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Apple Under Tim Cook: More Socially Responsible, Less Visionary (cnn.com)
Let's talk about Apple, unarguably one of the most remarkable companies on the face of the earth. (Remarkable doesn't necessarily mean great -- it just means that the company is something worth making a remark). You can like it, or hate it, but you can simply not ignore Apple. But what's the occasion, you ask? It's been five years since Tim Cook took over as Apple CEO. (Editor's note: auto-playing video ahead, which may annoy you) Under his leadership, Apple has grown to become the world's most successful company, doubling the stock price and registering a staggering 84 percent growth in its net worth. Media outlets are abuzz with articles, analysis, and over-analysis of Tim Cook's Apple today. Some excerpts from a CNN article: Apple's culture has changed noticeably, both for the better and the worse. [...] If Jobs put a dent in the universe through Apple's coveted products, Cook is making his mark by highlighting the importance of social efforts: LGBT rights, philanthropy, corporate diversity, renewable energy and improving manufacturing conditions abroad. Under Cook's leadership, Apple finally began matching charitable contributions from employees, which had long been a sore spot for staff. Apple had 110,000 full-time employees as of the end of September 2015, nearly doubling from the 60,400 employees it reported having in September 2011, shortly after Cook took over, according to annual filings with the SEC. [...] There's now a feeling among some Apple insiders that the company is just running the same product playbook that Jobs created in his final years at the helm. "For four or five years, the playbook is the same that's been done," says Amit Sharma, a former Apple exec on the online store team. But, he adds, "just because everybody is looking for new doesn't mean it's not working."
Yeah, try selling out of date Macbook Pro's for a few more years and see how that strategy works out.
Even Apple fans aren't stupid enough to pay a premium for hardware 3-5 years out of date.
Cook is making his mark by highlighting the importance of social efforts: LGBT rights, philanthropy, corporate diversity, renewable energy and improving manufacturing conditions abroad.
I thought Apple was first and foremost a technology company?
With surprisingly higher walls around the Apple garden.
More Socially Responsible, Less Visionary
Just because you don't know what they're doing doesn't mean they aren't... I was just looking at this article which points out that Apple's R&D has gone up many times over since Job's passed on...
https://medium.com/beyond-devi...
Apple has a VERY long view of their devices, and the incremental improvements and developments you see in their products today are only glimpses of what I believe will come down the line.
Who the fuck is going to fix that "dent in the universe"?
You can like it, or hate it, but you can simply not ignore Apple.
This highly depends on your perspective. For instance, I have no apple stuff, nor do any of their products excite me in a way that would suggest that'll change soon. So in that context, I can simply ignore apple.
However, from a business perspective, they're the 800 lb gorilla. What's interesting, however, is how easy it is for some of their target audience to ignore them.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
I notice none of the items in that list include "paying more taxes."
the iphone and apple watch are all evolutionary products that have been around in some form for decades i've used the iphone since the 3G and my 6S does so many more things that i don't know how people say it's not innovative
In the real world, this means "Endorse every lunatic leftist idea to come down the pike."
Let people social justice on their own time. Tim Cook should be in the business of making Apple shareholders money.
God's insurance company
Sure I can. I use none of their products. I don't care what they do. They really have on impact on my life, not even tangentially.
I don't respond to AC's.
non-olympic triathlon? your favourite sjw capitalists crankin' out nonconformist gadgetry by the million when they're not too busy filling out h-1b visa
... and in the process, boring.
Apple and other tech companies conspired together to hold down wages. That doesn't sound very progressive.
It also doesn't sound progressive when they charge far more for their products than others. It's easy to promote social causes with a fat profit margin.
It is not because there is not a breakthrough product launched every 2 years that they have lost their way.
For example, I still expect a lot of future generations of the Apple Watch (consider also how the phone evolved). Esp. because they have been hiring clever/phd level people with experience in sensors like blood glucose, blood oxygen and whatnot. Once they crack the nut of making that reliable for a large audience and once they pass health device regulatory certification, that will truly become a breakthrough product, since everyone wants to be healthy. Health is an enormous and far too costly business, Apple could be disruptive there.
Not an Apple employee, but I'd rather that he decoupled his personal interests from the company, since it's a public company and not his personal fiefdom. What if he came from the other end - let's say a member of the 700 Club or Family Research Council or one more of those anti LGBT or anti abortion groups? Would people still be hailing him or Apple?
People of all political persuasions use products independently based on their personal preferences - be it iPhones, Androids, Blackberries, Lumias, et al. They should be able to do it w/o feeling guilty about the company making them being against their personal beliefs.
Yeah, let's listen to Amit Sharma, whose LinkedIn profile says:
I focus on making supply chain work around ever-evolving customer needs.
What a visionary! That's so beyond anything Tim Cook could even dream of...
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
Remember, ensuring that the company owns your phone after you buy it is socially responsible.
Let's just not.
I would argue that Apple under Tim Cook has really only pushed the LGBT rights part, and frankly some of that was too easy...pressuring clueless state legislators in Indiana- South Carolina and so on. No real impact to Apple's bottom line. The others...I mean really no perceptible change.
LGBT rights
philanthropy
corporate diversity
renewable energy
mproving manufacturing conditions abroad
Seriously, an apple article by money.CNN.com? WTF, how is this even interesting, much less related to news for nerds. No technology, just more pandering to both sides of the apple/anti-apple divide. Give me an article detailing, or hell even hinting, about new tech from apple, or about swift 2 or when swift 3 will be out. Would apple want to use or be able to use Intel's 10nm fab? Why not? Or Why? money? Cnn.com? Clueless sites do promote tech, must less good tech.
...gives a shit about "social responsibility"?!?! I want shiny Apple gadgets that are built to last.
I wish they would update Safari. According to HTML5Test, Safari's HTML5 support is worse than that of Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Edge.
AKA The Walking Dead.
Timmy's play book comes from the end of Sculley to the re-hire of Jobs! That is the Biggest Problem for Apple Inc. Remember that Apple Computer Inc. was named after it's first product, the Apple ][ computer built by Wozniak who built the Apple 1, a hobby prototype.
Therefore why has Timmy not re-branded Apple Inc. to iPhone Inc.? And the Apple Watch to iPhone Watch and the iPad(s) to iPhone Ads?
Spine? Testicles?
Ha ha
The reality of Apple is this:
1) iPhone progress has stagnated... sales of iPhone has gone down
2) the iPad line is in desperate straits
3) Apple TV has failed
4) OS X has stalled, interoperability with iOS is pitiful
5) The MacBook line is a disaster and years out of date.
6) The Apple Watch is a flop.
But hey, he's gay, so we have to overlook the fact that he doesn't know what he's doing as CEO?
Forget it. He is fighting for the same social justice causes as Soros. He is a saint.
Basically Cook is "spending" what Jobs made, like the surviving wife of an aggressive industrialist of the 1800s. It will look good until the company begins to get behind and then fail.
E Proelio Veritas.
Don't let Apple use their hardware security module ideas to give themselves guaranteed privacy as a corporation when/if cooperating with FBI, when such would make impossible any guarantee of privacy for the individual user.
Where Jobs was "visionary" was in figuring out how to tap into the natural cult followers.
Aren't fascists usually the ones who do the face-punching?
Funny thing. I went to an Apple store a couple of weekends ago, hoping to buy a case for an iPad. At the door, the greeter checked what I wanted, and then told me that they don't sell iPad accessories any more, just iPhone. I know that Apple has been dumping iPads wherever possible like birdseed - at Minneapolis Airport, I saw a terminal filled w/ them. They could try a cost reduction on those things to get them out to more people
> Aren't fascists usually the ones who do the face-punching?
Yes, SJW fascists from "anti fa" like to attack e.g. reporters on public street who ask them questions. So do many others SJWs as well.
Was Steve Jobs really a visionary in the same league with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and the Wright Brothers? I think the answer to that question is YES!
On the other hand, Tim Cook is no slouch in the vision department. There are a lot of initiatives in his portfolio including health kit, home kit, Apple watch, Apple music, etc. We don't know the entire scope of their efforts in the automotive area. Creating a worldwide supply chain and sales team isn't an easy feat considering the size of Apple's business. Tim was smart to cement a strong relationship with Jonny Ive and to give Ive more authority. Tim knows how to manage a large organization and this includes good people skills. Would Steve have fired Scott Forstall? (I rather doubt it).
There is absolutely no good reason why apple's stock should be where it is. One day, people will realize that and I have a feeling it'll come crashing down.
They can't even decide if they want an earphone jack or not.
Do you think being a member of the KKK in the 60's was as commendable as being a member of the NAACP? Just asking since all causes seem to be equivalent in your world....