“As long as Jobs was at the helm of Apple the company burgeoned,” Bob Lefsetz writes for The Lefsetz Letter. “But those days are through. To expect the Cupertino company to continue to triumph is to expect the Doors to succeed without Jim Morrison.”
“But the public does not want to believe this,” Lefsetz writes. “It’s hard to get people’s attention, it’s hard to gain their loyalty, but once they’re inured to you they don’t want to give up. Exhibit number one is BlackBerry. Anybody who’d used an iPhone knew the Canadian company was toast. But even the financial press was out of the loop, looking at the numbers instead of society.”
“And what does society want?” Lefsetz writes. “Something new and different that not only titillates its fancy, but demonstrates extreme utility.”
“Unlike the Apple Watch, which was good in theory yet dead on arrival, or after twenty four hours, when it ran out of juice. You had to recharge it, was it worth the effort, or were you better off just putting it in a drawer?” Lefsetz writes. “And like a cult band from the eighties which hits a wall and goes no further, there was no word of mouth on the Apple Watch, some owners testified, but the rest of the populace just ignored it.
“Tim Cook needs to be replaced. Apple doesn’t need a traffic cop, it needs a visionary,” Lefsetz writes. “Execution is important, but it’s secondary to inspiration. The idea is king, never forget it.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Apple Watch is DOA? Based on what?
Lefsetz is babbling nonsense again and he comes off as the irrational Tim Cook hater he’s been since Jobs handpicked Cook to be his successor.
Tim Cook is merely responsible for revenue of $50.6 billion and net income of $10.5 billion in the last 91-day quarter. Which followed quarterly revenue of $75.9 billion and net income of $18.4 billion, the largest ever recorded by a single public corporation. Compare that to any other company on earth.
SEE ALSO:
Jim Cramer on Apple: I’m betting with Tim Cook not against him – May 3, 2016
Apple CEO Cook ends stock slide with appearance on CNBC’s ‘Mad Money’ with Jim Cramer – May 3, 2016
Apple is now run by a guy who is more like John Sculley than Steve Jobs – May 3, 2016
I have been the lone voice crying in the wind for Cook to be fired.
At long last… others are finally listening.
Fire the incompetent gay rights activist NOW!
Yes, and replace him with a competent gay rights activist. Then hire you. And then publicly humiliate you and fire you on the spot.
Unnecessary comment — really
Not as unnecessary as the comment he was responding to in kind. His mistake was lowering himself to the first idiots level.
You seem to be the first poster on every story involving Tim Cook. Do you live in your mother’s basement?
Time to get a life.
Or, perhaps a job as a tech analyst. I hear there are lots of publications that would love to hire someone like you.
BGR would be a great place for him. Very high standards and a focus on facts and truth with no personal homophobic influences.
That’s right, not a single tech pundit has ever called for Cook to be fired. Trump, is that you?
Moron
Tim on hos latest interview like others have said that he admires Dr. Martin Luther king I am old enough to remember him on tv denouncing fornicators and gays every speech i listened to. all his speeches he stood on high moral ground. His library has been cleaned and all reminants renoved. It’s interesting today he whould be run out of town. And if he was white. Street names would be renamed because of hateful speech and statues would be pulled down. How sad it is when history is changed to make some people comfortable with their decisions.
Arguably Tim Cook is following the Steve Jobs plan. Apple is pursuing the evolution of computing, which is a shift from conventional machines to appliances, like sealed notebooks tablets such as the iPhone and iPad. Job’s famously said if he were in charge he’d “milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth and get started on the next big thing.” He said that the desktop wars were over and that Microsoft had won.
Currently Apple certainly seems to be milking the Macintosh, not really much else, and working on the next big thing(s), including the iOS devices, wearables, home automation, IOT and cloud services.
Many of us have a deep emotional attachment to the Mac, and believe that what we do is so complex and so special that it will never be possible on a tablet, but never seem to answer the question, “What if you can do your job on a tablet?” What happens then? Do you keep whining about the Mac or move on to the next big thing(s)?
I.e. what happens when the car is as powerful as the truck?
So complimenting Steve, while blaming Tim for apparently following his long term plan seems a bit silly.
My big concern is that I need MUCH MUCH more flexibility out of iOS, and that Apple seems to be moving at a turtle’s pace bringing about these changes.
One other person agreeing with you does not validate your viewpoint. Furthermore, someone who agrees with you is highly unlikely to be legitimately described as a voice of reason.
AAPL had a lot of ups and downs under Steve.
Yeah but Tims are not straight ups n downs, its been all down hill. if he would just shut up and run the company no one should know what his sexual issues or preferences are,.. No leader should push their sexual agenda on the world. Im not telling people to be straight. I just done want the gay thing thrust at me at every turn,.. Thats just not acceptable.
Apple is insanely profitable under Cook. People like you discount the Watch, but it outsells Rolex and outsold the iPhone in its first year. Your ridiculous issue with what you call his sexual agenda (whatever the hell that means) blinds you. Anyone who complains about a “gay thing” being “thrust” at him “at every turn” is incredibly insecure.
The CEO of Apple has to come up through the ranks of the VPs, so who is next in line?
Apple has been so successful with iPhone that it has altered how people view the company. The chance that another new product can be created to replicate the iPhone’s sales quickly is remote in the short run.
Blaming a CEO for failing to have a new innovative product to beat the iPhone is nuts.
Who says that “the CEO of Apple has to come up through the ranks of the VPs?”
There’s your first mistake.
Well, in fact, to become a ‘superior being’ inside of Apple, one has to be inculcated in immense amounts of details as to how Apple works both with the managers, employees and the Board of Directors.
Going outside to pick a new CEO for a company, is almost an admission that the Board of Directors and the executives are total failures.
Apple is not in the group of companies which are “failing.”
Another member of the club: ‘lets get some attention talking about Apple’. Another smart a** clickbaither!
Yes get rid of his Royal Gayness and find someone with balls. Real balls.
Real balls required? That certainly excludes you.
Yeah sure.
Thankfully you don’t have any to pass your precious bodily fluids gene pool on.
That’s because his mom keep washing his laundry for him.
I think you must be an in-the-closet 13-year-old. It’s the only way to explain your obsession with someone else’s sexuality. You’re insanely jealous.
How to KILL Apple:
Convince the Apple Board to listen to any/all of the Apple bear bullshitters and toss out Tim Cook. Q.E.D.
When someone has something constructive to say about Apple, I enjoy it immensely. But BobLefsetz who writes for The Lefsetz Letter is incredibly full of excrement.
💩💩💩💩💩
I see nothing useful in his comments about Apple, except that he does, at least, champion the entrepreneurial spirit. Thankfully, despite the same-old fumbling and bumbling for which Apple remains infamous, including during both Steve Jobs eras (!!!), retains the entrepreneurial spirit they require. If the CEO was him/herself an inventor, that would be ideal. But I see nothing about Tim Cook that breaks the entrepreneurial spirit of those he leads, which is at least second best.
The BIG FAT PROBLEM with all the 🍎🐻🐂💩 calling for the removal of Tim Cook is: WHO WOULD REPLACE HIM?! Name someone better for Apple than Tim Cook. I DARE you!
(And no, it’s not Elon Musk. He’s got his own gig, if you haven’t noticed).
Please trolls, let loose your streams of golden showers upon my points here expounded. But it turns out that you’re peeing on yourselves without providing positive alternatives. Challenge yourself to provide improvements, instead of bereavements and excretion.
Completed sentence: APPLE retains the entrepreneurial spirit they require.
Count down to caffeine: 5-4-3-2-1 GO!
I have to Agree! All you people screaming for Cook’s Head, Who Should Replace Him??
Steve Jobs was one of a Kind!! There is no one out there even remotely like him today and no guarantee that they would be as successful as Steve was. Remember that it was Steve Jobs and Tim Cook as a Team that took Apple to where the Company is Today!!
Not only that, but innovation does not happen on a set schedule. Apple might be in the same exact place right now even if steve jobs was still in charge. Then everyone would be screaming that Steve Jobs lost his touch and should be fired.
Right on target
Ahh, another FUDster. Who pays these trolls acting like reporters or analysts? Samscum, Microsquish, Motorolla, Verizon, LG?
Someone has got lots of payola to give away.
So to repeat MDN’s statement:
$10.5 billion in the last 91-day quarter. Which followed quarterly revenue of $75.9 billion and net income of $18.4 billion, the largest ever recorded by a single public corporation in histery.
Ever.
So until some other CEO beats those numbers, shut the fuck up.
The only way to make these naysayers happy is to dig Steve up from his grave, clean up his corpse, and then do the Weekend at Bernie’s thing with Edy Cue and Johnny Ive holding up the dead Steve as they walk around the Apple campus.
One thing I’ve learned over my 60+ years on this planet: Never, EVER become the undisputed leader in your field of endeavor. Despite traditional protestations to the contrary, America loathes anyone, any company, any team, any ANYTHING in the #1 position. When Apple was the underdog nipping at Microsoft’s heels, it was forgiven all sins and revered by all those (of us?) who admire David for taking on Goliath. Now that Apple has become the acknowledged giant in its field (technology, of course, but business in general), it can do little to enhance its image or boost its position.
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
This guy is a Moton
Ahh. Sorry
Moron ….
IF ONLY Apple could have a visionary like Gaggle, Samcopy, HP, Dell, etc. etc. etc.
Am I wrong or is this another “Apple is Doomed” article. What I love about these mudslingers is that they will build a “get rid of Tim Cook” bandwagon with no suggestions of a replacement. Tim Cook needs to be replaced by whom? How about Bob Leftsetz he’s uh uh uh, well maybe not Bob Leftsetz.
Well the “Apple is Doomed” pile just keeps on getting larger.
Well, at least his didn’t suggest Eric Schmidt.
BOB, another schmuck!
Voted down for using the word “schmuck.”
This guy simply proves how careful you have to be when looking for inspiration. His type of inspiration is so flawed that it is a sure way to destroy your business. Lots of people have ideas, only a few have good ones, the rest for example tend to work or write for an organisation created and named after themselves. Ensures they have one listener for their deluded nonsense I guess.
Tim Cook has little credibility as CEO of world’s largest company, in his attempts to inform investors he has misjudged, misstated, parsed, overuses superlatives (“really optimistic” 11 times), diverts to off question topics, digresses away from factuals onto personal feelings, attitudes and more. He characteristically avoids taking direct and full responsibility when he speaks, as though sheparding the actions of others of which he has little control. Not to mention he lacks long term vision and again, sheparding the vision of his team. IMHO this is a recipe for eventual disintegration and calls for restructuring before it is too late. This same scenario played out the years after Walt Disney died and it took three iterations and two decades to revive.
“Note: Apple Watch is Apple’s most successful product debut ever besting the Macintosh, the iPod, the iPad, and the iPhone.”
Just have to keep in mind that unlike the latter listed products, the sales of Apple Watch practically depends on the user having/purchasing another Apple product, namely iPhone.
MDN, it seems that you often defend Tim Cook by pointing to Apple’s profits. While that is an important indicator of a business’ health, it hasn’t been the primary indicator for Apple. MDN has also lamented the apparent loss of “It just Works” and the laser focus on quality products. If I had to choose between the two, I’d choose insanely great products that just work. Thankfully, this should be a false dilemma. However, IMHO, Cook and his VP’s could use a little more focus on the product side and let the profits happen. Just sayin’
What’s the name of the author? And he led over 100,000 to accomplish what in the last 5 years? Did you say nothing? So a guy who’s has never accomplished anything thinks he understands that a guy who led a company from a leading company to the most valuable
company in the world should be fired because of two quarters of shrinkage? Get this POS outta here!
This is laughable: “Execution is important, but it’s secondary to inspiration.”
Inspiration without execution is thinking about things, which you can’t sell.
As far as the Apple Watch comment and MDN take…
I am a Lefsetz subscriber, so I read this letter when it came out a few days ago. As such, I also remember when Bob got the Apple Watch. And going further back remember Bob’s resistance to giving up his Black Berry because email handling was critical. He only later got an iPhone when it came to VZW because AT&T sucked.
Bob got the watch and couldn’t figure it out intuitively, was on the crappy battery band wagon, and didn’t think it did much, so he returned it.
So, his “DOA” comment was really based on his few days of experience, it seems to me, rather than an over arching statement about the product in general.
His experience may not be unique and could explain how a segment of potential Apple Watch customers also feel. Could be an opportunity for the marketing department to address.
From the go this article is dim-wittery, proceeding via dim-wittery to full blown fsck-wittery.
He’s angling for a job with Drumpf.
Edit* dim-wittery >> half-wittery >> fsck-wittery
Auto correct is dim!!
Bob, your the biggest idiot!