“It’s been seven years since Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs passed on the reins to Tim Cook,” Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla writes for Canadian Reviewer. “It was a bittersweet passing of the torch as Jobs was in advanced stages of cancer and then-COO Cook, who had already served as pinch hitter for Jobs in years past, was reluctant to replace his friend and mentor.”
“Since then, Cook has represented Apple and steered the company to its greatest heights culminating in the recent trillion dollar valuation, a first for a technology company,” Sevilla writes. “In Cook, Apple has a pragmatic leader and supply chain veteran who has enabled consistent profits while slowly expanding Apple into new product categories. Stand out products released during Cook’s tenure include the AirPods (which are everywhere now) and the Apple Watch, which has become the standard in smartwatches.”
“Apple may have lost a bit of its shine as a cutting edge innovator with various products looking like repeats of previous versions for two or three product cycles. There are also some products that may seem to have been neglected in favour of the hotter items like the iPhone and iPad line,” Sevilla writes. “Apple under Cook is making corrections by releasing pro-focused iMacs and MacBook Pros as well as a rumoured refresh of the Mac mini, MacBook and Mac Pro lines.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: There are a lot of balls to juggle and although Cook has dropped a few over the years, it’s obviously been an amazing performance overall, despite the near total evaporation of the pizazz level that Jobs consistently delivered. Here’s to new Macs, routinely upgraded, new iPads, iPhones, and so much more, including, hopefully, AR glasses and next-gen vehicles to name just two!
“Apple mourns seven years without Steve Jobs as CEO”
There, fixed it!!
Well, Steve is gone… and probably isn’t coming back. So, actually the article is mostly about Cook.
Well I doubt they would be mourning him if he were coming back. So, actually any article about Cook is because Steve died.
True. However, since the likelihood of Steve returning is quite low, the article remains to be mostly about Cook being the CEO of Apple for the last seven years. This is especially true since Steve has not been the CEO of Apple for the last seven years… sad as that may be.
When you mourn something you miss it.
I don’t know the exact numbers but I imagine it’s somewhere close to 150% of Apple employees and customers wish Steve were still alive. Not so much the stockholders, although I doubt Apple would be any smaller if Jobs were still around.
Your point is made and I don’t care.
I bought into the Apple ecosystem 12 years ago because it was simple and worked. I miss that.
Time flies. Can’t believe it’s been that long.
Cheers to all the haters who hoped Apple would collapse without Steve.
My benchmark has been the stock value. I would have been sad to see a CEO drive the stock into pennies. I would have been happy to see a CEO keep the stock at an even keel. I’m really happy to see the stock grow, to the point where Apple is now, well done.
The products, well certainly as MDN points out a few balls have been dropped but then again Steve did as well. Still the applewatch has Tim Cook written all over it and it’s doing not to shabby.
Seven years, let’s hope some more great exciting products start coming out of the pipeline.
See Jobs would utterly reject your concept of stock price as a benchmark for Apple’s success, Road Warrior. Steve considered Wall Street and such to be annoyances, and he did a pretty good job of utterly ignoring their guidance and criticism.
Steve’s approach is that a company should focus on developing insanely great products. If you are successful in that endeavor, then your sales will increase and the value of the company will grow. But growth in share price was an end result for Steve Jobs, not the objective. And, actually, it did not seem to be a very important end result to Steve.
The most important things to me are that Apple:
1) Maintains its focus on developing insanely great products
2) Maintain its focus on customer experience across the ecosystem, including its online presence and its retail stores
3) Maintains its focus on consumer privacy and security, end-to-end encryption, protection from nefarious third-party activities, and overreach by the Government
If Apple succeeds in these things, then the stock performance will continue to impress.
Well I’m not speaking for Steve Jobs, I’m speaking for myself and last time I checked I was allowed to have a personal benchmark just as you have yours, and yours is a much nicer one than mine for sure.
I did mention the Applewatch as an Apple product totally on Tim’s watch. Is it insanely great? I certainly think it has the potential but insanely great products don’t seem to come out on a daily basis but maybe I’m wrong. At any rate, the stock can be viewed daily, new Apple products less so.
Your third point of your personal benchmark, well that goes back to integrity and moral values, something that I think is in Apple’s DNA and definitely that Tim Cook, the Social Justice Warrior as some call him, is keeping that at the forefront. Some will credit him for that, others will think that he should focus elsewhere but in this day and age, I’m glad that he’s keeping those values alive and well. That consistency sure can be used as a benchmark.
Enjoy your day, thanks for the comment, love your insight.
To all of the Cook bashers who haven’t posted their comments yet… hope they can include a list of other more qualified CEO candidates. That would be very helpful in adding legitimacy to all the bashing. Oh, by the way, you can bet that Apple already has a list. It is called, “Succession Plan.” Maybe Apple can add your suggestions to their list. Thank you in advance for your constructive input!
Gave you 5 Stars.
I’m nowhere near ready to replace Cook, but when it happens my guess is that it will be Jeff Williams as successor (provided he’s still there).
Thanks for your reply. You are right; Cook will be replaced… someday for some reason under some circumstance.
I know I’ve asked that question a few times. I hope you get more answers than I do, though I think very few answers speaks volumes as well.
Why, why, why are people unwilling, unable to digest Apple critiques w/o resorting to; “look at the stock price, who would be a better replacement, Steve is gone–shut up, or you’re a Cook Hater”?
Besides showing an inability to be critical w/o feeling you’re throwing something in the trash heap, you miss the point of pursing/reaching for excellence.
Do you think the current Apple Board always thinks, “we’re doing great…no need for improvement anywhere?”
Maybe it’s time to practice juggling two realities at one time, Mr. “Hate Cook” and other like-minds?
Mac Pro professional users response remains dismayingly muted to this 7th year anniversary with Tim Cook with an expected near 7 year drought of a worthy Mac Pro computer.
Hmmm…
Tim Cook may need a Scott Forstall just as Steve Jobs needed a Steve Wozniak and later Johny Ive.