Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
Summary: Tim Cook is the right person at the right time for Apple. Why? He's better suited to fending off the hand grenades that come with being the most successful tech company on the planet.
Apple CEO Tim Cook talked Chinese working conditions, potential for a dividend, Apple TV and product cannibalization at a Goldman Sachs investment conference, but the biggest news may have been about the speaker himself.
Simply put, Cook is the right person at the right time for Apple. Apple and Cook are simply more likeable to me.
As I'm listening to Cook's chat Tuesday with Rachel King who was on scene, it hit me that it's hard not to root for the CEO a bit. The New York Times' Nick Wingfield said Apple revealed Cook as its latest product. I believe the opposite. Apple revealed that it has moved beyond the CEO as product mentality. Let's face it: Steve Jobs was a product. Jobs had a cult of personality. He had disdain for many things and would have never talked before an investor conference.
Cook comes off as the anti-Jobs in many respects. He's not all that flashy. He's a supply chain wonk. He doesn't have all the answers, but is open to crazy ideas like a dividend of some sort. And he's pretty forthcoming as Tuesday's Goldman Sachs talk showed.
Related: Apple's Cook bets on transparency to damp supply chain flap | Apple's Cook discusses supply chain, will publish monthly updates | CNET: Cook the cannibal: Apple chief's secret product recipe | Techmeme
Why does this matter? Cook's approach, tone and personality will be better for Apple at this point in its history. The company is going to be a target on multiple fronts. For starters, Apple is getting singled out for its China supply chain conditions even though pretty much everything you own worked through the same production steps. And then there's the inevitable regulatory issues. Naturally, there's a lot of competition.
Cook can manage through those wild cards better than Jobs would have. It's hard to imagine Jobs walking through the supply chain flap and coming off well. Congressional hearings? Forget about it. Jobs would have been a mess. Cook can juggle those hand grenades. Apple under Jobs had this religious aura and army of fanboys was created. Under Cook, the vibe is different.
Oh sure, Cook is competitive as hell and that's good. Cook also said that Apple will be all about great products. But there's also something more there. Cook is making his own way and Apple will evolve---just in time given that it’s going to be targeted immensely.
On the money front, Cook's approach will also help Apple in business tech---a space that's going to be huge for the company. Enterprise IT guys would cringe at Apple's hipper-than-thou customers---there's something to those Samsung ads folks---but Cook is one of them. He's a former IBMer. Cook isn't all about the showboating. That carries well.
Bottom line: Cook isn't magnetic in a product keynote, but he's doing the CEO gig his way. That way---a little bit of humble when you're running the most successful tech company on earth---is going to be a huge asset for Apple going forward.
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Talkback
No he's the anti Ballmer
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
True that - and he makes products that dominate the market
...
The wit & wisdom of Stephen A. Ballmer:
"$500 fully subsidized with a plan! I said that is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine???. Right now we're selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year, Apple is selling zero phones a year. In six months, they'll have the most expensive phone by far ever in the marketplace and let's see???what's the expression? Let's see how the competition goes."
???Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the iPhone, January 2007
"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."
- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the iPhone, April 2007
"Both [an iPhone and a Windows phone] are going to feel very good in your hand and both going to look very beautiful physically???. but when you grab a Windows phone and use it??? your information is front and centre??? and you don't have to scroll through seas of icons and blah blah blah.
A Windows phone gets things done."
- Telegraph 10/18/2011
Apple is a "cute, little, tiny niche guy." (February 2007)
"Apple iPod users are music thieves." (October 2004)
"I run every morning." (May 2007)
"Google is an advertising company. Apple is a hardware company. They're one-trick ponies." [USA Today]
"I'm going to f---ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f---ing kill Google." [Sydney Morning Herald]
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
Proper device encryption and encrypted email didn't arrive until the 3GS, so most Enterprises weren't even looking at it until then. Even then, there are a lot of BB shops because it is more granular.
Most Blackberries and a lot of 'Droids have keyboards, so there are still plenty of people who prefer that to a touch screen.
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
It doesn't look like anyone flagged him,
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
The same Apple that has a stock price of $500 a share? Or is about to hit the $500 Billion market cap. Yeah horrible news.....just horrible.
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
This is a blog about a new CEO at Apple. Where does it mention Microsoft? Why do you feel the need to turn this into a discussion about Steve Balmer when he is not the subject or purpose for this blog? If you don't have anything of value to contribute to this topic then stop posting here!
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
But if HD only posted when he had something worthwhile to say, he would never post.
And Balmer was right.
Once they lowered the price (and fixed some of the more glaring flaws, like no 3G and no cut/paste it became a great deal.
And I've heard very good things about the latest Windows Phone OS. But make no mistake, Windows Mobile 6 was crap. I just got an iPhone, and the juries still out for me. It's very smooth (much better than android, but I miss having a back button). Not thrilled with having all my email under one app either (mostly because it's a work phone and I'd like a separate app/notification icon for non-work email.
Welcome back HD!
Still sore, I see. :)
LOL!
Re: Congressional hearings
On the contrary - Steve Jobs at a Congressional hearing would've been the most awesome thing ever.
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
RE: Tim Cook and a more likeable Apple
Apple is a big company with momentum
It will take time to undo the damage that Steve Jobs did. Have patience.
Yes