“It seems like a lifetime ago when Steve Jobs took over Apple for the second time as iCEO. Jobs ran Apple for nearly 15 years before pancreatic cancer took his life,” E. Werner Reschke writes for T-GAAP. “Tim Cook stepped into the CEO position and has run Apple for almost four years.”
“At the time Tim Cook was a good choice. He was a safe choice. He wasn’t going to rock the boat or try to pretend to be Steve Jobs II. He would take what was a growing and great company and drive it forward, building on its success,” Reschke writes. “That was back in 2011, and times were different. Apple’s needs were different.”
“While Cook has indeed grown Apple’s value and savings account, the question is what kind of leadership does Apple need going forward? Is safe and steady the right formula or does Apple once again need a visionary to lead it into unchartered waters?” Reschke asks. “Quietly in the background sits Jonathan Ive. One has to wonder, when Tim says he’s done will Ive will be next to take over the helm of Apple? Ive is more like Jobs than Cook — especially in the visionary department.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Jony Ive doesn’t want it or he’d be CEO already. One word from Jony, and Jobs would’ve made it so.
Tim Cook is the right person to lead Apple.
He’s all we have for now, until Steve can be cloned.
Yes💥
I’d argue that Steve Jobs replacement and successor is Apple itself. Recall that Jobs set up Apple University which trains hand picked leaders at the company to go through a special Apple methodology and philosophy training.
Steve Jobs apparently mentored Tim Cook as his replacement. Who is Tim Cook mentoring?
I hear Ballmer’s available. 😉
yes – yes he is, thanks for asking
Waxing over Steve Jobs’ visionary leadership is totally appropriate. Why question his hand picked replacement? I’ll bet on Steve’s judgment over anyone else in this matter.
what kind of a name is “sparkles”?????
Yeah, really.
Are you three a law firm, or a spa?
Are you f’ing kidding?
If Jobs was still alive, he’d chew the balls off this “writer”.
No Jobs wouldn’t. But Tim Cook might. For fun.
He’s dead. Move on. Try having a life of your own. Besides your clown like existence here.
Hello anonymous internet educated psychologist and mind reader,
Register and come out of the shadows idiot.
Sort of like you? If I came out of the shadows I’d have to knock the fuck out of you. And you wouldn’t like that would you pussy? So why don’t you crawl back under your rock and take a nap. But you and breeze really should change the sheets.
You forgot to take your meds again, Scotty. Or is it Snotty?
One case where Betteridge’s Law does not apply.
Yes, Tim Cook’s the right person for Apple CEO.
Jonny I’ve is a DESIGNER, not a CEO. The job qualifications are entirely different. Tim Cook is the man. He’s proven himself.
Seriously, this questioning of Cook’s leadership is getting boring.
Criticism comes with the position whether the criticism is justified or not. If Cook can’t handle the criticism he is not fit for the job.
Intelligent criticism is one thing. By now, this no longer is the case. Just my two cents for all you Ballmers.
All of the above, including MDNs Take.
This is getting old. Apple makes revenue history. just because the many comes in a manner Wall Street does not predict Apple CEO’s competence is questioned. And I mean this is going back to Steve Jobs. Sounds to me more like crappy Wall Street “experts” trying to cover their butts. It wasn’t the prediction that’s wrong it is the CEO…Geez!
No, Tim Cook is not the right CEO for Apple.
He has lead Apple toward “style over substance” and eventually, Apple’s products will “go out of style.”
The lack of a mid-range “Mac” with PCI Express slots is a clear example of an un-filled market with huge potential.
The Mac Pro is all style, very little substance.
The Mac Mini is stylist, and lacking in substance.
People were clamoring for a “mid-range” mac with slots when Jobs was around, so don’t put that on Cook. The Mac Pro is a great machine. With Thunderbolt, you can add a slew of cards in a chassis and a slew of storage- much more than the 4 bays that the old MacPro offered.
People always seem to say they want innovation, as long as it’s just like what they had before. How is that innovation?
You do realize that expansion chassis can cost over thousand dollars, right?
The mid range Mac argument is a strawman argument. Apple made many hardware changes under Tim Cook, the fact that he ignored the desire for a mid range Mac is irrelevant.
Cook did not do “Safe and Steady” when issuing the go ahead on Apple Watch.
Under Tim Cook we got soldered in RAM, a lobotomized Mac Mini, a Mac Pro that is barely expandable, proprietary SSDs, two iterations of buggy and ugly iOS, two buggy and ugly iterations of OS X, the second worse than the first, an iCloud that barely works, increasingly brain damaged versions of iTunes and the book on Human Interface guidelines tossed in the trash.
“It just works” is becoming a lie.
I’d say no.
Steve chose Tim to be the CEO, so it Tim’s wrong, it’s Steve’s fault. At least admit that.
Jobs was great at a lot of things, choosing CEOs was not one of them. 🙂
This is exactly what happens when operations and supply chain take over, they get away with it because “most people” don’t care.
“Most people” will easily switch platforms at the drop of a hat. Apple should be working on pleasing dedicated users and keeping “It Just Works” from just becoming a meaningless slogan.
For the first time I find myself looking forward to a new version of Windows and I find that supremely depressing.
Cook has made boatloads of money but at what cost? The stability of software, expandability of hardware and attention to style over substance. Even their legendary tech support has suffered.
Never forget that one thing Jobs really sucked at was picking CEOs.
I agree completely. I’d also add that Cook has unnecessarily politicized Apple. He has made the company about something else than enabling technology and making insanely great products.
You bet!
After all, Steve choose Tim…
The bigger Apple will get, the trashier the no brainers will trash everything Apple is, does or look. Buckle up! We live with trash around us.
One stellar quarter instead of ridiculously stellar and they want your head on a stick.
Wow, the deck is stacked for Cook. Not surprising.
However, it depends where you sit. If you are part of Apple’s PR Department (real or assumed) you will support Cook. If you are a long term shareholder you may or may not not like the current direction the company is taking.
I am part of the later and vote for more vitality but Jony is not the answer either.
You have a bunch of dorky ANALysts that second guess Cook all of the time. And MDN got it right – Jobs hand picked Cook for a reason, and to question his judgment now at this juncture is bullcrap. When was the last time Apple F’d up royally? The Cube Mac? How many years ago was THAT? And it was under Jobs’ leadership – which proves NO ONE is infallible. Frankly all this talk makes me sick.
Remember the “Hockey Puck” mouse? Now that was a good decision. Steve wasn’t perfect either. Tim does need to get several things fixed like iCloud for one. But lets face it, there are Apple haters far and wide… with a lot of time on their hands because they’re tired of bitching about their own crappy products.
It is easy to question things. Some people make a living from asking questions. Some even acquire an erudite reputation from asking quotidian questions, even if they cannot supply the answers.
Steve Jobs asked questions – interesting, penetrating questions that blasted past the status quo – and, then, he and his Apple team found amazing ways to respond to those questions. Apple is not the same without Jobs…how could it be? But Apple still embodies the essence of Jobs and people within Apple are still asking the important questions and producing interesting responses. I consider the Apple Watch to be an incredible piece of engineering, and I believe that Steve Jobs would have been proud of it.
Apple needs to renew its focus on the execution, on achieving simplicity despite complexity. It has assembled a great ecosystem and functional building blocks, but the integration and implementation is a bit rough on the iCloud side. Apple can do better, and I believe that it will do better.
It is easy to criticize, especially when you are not doing the job yourself.
Perhaps, if he wasn’t so PC and kept his leftist leanings to himself.
I do not believe that Cook is PC. And I don’t see you keeping your “leanings” to yourself. This is America – you don’t have to like his leanings and he doesn’t have to ask your permission to express them.
True. And though I don’t share Grumber’s sentiments on “Cook keeping his leanings to himself”, by the same token he’s open to the feedback that follows.
Frankly, I admired many things about Jobs, I also would love to “punch him in the nose” if he were alive and healthy. Apple was built in Job’s image, and they are indeed a little less douchy under Cook.
I don’t run one of the highest valued companies in the world either.
Agreed.. The Apple that ran the 1984 ad would not do so today. If anything, it would embrace federal imposition of power, depending on the social issue of course.
Steve Jobs would never had let this much buggy software and unpolished bug ridden products to hit the streets. Yes Steve hand picked his replacement, but as soon as Steve was gone his replacement left the reservation. He doesn’t have a vision for Apple. I’m sick of the soldered ram, crippling mac mini, really who release a new product that is less powerful then the previous model? I’ve only owned Apple computers, but now I’m looking else where. I’m not paying a premium price for something that is a throw away item and can’t be fixed unless you pay a hefty amount to apple.
Steve told Cook not to think about how he’d run things but to do things his own way. And lest everyone forget, Steve LOVED the Cube, but it tanked. MobileMe was on his watch.
Have fun with Windows 10.
Well said!
Agreed!
iWorks, soldered ram, Mac Mini, outrageous SSD prices, unfixed bugs in iMovie, OSX etc.
Disgraceful!
Please pay attention to the tasks at hand, what you are being well paid to do.
Tim Cook for now. Eventual answer is Scott Forstall, but his journey through “the wilderness” is not yet complete.
No. Lose the queer
Tim Cook is cookin’ as Apple CEO.
So all the Cook haters can move along and find someone else to hate.
Apple’s kicking ass, so one cannot fault Cook. However I will say that I don’t find the whole gay thing to be germane to the business of Apple, and since that topic doesn’t interest me, I wish it could be left out. Big a dick as Bill Gates was, at least he quit first before marching under his personal banners.
For me he is becoming less and less the person for the job, his out right personal agenda is not something I want in a company, I just want to enjoy the Apple product.
Tired of the Tim Cook nonsense. His detractors aren’t fit to be the leader of the laundromat.
This question was answered long ago. Tim Cook is doing great. We’re done with this move along.
Yes!
Oh yea, and STFU!!!!
The *reality* is that Tim Cook has managed Apple well since Steve Jobs passing. In fact Tim Cook – IMHO has done a way better job at operating Apple than Jobs could OR would have.
Before heads fall off let me explain.
Under Cook Apple is now a MONSTER of a company. For all those Cook doubters he single handedly oversaw a phenomenal explosion is the size and scale of Apples OPERATIONS. Without a guy with supply chain experience that now sees Apple manufacturing AND distributing nearly 200 MILLION iPhones annually is… INSANE.
Growth was not an area Jobs could have or would have handled appropriately. It wasn’t his thing. In fact under his leadership Apple Slipped under the water – too slowly reacting to a globally changing marketplace. He (Jobs) was too complacent – thinking Apple was the Almighty which allowed Samesong a solid foot in the door.
I mean seriously in all reality Apples senior staff for all intensive purposes in really made up still of Jobs holdovers. It’s Cooks genius that has lead to Apple going from selling 10 million phones a quarter to 72 million ++. That’s 70 million parts being fabricated, packaged, shipped, distributed, marketed, serviced, supported, to the App Store containing over 1 million active apps for sale etc etc etc. For an American company Apples growth has been unprecedented. Steve Jobs as we knew him did not have the prowess to have been able to manage such explosive growth. No way. Let’s face it.. Production foresight was not Jobs strength. Even if Jobs was around Vook would have had to have succeeded him in the role of CEO. The Growth alone would have eaten Jobs alive and sucked all his creative energy away from his incredible insight abilities. I honestly think of Jobs title today as Chairman of the board. After all is said and done its Cook that has held a company together when its founding father left us. Apple easily could have unraveled at that point. I’m certain of it.
I’m not saying Cook is perfect. But. But under such extraordinary growth and ruthless competition he’s actually done a pretty amazing job keeping Apple in the game.
Yes, Apple is a monster……But….is it just momentum based upon the profits of iOS? iOS and OSX have their problems, some things are fixed with updates, just as often new issues pop up. Murphy’s Law and the Law of Unintended Consequences can only be violated for a limited time. Time will tell.
Issues exist on every device ever made. And that’s not exclusive to Apple.
I never said it was, but I have used a Mac to generate income since 1988, and its becoming more difficult and expensive because there are more issues to deal with. If iOS and OSX were needed by me for entertainment consumption, it would not matter so much. I still believe marketing types have a lot more sway that product types, and that is not good in the long haul for the marketing.
This MDN take doesn’t follow Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, which by the way is something that MDN had cited three months ago when a headline posed the question if Cook was a better CEO than Jobs.
I’m watching you, MDN. Be consistent.