Do I believe that Tim Cook is the absolute best person to be CEO of Apple?
No, I do not.
Someone more focused on the actual business at hand (delighting customers) and who has the ability to sell it onstage would be more successful. Likely wildly more successful. In the Apple CEOship as defined by Steve Jobs, Tim Cook is out of his element. He cannot keep products updated. He cannot innovate fast or far enough. He cannot even manage to have adequate supplies on hand at launches, repeatedly. Sometimes, he can’t even and won’t ever ship what he’s promised. To ice his half-baked, lopsided cake, his stultifying keynotes make waiting in line at the DMV seem exciting. Several of his VPs routinely do a far better job onstage than he.
I admire his commitment to privacy. (But, again, if Cook really were fully committed to privacy, we’d all have end-to-end encrypted iCloud data by now, inaccessible to anyone but the users who actually own it.) Certainly, Cook does really seem to care about equality, diversity, and the environment – also highly admirable traits.
However, I do not admire a CEO who lacked the foresight to realize the painfully obvious fact that neglecting the company’s flagship Mac for 5+ years would be a huge issue. An issue that would fester. A wound that would grow and be very difficult, if not impossible, to heal. One that would leave a permanent scar.
How could an Apple CEO not fathom the depth of Mac users’ passion? It’s inexplicable, but by now it’s plainly true that Cook never fully got it, regardless of its obviousness. The untenable Mac Pro situation proves it. I’m not sure Cook gets it even now. And when he finally rolls out a new Mac Pro half a decade too late, he will not be absolved.
Almost anyone could have done a better job with the Mac than Tim Cook. It’s as if Tim Cook said to himself, “Gee, how can I piss away all my goodwill with Apple’s core users as irretrievably as possible?” And then he set about to do just that. Well, mission accomplished! That’s more than I can say for AirPower.
A CEO who really understood the Apple that Steve Jobs built would have known implicitly that Mac users demand state-of-the-art excellence and he would have made sure to always take proper care of them and the Mac product line — hardware and software — regardless of how many asininely-named iPhones he was moving. Yet, Cook failed to properly take care of the Macintosh (of all things!) for many years. He rubber-stamped Jony’s fevered Mac Pro dream. Then he left it to rot for over half a decade. He also approved, tacitly at least, the infamous butterfly keyboard, presumably in the interest of shaving off half a millimeter about which nobody gave a rat’s ass. Aside from the Mac, he trotted out AirPower, promised it would ship last year, then killed it via a late Friday email dump after printing it on new AirPods boxes. No, really. Unfortunately, I could go on and on and on.
He came from Compaq, after all.
After what Steve Jobs built, a chimpanzee could run Apple profitably for many years. (Yes, even Steve Ballmer could do it.) — MacDailyNews, April 10, 2017
Will I shed a tear when Tim Cook finally exits Apple? Take a wild guess.
Let’s face it, Steve Jobs’ track record of picking Apple CEOs was less than stellar.
Hopefully, when the time comes, Sculley II isn’t up next. Yes, it could be worse. Cook fans can bask in whatever solace they can scrape up from the bottom of that sentiment, at least. No, I’m not expecting another Steve Jobs, but I’d settle for someone who’d at least be able to grasp that neglecting the Mac Pro, not to mention for so long, would be an obvious, glaring, reputation-tarnishing mistake.
As you may have gathered by now, I and the rest of the staff at MacDailyNews are not here to blow smoke up Apple Inc.’s C-Suite’s collective ass. We are here for Mac users — and, by extension, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS users — and we demand excellence at all times and in all endeavors.
If you can’t deliver, why are you still here?
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and, when he awakes from Rip Van Winkle-esque slumbers, a contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
SEE ALSO:
Apple CEO Tim Cook plummets in Glassdoor’s tech CEO rankings – June 20, 2018
Apple CEO Tim Cook plummets 45 spots in employee ratings – June 22, 2017
Apple CEO Tim Cook falls from 1st to 18th in Glassdoor’s tech CEO rankings – March 15, 2013
I blame the Board of Directors. They are the ones who keep him on. Time to vote him out and move on. We need a CEO, not someone who merely wants to rub elbows with the celebrity cess pool.
who’s the chairman of said board? oh.
It’s obvious that Tim Cook simply does not get it. He is brilliant in many ways, but he is a staunch corporate leader. You know, 1984 style that Apple railed against IBM back in the day. Steve Jobs called that one wrong not realizing that Cook would destroy the goodwill that Apple spent decades cultivating. Many people like their Apple devices and the company is rich today, but how many of those customers are truly passionate for its products. I’m sure not. I was passionate for (nearly) everything Apple for decades, supporting it even when it was unfashionable to do so. Why? Because I got it. Apple strived for excellence, delivering the very best user experience possible. That made me willing to pay the Apple tax and be satisfied with paying a small premium for a decidedly better experience. Now I loathe buying an Apple product. I feel ripped off. Period. I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out for a regime change. What I expect and demand from Apple is simply not going to happen under Cook. And that breaks my heart.
SJ’s Apple has morphed into SJW’s apple.
Steve Jobs Wannabe?
I think he is a great guy and I love his other views on rights and justice but he is totally responsible for curtailing the ideas and creative moves of all others who desperately needs and really on powerful machine that requires the software only Apple provide.
that is an unacceptable and irresponsible judgement when they expect the users of their software to stay in a controlled set up of software and hardware. let others build working Hackingtosh so we can push our limits.
Pages and Numbers
AC. Surely you know charges were filed and Clinton was found not guilty. The media back then was on the Democrat SIDE, he’ll still on the same side, unlike today where Bill would be in a jail cell next to Bill Cosby.
Bottom line: JUSTICE IS UNEQUAL. The media is UNEQUAL. We are not better for it…
Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs. But, Steve knew what he was doing when he chose Tim. Tim has kept a steady hand on the tiller and kept the company going. Have there been issue? Sure. But cut the guy some slack. He was replacing the most iconic, brilliant CEO of several generations. Many people would have attempted to do too much and screwed up the company and themselves. Cook didn’t. I say, job well done, Tim. Someday, we may get another Steve Jobs-like visionary. Hopefully, that is about the time that Scott Forestall is ready.
I can’t wait for the day he is gone.. I wish the BOD would replace him… the list of why is way too long to type…
All valid points
IF THERE ARE TWO 512GB SSDs then is the Imac Pro booting from a HARDWARE PROPRIETARY RAID? Even though people with 2013 Macbook Pros that installed SSD RAIDs were told the APFS format would not install on APPLE’S SOFTWARE RAID when they went to upgrade? Steve jobs did proprietary, but never inflated the price 1000
I think Tim Cook is artificially upping the asking price by 1000. That is my main problem with Apple’s new computers. The XEON W 28 core processor is going for 3000 off New Egg. Apple does not use GOLD or PLATINUM, they use OEM W. An Asus Dual SOCKET Motherboard goes for 661.74. That means for 6661.00 I could have a 48 core machine. The Asus only takes 64 GB chip so it maxes at half the new Mac Pro. But for 7200 I could have a 48 core machine with 128GB ram (expandable to 768GB of RAM). Steve Jobs was far more OPAQUE with his pricing architecture. I could rarely JUSTIFY switching over to PC. But, Tim Cook keeps passing failure and price point onto the customer and that isn’t the APPLE WAY.
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16819118010?item=9SIA6ZP8U99591&source=region&nm_mc=knc-googlemkp-pc&cm_mmc=knc-googlemkp-pc--pla-nothingbutsavings.com--processors+-+server-_-9SIA6ZP8U99591&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsrebofjm4wIVj_5kCh2HiwqcEAkYAyABEgI_5fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
https://www.nemixram.com/64gb-ddr4-2666-lrdimm-4rx4-for-asus-ws-c621e-sage-ml21300-944k1-asu-15104.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_behuvbm4wIVicJkCh1BdQ27EAQYASABEgJKA_D_BwE