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3 Years In, a "B" For Tim Cook's Performance at Apple
Cult of Mac has taken a look at the three years since Tim Cook began his job as Apple's CEO, and rates him a "solid B." Cook might be neither as charismatic or volatile as Steve Jobs was, but he's made some interesting moves and statements. One factor (an area in which Cult of Mac gives Cook an A) is employee happiness, something for which Jobs was not always known: Cook’s highest “grade” on this hypothetical report card may come from Apple employees. Though the lanky 53-year-old is reportedly short on small talk, his people skills have earned him a 93 percent approval rating from a sampling of almost 2,000 people who work at Apple on website Glass Door, where anonymous employees can rate their satisfaction with the overall work environment as well as give thumbs up or down for the CEO.
Apple Stock is at a record high. He did what he was hired to do.
I use Apple products, but I'm by no means a fanboy, as my signature suggest (fanboys should NEVER have mod-points). I support Apple products at work, use a 27" iMac at work (which I rather like, and I've put TotalTerminal and other utils on to make it more Linux-like and comfortable for me), and I've got a work iPad 2, all of which I like.
I'm actually a Linux/Android guy.
Why I like Apple better under cook:
Less lawsuits. They're slowly settling/arbitrating old ones and filing less new ones. I developed a deep hatred of Apple under Jobs due to his temper-tantrums and deep ingrained need to shit in everyone else's punch bowls.
I'm seeing less new intenentional handicaps of their own products, and some of the old ones are getting less rigid (iOS is becoming slightly less user-hostile).
They've finally declared hardware the source of their profits and allowed free upgrades to the OS. (I refuse to use the nomenclature of "Free Operating System" that's been used here on Slashdot too damned many time to describe Mavericks since it's still tied to a mandatory purchase to run it)
What Apple still needs to work on:
Drop all user hostility - make so people can release source code for iOS apps they write. Stop attempting to strong-arm exclusivity out of the iOS platform.
ADOPT FRIGGIN NORMAL CABLES FOR YOUR IOS DEVICES
USB-C connectors are on their way, go with those. All the advantages of your Lightning cables but not "just ours".
Give me an editable path bar I can enable (it can be off by default) like every other OS. As a tech moving around yoru file system is more of a pain than it's worth. Don't spout anything at me about using muCommander or something, I'm a tech, I support other peoples stuff and I don't want to install crap or run utilities that have to be imported somehow every time I sit at a different system.
Drop the artificial restrictions on OS updates "when it was manufactured" isn't a good yard-stick for install eligibility and everyone knows it. Those Mac Pros that are six months too old to run Mavericks are more than capable of doing so and everyone knows it, it just makes you look like a bunch of pricks by barring install.
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I guess he'll just continue Apple on its present course, just like Steve Ballmer did at Microsoft.
How many years in until Cook finally produces an innovative product? For the past three years, it's been all about belatedly adopting Android features. This fall, it will be the bigger screens Android phones have already had for years.
It bugs me that we're using words like "hip" and "cool" to describe programming languages. That anyone would choose to learn (or use) a language on the basis of it being "hip" is dumb. I'm looking at you, Ruby.
Seriously, that single purchase would have made Apple maps superior to everything Google Maps offered till then, and way better than any GPS even today. Couldn't spare some change eh apple? As an iPhone user I constantly find myself using Google Maps. Apple maps on its best day can't hold a candle to where Google Maps was three years ago. And now after buying Waze and integrating it only half-way, Google Maps is already miles ahead. Buying Beats instead of something everybody would use every day. Yeah, smart move, Apple.
It is the responsibility of the CEO to coordinate the work of all the employees. The CEO must try new products and reject them if they need improvements. Steve Jobs did that.
Apple Stock is at a record high. He did what he was hired to do
I too own stocks of corporations and also am major stock owner of several companies
Stock price for me is not a be all and end all - for me, the future of the company is much more important than the _current_ stock price
For this, Tim Cook has failed, and has failed miserably
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
A CEO that gets it.
Tim Cook realizes he's not Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs is perhaps one of three people in the world who can be an asshole and yet get results done (the other two - Linus Torvalds and Theo De Raadt). Say what you want, but they're all assholes, except mysteriously, they get results.
Everyone else who've tried, failed miserably.
And I'm sure Cook realizes it too - he's no Jobs and being an asshole would destroy the company (most who try fail, hence why there's only three people in the world who could do it). He's got to be different, and if that means revamping the company from being under the thumb to how companies should be run, so be it.
Still, you do miss the odd Jobs-style flare up. I mean, Ballmer had his chairs. Cook is just a bit.. understated.
Man, I have no idea what you want from that company.
Take for example the laptops. Under Big Steve's tenure - which everybody is using as an assumed judgement against Cook - Apple laptops got lighter, much faster, acquired new ports, higher resolution screens, more comfortable sizing, way better battery life, magnetic hinges, laser-drilled microphone ports and power lights, tiny built-in webcams, and a huge raft of software innovation like automatic backups, global search, and ... "widgets".
But they were still LAPTOPS.
Cook is replacing a CEO who was a worldwide icon who died at the height of his power. He's doing a damn good job in an insanely challenging position. But if all the stuff I listed above had happened under Cook's watch, you'd probably defecate on it, and point out that Apple was not first-to-market with ANY of those innovations.
Consider what's happened with iPhones during Cook's brief tenure. They've gotten lighter, faster, acquired new ports, more comfortable sizing, better battery life, will soon have higher resolution screens, and this year saw a pretty big raft of software innovation. Sound familiar? Was Apple first-to-market with ANY of it?
Go on, keep griping that it's still A PHONE.
Keep comparing them to Android phones, as if those were even a cohesive set of products. Keep repeating tired history.
You seem to want an entirely new product category, that is also wildly successful, and also completely rearranges an industry and becomes a cultural phenomenon. Did I say "want"? No, that's the wrong word. You seem to feel you are entitled to it, and that if Apple doesn't keep delivering these miracles like clockwork, it's a company of has-beens. Get off your high-horse.
That's like saying the power of MTV will keep the next Garth Brooks album from coming out because MTV isn't for country.
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I don't agree with the Scully comment, but I do like your idea.
Matt