws they make the little people follow. It is the system where the news media operates like a an extension of the administration and does no real honest reporting. Like ABC, CBS and NBC and the New York Times. Communism is the system that uses fake science like eugenics and other bogus concepts, like global warming, to control the population. Communism is the system that disallows religious expression. Communism is the system that destroys human freedom and dignity. Like Obama and the Democrats.
Ronald ended the Cold War in the midst of his fight with dementia.
What more do you have to say?
Yes, Reagan was so great and focused he did have the strength to execute the plan that finalized the initial death of the Soviet Union. But evil does not really die at human hands, so we see it coming back in all the policies of Barack Obama because Reagan’s successors did not have the same wisdom or determination to fight the evil of collectivist totalitarianism – which right now is staring us in the face as Obama laughs at the Constitution, and John Boehner and Mitch McConnell stand by and armed only with their cowardice and lack of convictions, watch as the country, once great, sinks into the abyss.
Both communism and capitalism have there faults as well as the republicans and the democrats. These ideologies fail mankind in the goal of unity, peace and prosperity.
Men wish for those benefits, mankind denies them.
Communism is war and death. It denies freedom and dignity and everything that is good. Capitalism allows free men to achieve what they can. When coupled with the Constitution and given to a people who are intelligent and have good character and virtue it is the absolute best system of governance there is. If the people lack character (are Godless) and do not respect law and other people (Golden Rule) then the people get whatever they get.
Capitalism and the American Constitutional system created the greatest amount of wealth and prosperity at all levels of society that the world has seen and the combination became a magnet for people all over the world who simply wanted to live freely. They came and prospered. Communism produced 100 million dead in the 20th century and despair and destruction everywhere it was tried. For you to equate the two indicates a severe lack of intellect on your part. As a remedial exercise I suggest you go live in Cuba for a few years and experience the joys that Sean Penn and Michael Moore and you find so attractive.
Writing seems to come easy to you but reading . . . ? Retread my post above and see if I support either communism or capitalism or neither. I believe you can manage that level of comprehension.
You equated the two.
I have actually been to Cuba and lived with a local family for a few days. Do you have any idea about what it is like to live there? How many wars have been fought by the US and how many have been killed by the US?
Are you trying to say that only communism has faults? The solution to the world’s problems do not reside within any political system or party. It is time to divest ourselves of politics and nationalism and focus on the virtues and qualities we need to inculcate into our lives to create a peaceful world.
So you understand why people try to swim or take an inner tube across the 90 shark infested miles to get away from Cuba and become an American. And you then must know the number of people murdered by Che Guevarra and Castro to cement their rule. And you know of the political prisoners now rotting in prison for their opposition to Castro.
I am saying communism is evil. It is based on theft and coercion.
There are plenty of senile old people, but Jobs was one of a kind
I thought B movie stars were 10 a penny.
Great Presidents like Reagan are rare. Douchebag communist Presidents like Obama are also rare thankfully but it takes about 50 years of competent Presidents to fix the damage they did. For Obama it might take 100 years to repair the destruction.
Reagan was not a great actor but was a great patriot and a great American.
MacDailyNews take is correct in saying that Apple is operating the same as Steve Jobs did from around 2008 to present.
However, that is not necessarily a compliment.
Software quality continues to be inconsistent.
yeah – bingo
Why is everyone on TCs case. There is no visionary SJ available. Look at the MSFT and BBRY searches. No extrodinary candidates. I am awaiting new retail chief to revive enthusiasm and maybe become the visible face of Apple. Apple is pushing leading edge and it ain’t easy to pull the best new thing out of thin air.
Scott Forestall was a visionary, second only to Steve Jobs and was fired for behaving exactly as his mentor did.
After finishing iOS 6, Forestall was fired because he couldn’t get along with any of the other VPs, especially J Ive, who took over the development of iOS and released iOS 7 to heavy criticism.
I used to think Forestall would return to Apple, but now I think he’ll find something better to do with his time.
“…especially J Ive, who took over the development of iOS and released iOS 7 to heavy criticism by apple haters and malcontents, similar to the original iPads release”
There, I fixed it for ya’
One small addition:
“…especially J Ive, who took over the development of iOS and released iOS 7 to heavy criticism by about half a dozen apple haters and malcontents, similar to the original iPads release”
iOS 7
– a flat deflated graphical interface looks shit,
– a leader in OS development taking hints and directions from the Android and Jailbraking communities regarding advancements is a fruit that is losing its polish,
— however we all know the design of iOS7 was not to please the die hards fans, but to gain more users from the google campus – the beauty in iOS7 is 64-bit apps and icloud free apps
iOS8 – I can’t wait
I was hoping for a return also,
If Ives can have his own secret man cave to develop hardware casings, why does can’t Scott have the same freedom. To disagree or think different was Apples’ slogan. Scott thinks differently – he brought iOS to Apple and it has become an entire new business for Apple.
Cook screwed up many times too. Bring back Scott please.
Change is needed in Apple’s products … and it is coming.
The CEO doesn’t “do products”, he guides his top staff.
Apple’s R&D budget is OBVIOUSLY being used to develop products, but truly great, reliable, functional, small products in this electronic/software connected arena are truly mega-complex.
Tim Cook is managing one of the best, if not the best, product design teams through his corporate leadership, so let him lead.
They are not going to be happy until some stooges are appointed to run apple.
Oh yeah because Rubenstein did such a good job with Palm before it was sold to HP.
As an HP executive, he failed to make any significant contributions before stepping down.
So, how does he fill the role of Tim Cook? He’ll never get the opportunity. And Fred Anderson, wasn’t he was convicted and fined for fudging numbers in Apple’s stock scandal?
Those who are in the business of making money off the Apple brand should stop talking about what’s best for Apple.
Trips a hit whore. He is throwing “sh#t” against the wall to see what sticks. It’s absolutely stupid to thing bringing back Fred Andersen and Rubenstein would do anything.
Like saying bring back Barry Bonds. Load him up with steroids and he’ll continue to hit home runs just like before. Trip’s an idiot.
I’m changing my name to “The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side Of The Fence” so that I’ll be the perfect write-in candidate to replace Tim Cook.
/s (is that really necessary here?)
SAMSUNG knows great when it sees it. That is why they are copying Apple, not someone else.
All you TC haters, the nearest thing to SJ out there is Samsung. So, is that what you want Samsung’s CEO? He would be lost without Apple to copy!
“Anti-Apple anti-TC leadership” pundits – You might get what you wish for!
What I love about Apple under SJ AND now: They will not deliver a new product before its time. The hardware has to be proven; the sofware has to be as nearly bug free BEFORE release; the user interface not cludgy; simplicity in use. It seems to me that these “release anything now” pundits are MS transplants wirth their mentality!
“SAMSUNG knows great when it sees it. That is why they are copying Apple, not someone else.”
Hmm. Samsung hasn’t copied iOS 7 or Mavericks.
And Samsung figured out Blu-ray licensing when Apple couldn’t.
We can’t beat Apple in the market; let’s try to weaken it by advocating the replacement of Tim Cook.
Some Analyst:
[Hey, I’m short Apple]
Apple needs to kill off their low ROI electronics / computers / devices / software businesses and leverage their $200 billion cash hoard to focus on extreme high frequency trading and complex financial instrument derivatives.
Some Analyst
[Uh… I’m short Apple]
/Snark.
Steve picked Tim Cook.
That should be enough.
But we can be real, right? Maybe… maybe someone else can do a better job. But the onus is on the pundit to explain exactly what experience has been accrued by their nominee since the time that Steve picked Tim. And then show how that experience trumps the experience Tim has gained during the same time period.
SJ also picked Ives, so 2 key guys took over major SJ functions.
The best thing Apple could do is use their billions to buy Google stock. They could make a killing there without lifting a finger.
No. Don’t buy Google stock unless you’re betting on it FAILing. Only Amazon is more over-inflated bubble stock than Google.
*Pop* happens. Count on it. I predicted the 2000 tech bubble *pop* in 1998. Not kidding.
Shove it, Joel West, who writes for Seeking Alpha, for publishing August Effect garbage journalism in March. For shame! 😛
I MUCH prefer reading the chronicles of Herbert West, Reanimator. There’s a man who could raise Steve Jobs from the dead:
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/hwr.asp
Can’t see Apple anywhere 😱
Horse shit – Pure Horse shit
Apple is a one trick pony
A small portable personal computer for everyone, from the original mac to the iphone. Steve really had a single Vision and he saw it to fruition.
MDN fails to note one stat in their timeline: it’s going on 4 years since the ipad was introduced. Yes, it’s about time and i do believe Apple has been innovating, but they need to pick up the pace. The new ipad air is beautiful, but it took them 18 months since the last major upgrade to come up with it. That being said, the next new category doesn’t necessarily have to be a device. For example, payments could be a big business.
Mike, Steve isn’t there cracking the whip and gouging eyeballs. That’s why it’s taking a little longer. After Genghis Khan died, the Mongols declined.