Tim Cook 'Extremely Proud' of Ongoing Collaboration At Apple, Will Host Employee Meeting Tomorrow

Cook is a great CEO, and at the same time is setting Apple on the same course to obscurity as Sony & HP before it.

He's maximizes profits by continuing to sell outdated models and re-packaging others (iPhone 5C.) He won over people by apologizing for Maps and donating to charities. He's aggressively expanding into new markets. You really couldn't ask for a better bean counter.

But all that isn't what made Apple the company I used to admire. I appreciated a simplified product lineup rather than selling anything it could still churn out (like every other corporation.) I was won over by hardware and software that not only looked good with attention to detail, but "just worked." And above all, I respected a company that wasn't out to be the biggest, but the best. They didn't listen to shareholders because they didn't have to: What they did was great and didn't need advice.

Instead, software and hardware are being rushed into mass production without proper testing. Attention to detail is gone. And Cook's obsession with China shows he hasn't gotten a clue from the last three decades of Corporate America failure in the worlds most populous nation.

My favorite lie out of the entire post-Jobs era: "Steve left us five years of product roadmap before he passed on." What a load of nonsense, perfectly crafted to calm stock prices. There is no roadmap. They don't have a clue what the "next big thing" is. And to be perfectly honest, not a soul in Apple's boardroom cares.

And why should they? The billions keep pouring in and they'll all be long gone by the time the revenues dry up.

I think through this reflection, I understand now why Apple, Sony & HP were most successful under their founders. If corporations were people, we'd classify most of their actions as psychotic. But if there's a "human" touch, from a leader that truly cares about their company, people see it in their products and recognize that quality. It resonates with them. And that's what made Steve so special.

:o

cook, there's nothing to be proud of.........really.

Pay your Store employees more, Tim. And hire more of 'em.

For anyone who supports flat design and opposes skeuomorphism, I challenge you to answer this: If you could only chose one of those (flat design or skeuomorphic design) taken to its extreme, which would you choose? Keep in mind that skeuomorphic design taken to its extreme would result in something similar to iOS 6, whereas flat design taken to its extreme would be a command prompt interface with no GUI.

So you're just making up your own arbitrary terms and challenging us to choose between "Something I like a lot" to "Something that is awful." Flat design has nothing to do with a command prompt. Nothing. At all. You can still have icons even if- you know what? This is why I don't take anybody seriously who uses analogies in place of actual, educated arguments. Then people who disagree with you have to explain why your incredibly slanted analogy was flawed, and the discussion just derails into a group activity of assembling the most accurate analogy.

Here, let me try what you just did, but with different examples:

For anyone who supports gun control and opposes gun rights, I challenge you this: if you should only choose one of those, taken to its extreme, which would you choose? Keep in mind that gun control would result in peace and love for everyone all over the world, whereas gun rights taken to its extreme would result in Sarah Connor's nuclear dream from Terminator.

For anyone who supports Han shooting first and opposes Greedo shooting first, I challenge you this: If you should only choose one of those, which would you choose? Keep in mind that Han shooting first would result in Star Wars the way it was originally intended, whereas Greedo choosing first means you park in the fire zone in front of businesses.

For anyone who supports vanilla and opposes chocolate, I challenge you this: if you should only choose one of those, taken to its extreme, which would you rather feed to your dog?

Pay your Store employees more, Tim. And hire more of 'em.

Agreed. They're overworked and underpaid.

Cook is a great CEO, and at the same time is setting Apple on the same course to obscurity as Sony & HP before it.

He's maximizes profits by continuing to sell outdated models and re-packaging others (iPhone 5C.) He won over people by apologizing for Maps and donating to charities. He's aggressively expanding into new markets. You really couldn't ask for a better bean counter.

But all that isn't what made Apple the company I used to admire. I appreciated a simplified product lineup rather than selling anything it could still churn out (like every other corporation.) I was won over by hardware and software that not only looked good with attention to detail, but "just worked." And above all, I respected a company that wasn't out to be the biggest, but the best. They didn't listen to shareholders because they didn't have to: What they did was great and didn't need advice.

Instead, software and hardware are being rushed into mass production without proper testing. Attention to detail is gone. And Cook's obsession with China shows he hasn't gotten a clue from the last three decades of Corporate America failure in the worlds most populous nation.

My favorite lie out of the entire post-Jobs era: "Steve left us five years of product roadmap before he passed on." What a load of nonsense, perfectly crafted to calm stock prices. There is no roadmap. They don't have a clue what the "next big thing" is. And to be perfectly honest, not a soul in Apple's boardroom cares.

And why should they? The billions keep pouring in and they'll all be long gone by the time the revenues dry up.

I think through this reflection, I understand now why Apple, Sony & HP were most successful under their founders. If corporations were people, we'd classify most of their actions as psychotic. But if there's a "human" touch, from a leader that truly cares about their company, people see it in their products and recognize that quality. It resonates with them. And that's what made Steve so special.

:o

What about the antenna gate issue under Steve's reign? Or how about the 6 years of no innovation between the iPod (2001) and iPhone (2007)? The iPad took 3yrs after the iPhone to release and it's essentially a derivative of the iPhone. We're expecting a whole new market from Tim Cook/Apple but it's only been 3 years. Not even Steve can pull this off in that amount of time.

The fact of the matter is that you're not a prophet and you don't know Steve Jobs. You don't know what he would've done nor where Apple would be today if he were still alive.