back to article Two years after Steve Jobs' death, how's that new CEO working out?

Two years ago today, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs died. Since then, much has changed at Apple, with the most visible difference being Tim Cook stepping out from under the shadow of his larger-than-life predecessor, shepherding Apple's product lines, expanding its distribution, reshuffling its executive team, mollifying investors …

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  1. JeffinLondon

    Apple

    Clearly with 150b in the bank and 9 million phones sold on opening weekend Cook's team is doing very well indeed. We all should be doing so poorly.

    iOS isn't my cup of tea and the iPhone's screen size isn't either so I shall not be adding to Tim's pile of cash anytime soon, but you have to admire a company executing so, so well and building products that so many appear to deeply desire.

    1. SuccessCase

      Re: Apple

      Yes, Rik has actually written a rather good piece here. Many say Tim Cook has effectively been somewhere between being a CEO and a COO since Steve Jobs first medical leave of absence, with the needle swinging fully to CEO in the periods Jobs was away. The share price today is considerably higher than when Cook entered the office and has started a recovery after the call from its' peak. In fact view the 5 year trend in the share price and it is remarkably linear, with the exception of a hike in the price in 2012, when there were no new products launched and the market's enthusiasm appears unwarranted. It now appears to have returned to the linear level of increase described by the average of five year trend. On the share price evidence alone, Cook appears a remarkably consistent performer. People also forget that throughout Apple's history there have been pundits proclaiming the company doomed at some times with more justification than others. That is in the nature of a tech products company where the vast majority of profits come from product sales rather than ongoing service contracts and the "next hit" is not obvious to the outside world.

      But with this piece and other more recent articles, it does rather seem as though The Register is pulling away from the "Peak Apple" editorial policy it has been pursuing for the last year and which for a little while now has been starting to look to the neutral essentially, well, wrong. Of course this could be because in the words of another The Register hack, The Register is a broad church and Rik's evidence based articles are one voice of many.

      There does of late, appear to be a greater number of pieces by The Register team as a whole, acknowledging news of Apple's ongoing success. It seems to me there has been a two year period where The Register gave in to a satirically easy-meat, rabid anti Apple streak, that went beyond satirising big business bullshit, but that spilled into an unwarranted level of negativity about the products of Apple business machine because some/many didn't like the style of how they do business. To allow opinion on style of business, to be readily transformed into opinion on the success/value of its products (e.g. I don't like the business therefore I will therefore wilfully see the products as bad) was always bound to be a mistake. The apparent policy also resulted in a degradation of the quality of discussion in the forums which is only recently beginning to recover. With intelligently written pieces like this I hope that period has now come to a close.

      1. Frank Bough

        Re: Apple

        iOS is unravelling because there's no Jobs or Forstall to push it forward. You need a single-mided twat to move forward, consensus and committee can only live up to expectations (or fail to). God help us when Ive gets his hands on OSX.

        "The public does not know what is possible. We do." Akio Morita

        Tim Cook does not think like this.

        1. Goat Jam

          @ Frank Bough

          I agree.

          When I read this:

          "collaboration is essential for innovation"

          . . . I realised that Cook has no vision of his own. None, nada, zilch.

          What he describes right there is exactly the opposite of how Apple managed to get to where they are since the 1990's.

          Jobs may have been a total arsehole, but he knew what he wanted and usually that flew in the face of the consensus opinion. He was almost always proved right in the long run.

          1. WhoaWhoa

            Re: @ Frank Bough

            "Jobs may have been a total arsehole, but he knew what he wanted and usually that flew in the face of the consensus opinion. He was almost always proved right in the long run."

            I'm waiting for the long run. Not sure it will prove what you believe it will.

      2. Philip Lewis

        Re: Apple

        @SuccessCase

        You saved me the effort, and did it rather eloquently.

        How do I up vote you more than once?

        pip pip!

    2. Bob Vistakin
      Facepalm

      Re: Apple

      New boss, new handsets and yet their users are *still* holding it wrong.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apple

        @Bob Vistakin

        Prat.

        1. Bob Vistakin
          FAIL

          Re: Apple

          Well, that's the messenger well and truly shot.

          Time to reload, things are about to get busy.

          1. This post has been deleted by its author

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Apple

            @Bob Vistakin

            Get a life you tedious little man.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Apple

      There are problems with your assumptions.

      a) that they actually sold that number of phones, and it's just not hype, as they know by the time accounts are audited, they would have sold 9m phones and their bullshit can be easily covered up.

      b) those users wanted to upgrade to another Apple phone, rather than being locked in and forced down the Apple road. the "I want a better phone, those Android ones look cheaper and better, but I will lose all my stuff I bought" dilemma.

      1. SuccessCase

        Re: Apple

        "a) that they actually sold that number of phones, and it's just not hype, as they know by the time accounts are audited, they would have sold 9m phones and their bullshit can be easily covered up."

        Ah sweet, an "I don't want it to be true" fantasist critic. However please be aware that to falsify sales performance figures would amount to deliberately providing false information that would be known to affect the market and share price and that, due to SEC rules and trading laws, would be a Felony. Apple have always reported 1st weekend sales and their veracity has never been questioned. Moreover, the figures for sales through their shops are actual sales to end customers (not just into channel) so the figures are more significant than those provided by their competitors.

        "b) those users wanted to upgrade to another Apple phone, rather than being locked in and forced down the Apple road. the "I want a better phone, those Android ones look cheaper and better, but I will lose all my stuff I bought" dilemma."

        Possible but that applies to Android users as well as iOS users, yet more are switching from Android to iOS (and from Samsung to iOS) than the other way round. Which is why now the market is getting close to smartphone saturation in the US and the UK, iOS is taking market share off Android (with other maturing markets in developed nations set to follow suite).

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apple

        Desperate. I really doubt a company as large as Apple would or could lie to it's shareholders and the markets about something so important - would be easy to prove and the penalties would probably be severe.

        How about you (just for a moment) assume the figures are genuine as this is by far the more likely scenario.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Apple Hate?

      Why do some people HATE Apple so much? They do after all produce some great products.

      Is it Apple Hate? Jobs Hate? Apple/Jobs Hate?

      Any business has to protect its products, yet when others do it, that's just fine, but when Apple do it the vitriol being spat out is unbelievable, especially by those with no interests in them anyway.

      I can compare it to the Labour Party/Ed Miliband v Daily Mail saga. Ed and his ilk would have you believe that butter wouldn't melt in their mouths yet look at the way their followers behaved after Margaret Thatcher died with their in built nastiness. Instead of qualified comments they just shout you down.

      Same with the Apple detractors on here, comments are usually bigoted snide and nasty with no substance and I'll informed.

      I can only assume from this that there may be a psychological correlation between Socialist Labour and Apple haters in that they operate and exist on a similar mental level.

      1. getHandle

        Re: Apple Hate?

        You can buy a Nexus 4 for half the price of a iPhone 4, never mind the iPhone 5. Most people would be perfectly happy with either, so where's the justification for double the price? Aspiration, b*ll*cks - they've been sold a pup - admittedly one that works pretty nicely and will no doubt serve them well, but to compare iPhone to art or any other high-brow pursuits, like someone does below, is just pure BS. It's a f*cking phone for christ's sake. Get over yourself and get a life. Or not. The phondleslab in your pocket will talk to everyone else's, whoever makes it. Move on. Get some fresh air, exercise, entertain the kids, you know - a life.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Ted Treen
          Facepalm

          @getHandle 05/10 18:36

          "You can buy a Nexus 4 for half the price of a iPhone 4"

          You can also buy a Jaguar XK for less than half the price of an Aston Martin.

          Which proves what, precisely?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: @getHandle 05/10 18:36

            That nowadays reliable cars cost less than unreliable ones? The car analogy doesn't work.

          2. getHandle

            Re: @getHandle 05/10 18:36

            That you're a master of the irrelevant analogy?

          3. WhoaWhoa

            Re: @getHandle 05/10 18:36

            >>You can buy a Nexus 4 for half the price of a iPhone 4"

            >You can also buy a Jaguar XK for less than half the price of an Aston Martin.

            >Which proves what, precisely?

            How about:

            - some splash money on fantasy associations with James Bond;

            - some splash money on fantasy associations with retail queues with high-fiving, whoop-whooping sales assistants who call themselves geniuses?

      2. Zack Mollusc

        Re: Apple Hate?

        In my case, it is because I have used an airport express, two macs, and an ipod . All of them were infuriating and all of them were infuriating because Apple chose to make them so.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apple Hate? - Socialist Labour and Apple haters

        There should be a Register badge for so much irrelevancy in a post, a special award for someone so blinded by partisanship for, of all things, the Daily Mail that he (it's going to be a he) seeks to drag its attack on Miliband, and the blowback, into an article about Apple.

        I missed the bit where Socialist Worker ran a piece on Margaret Thatcher's father labelling him "the man who hated Britain", but I expect that the Mail has photoshopped it somewhere. (and yes, I know one is not supposed to write "photoshopped", but someone should tell someone else that language is not (yet) owned by corporations.)

      4. Nuke
        Holmes

        @AC @14:00 - Re: Apple Hate?

        Wrote : - "Why do some people HATE Apple so much? Is it Apple Hate? Jobs Hate? Apple/Jobs Hate?" .. Any business has to protect its products, yet when Apple do it the vitriol being spat out is unbelievable"

        You ask a question and then assume an answer. "Protecting their products" - not sure what you have in mind there, the fatuous patents or the fact that you can't open the casings, even to replace a battery?

        In fact I just find Apple amusing, because I do not need to fear them ever making a monopoly like MS did - they are too ridiculous and expensive for that to happen. Seeing Apple fanbois queing overnight for every new product and seeing Apple staff doing war-dances to hype themselves up, are among the biggest laughs I get on El Reg.

        Wrote :- "I can only assume from this that there may be a psychological correlation between Socialist Labour and Apple haters."

        Take it you mean "Socialist Labour *supporters*" and assuming you'd class me as a "hater", I don't recognise that; you cannot get much further from a Socialist Labourite than I am. OTOH I'd say that Jobs admiration is of similar psychology to excessive admiration of Thatcher (or Che Guevara, Gates, President Kennedy, Justin Bieber, take your pick) - deification of a contemporary person.

        1. Frankee Llonnygog

          Re: @AC @14:00 - Apple Hate?

          Wow - I though that people buy Apple stuff because they like it. Turns out it's a sinister mind control cult. Can't the government do something? Are we all going to turn into Cybermen?

      5. WhoaWhoa

        Re: Apple Hate?

        "I can only assume from this that there may be a psychological correlation between Socialist Labour and Apple haters in that they operate and exist on a similar mental level."

        I can only assume that you're not familiar with the politics of the ranks of Apple-glow wielding, coffee(sic) drinking, Islington Starbucks inhabitants.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Apple Hate?

          I can only assume you cannot read and comprehend.

          " with the politics" != "psychological correlation"

          moron.

      6. zooooooom

        Re: Apple Hate?

        Mainly due to their control freakery

    5. Homer 1
      Mushroom

      Re: Apple

      The fact that Apple makes obscenely vast profits on such a tiny minority of the market, is merely a testament to how far Apple ruthlessly exploits its weak-willed, easily-indoctrinated cult members, who clearly have more money than sense.

      These are typically the same mindless consumer zombies who spend hundreds of dollars per yard on Van Den Hogwash digital A/V cables.

      Are we really supposed to be impressed by their stupidity, or by Apple's malice and greed?

      To the person who asked "Why do people hate Apple so much", may I first say good morning and would you like a cup of coffee, because apparently you've been sleeping for the past several years. Then I would bring you up to speed with this summary, to save me having to repeat the vast litany of Apple's extreme hostility.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apple

        The fact that Apple makes obscenely vast profits on such a tiny minority of the market, is merely a testament to how far Apple ruthlessly exploits its weak-willed, easily-indoctrinated cult members, who clearly have more money than sense.

        That statement falls flat on its nose the moment you're dealing with people who by dint of their profession need to use all platforms, HAVE all platforms and yet still use the iPhone by preference. I'm not going into the why as that would be wholly irrelevant, the only reason I would like to illustrate as an amplifier for my choice is exactly the sort of statement above, which can only be driven by a jealous rage - I'd choose the irritating product wilfully, just to see if I could get someone like that to have an aneurysm.

        I have the money to make an informed choice, not a popular one. I have 30+ years experience in electronics and their manufacturing, 25+ in IT from code cutting to government size infrastructures and I have used enough Operating Systems in anger to make a serious acronym soup. So thank you for the baseless assumptions that you make on my preferring one piece of kit over another. I will give you one "why" - I have all of them because I need to see what my clients see, but I also know I don't have the time to forever f*ck around with gadgets to make them work (the predecessor to ActiveSync, or making an Android phone work *without* getting a Google account and so give them legal permission to steal data), or spend weeks working out the latest WTF with the UI (Ubuntu, Windows) - keep in mind that this coming from someone who would edit sendmail.cf raw, without macro processors and who has been using Linux for a very long time.

        What drives my choice is that I'm OK with spending a bit more if it actually works practically out of the box, and that it keeps working.

        And that maybe, just maybe, some rabid foaming-at-the-mouth-anti-apple people have a heart attack for seeing yet another bit of kit sold. That alone would be worth it too.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. David 45

    Overpriced trinkets

    Apple's products are just grossly over-priced trinkets hyped up to appeal to the posers and "must-have" fanbois. Pay through the nose if you want to for a touch of styling (just like Bang and Olufsen audio and TV gear) but there are products around that will do the same job quite adequately without sacrificing several arms and legs and taking out a second mortgage in the process. In my opinion, an awful lot of folk have been conned by Apple's continuing rhetoric but I suppose that's the company's ruthless Jobsian legacy which must be maintained.

    1. Lord Elpuss Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Overpriced trinkets

      "...there are products around that will do the same job quite adequately..."

      "David 45's performance this year has been adequate."

      "So do you fancy David 45 then? Well, I suppose he's adequate"

      "What did you think of the dinner I spent all afternoon cooking, my darling? 'Well, David 45, it was adequate' "

      You may be happy with a life full of adequacy, but some of us aspire to a little more.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Overpriced trinkets

      Some people are happy with adequate - fortunately many people want more. Apple clearly pushes the industry along and does a great deal of innovation that everyone should be happy for (as the others copy it).

      The design, service, support, durability and residual value more than make up for a slightly higher purchase cost. iPhones probably cost less than an equivalent spec'd Android over a few years (you replace the Android every 18 months whereas iPhones typically are still in use much longer or even if you replaced both every 18-24 months the trade-in / resale value of the iPhone is much higher - certainly to make any difference in purchase cost insignificant).

      They come out with the best tech and usually first - retina screens, ultra notebook format, flash on their laptops - it may not look as special once everyone else has copied it. I'm sure people will not think fingerprint readers are a big deal - when in reality they are very niche at the moment (and frankly do not work very well) - but now Apple has made one conveniently built in, works very well and yes others will follow and then it will be normal but Apple raised the bar.

    3. b0hem1us

      Re: Overpriced trinkets

      Well not quite, I'm mostly weendooz 7 and Linux these days but I have an old Power Mac G5 that has been running w/o being vacuumed w/ no glitches for 10 years. Have not had another machine like that.

      1. WhoaWhoa

        Re: Overpriced trinkets

        Eight years ago I grabbed a 467MHz PC, already several years old, that was on its way to be scrapped.

        It's run Linux as a door to a private network since then. The only times it has had to be restarted have been following power outages to its part of the building, maybe once every 1-2 years.

        It just works. One day it won't. (Fan bearings have been making a noise sometimes for the last couple of years. Stuff breaks). Then another act of recycling will replace it at similar cost and with similar usefulness.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Overpriced trinkets

      You sound like one of those Labour Party Activists who denigrates anyone who wants to aspire to something. Should we all remain average and remain tied to mediocrity, how dare anyone want to rise above his station in life. Should we know our place and obey our masters who know better?

      Bollo*ks.

      Unfortunately you show the very reason why the education system need to be overhauled with your narrow minded ill informed pettiness.

      I did not need to take out a second mortgage or credit to afford a new iPhone.

      In fact, I didn't need to when I bought my MacBook Pro this year. I just went online, ordered them and paid with a Visa card because the money happened to be in my bank. I am neither a millionaire nor super rich, I just work hard to afford what I buy. In fact I also bought a gold one for my wife because her old 4S was showing its age.

      We all know that you are jealous, I know it is hard on you but if you bucked up your ideas maybe it would put you in the position that you might be able to afford one, some day.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Overpriced trinkets

        My goodness, it must be the same AC that was banging on above about how unfair it was of Miliband to object to the Daily Mail. Has the Daily Mail website closed down? Or has the Huffington Post started moderating out some of the more offensive posts of people who don't like its articles?

        There is a reason why modern photocopiers don't have green ink as one of the options; fruitcakes can now post directly on websites, they don't have to put it in an envelope and post it. I did once suggest to the Guardian that they should flag the more bonkers posts by printing them in green, but Emily said I was being silly.

      2. WhoaWhoa
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Overpriced trinkets

        "In fact I also bought a gold one for my wife because her old 4S was showing its age."

        Says it all really.

        Paris probably likes people who buy her gold ones, too.

      3. WhoaWhoa

        Re: Overpriced trinkets

        "put you in the position that you might be able to afford one, some day."

        For a lot of people it's not the money they can't afford that keeps them at arm's length from Apple. It's the wasted time and working around non-standard and crippled-by-design aspects.

        And some people are just embarrassed to be associated with bling.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Overpriced trinkets

          For a lot of people it's not the money they can't afford that keeps them at arm's length from Apple. It's the wasted time and working around non-standard and crippled-by-design aspects.

          Yup. You really have never been near a Mac. Mine talks to a Linux box, another Mac and a Windows server. And frequently mounts a couple of secure WebDAV services via a VPN. It also happily runs LibreOffice and OpenOffice, it compiles Open Source code in a terminal session and regularly acts as an X11 display for processes running elsewhere. Only NFS is a dog, but I've never had much success with NFS so that may just be me. I even have a version of MS Office on the machine in case some idiot sends me an docx of xlsx file (*), and I frequently piss off people on Windows by sending their Visio files back with much better looking design because Omnigraffle Pro just makes that easy. In short, I haven't come across any of the incompatibilities you claim - could you be more specific? Or have you not actually used a Mac yet for more than 24h?

          Second, iIf you mean by "crippled" the absence of a need to start rooting for HOWTOs to identify the correct resource that needs to be messed with before a program or a desktop can actually do any practical work, than you have another description of "crippled" than I had in mind. I find it beats the living crap out of Windows, and is a far nicer way to use Unix than Linux. That's my personal opinion, of course, but it comes from practical experience.

          And some people are just embarrassed to be associated with bling.

          True, but I don't have the kind of ego that needs others to agree with me, so that doesn't interest me in the slightest. Easy. If association matters to you you still have a bit of growing up to do IMHO. Or need help.

          (*) Personally, I would be grateful if the NSA would crack that file format, because MS clearly cannot. If the NSA can allegedly hack high grade crypto, it would be a nice gift to the tax payer if they figured that one out instead. (/rant)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Overpriced trinkets

            >Pay through the nose if you want to for a touch of styling (just like Bang and Olufsen audio and TV gear)

            True, Bang and Olufsen kit was usually highly styled (and indeed, one of their subsidiaries is renowned for aesthetic surface treatments for aluminium, just as another B&O offshoot is known for their Class D amplifiers - what is useful for inconspicuous low-power, low-heat speakers is applicable for portable equipment) ... but their price premium also bought you uncommon functionality - such as multi-room set-ups. And hey, the sound was better than average, even if it wasn't 'the best that could be have for the same money.

            Nothing was stopping other, more 'serious' hi-fi manufactuers from incorporating such functionality, but even today companies such as Sonus or Brennan charge a premium for easy-to-use home audio 'solutions' built from commodity parts.

            (Speaking multiroom, central-library audio: after several years, many people will have now have spare wifi-capable smartphones (e.g an old iPhone 3G being put out to pasture as audio player for the car)... even a semi geek might put together such as system from what would otherwise go in their desk's draw of old kit. Apple advertise their WiFi repeaters as offering similar functionality - I don't personally know how well it works, though)

            Amongst the 'audiophile' community (read: dear people who delight in kit for kit's sake) was a common (if patronising) adage: 'Does it pass the wife test?', used to refer to loudspeakers so uncompromising in their function-over-form ethos that they appeared to have fallen off a 1930s sci-fi film set.

          2. WhoaWhoa

            Re: Overpriced trinkets

            "True, but I don't have the kind of ego that needs others to agree with me, so that doesn't interest me in the slightest."

            Anonymous Coward

            "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

            Shakespeare's (Hamlet, Act III, scene II)

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Overpriced trinkets

      I agree with you in that apple gear IS extremely overpriced. If you don't believe me, compare mac/pc sales figures for last year, then look at which company took most of the profit from that sector. However, I wouldn't ever consider buying a phone or tablet from anyone else. yes you pay quite a hefty premium for them but they shit on any android device on the market in terms of usability, reliability and responsiveness. The only thing I don't like about idevices is the manufacturer. Their customer service is appalling and every time I have to go to the apple store the smugness of the workers there makes me want to vomit.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Overpriced trinkets

        I agree with you in that apple gear IS extremely overpriced. If you don't believe me, compare mac/pc sales figures for last year, then look at which company took most of the profit from that sector

        That's irrelevant data. Overpriced means "priced more than a customer is prepared to pay for it", which does not seem to be the case by those same sales figures. I have always used high end laptops for my work, and buying a MacBook was by comparison equivalent in costs. For me this was an experiment, what made me throw out every bit of Windows kit 2 months later was a MASSIVE payback in time, usability and software costs. If you can avoid Microsoft and Adobe in your work, the Mac is actually the product with the best TCO of them all - and THAT is what converted me, not the iShiny stuff that gets many people into a jealous rage. Interesting is that I also use Linux less other than in the server room - I have a FreeBSD prompt at the ready in a Mac, and enough extra Open Source tools installed to make the terminal a good working place too.

        To me, the invective merely indicates those people have never owned an Apple product, and thus talk from a position of ignorance. That is never a basis for a rational discussion, and such comments can thus comfortably be discarded.

      2. Philip Lewis
        FAIL

        Re: Overpriced trinkets

        "Their customer service is appalling and every time I have to go to the apple store the smugness of the workers there makes me want to vomit."

        Essentially every survey, and in my case all anecdotal evidence, suggest that you bilious position is false.

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Overpriced trinkets

      there are products around that will do the same job quite adequately without sacrificing several arms and legs and taking out a second mortgage in the process

      If you spend more time thinking and less time ranting jealously you could maybe afford decent kit too. I'm happy to explain my choice to someone else, that's called "having a discussion". It also means I'm happy to hear of counterarguments, without invective, and in the end we would probably conclude that our needs differ and we bought what matched our requirements. As you appear new to this, this is called "civilised debate" - look it up some time.

      Your style is of a 3 year old who has not yet found the right toy but is jealous of any other kids who have already found the toy they want. Let me know when you grow up. Judging by your post (and many others who post similar invective) this may either take some time or never happen at all.

    7. Wibble
      Windows

      Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

      I don't suppose you have the FACTS to back that assertion? Such as comparing like with like?

      Many of the Apple devices cannot be compared with other companies due to the unique attributes that Apple create, e.g. the operating system and application ecosystem. You can't get iOS on non-Apple devices. You can't get OSX on non-Apple devices (no, not hackintosh).

      When looking at Macs, please show me the *equivalent* device from another major manufacturer. Sony, Dell, et al, where equivalents do exist (e.g. screen resolution, performance, weight, size, CPU, etc.) are *always* more expensive than Macintosh. And you have to run that Windows shit.

      Some of us are very happy running Apple kit. It works. Sure there's issues, but generally the benefits way way outweigh the drawbacks.

      Now go and do some research to back up your opinion then share it with us.

      1. WhoaWhoa

        Re: Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

        "Many of the Apple devices cannot be compared with other companies due to the unique attributes that Apple create, e.g. the operating system and application ecosystem. You can't get iOS on non-Apple devices. You can't get OSX on non-Apple devices (no, not hackintosh)."

        Apple hasn't created an operating system for years since before giving up on its Next-based efforts. Apple uses an operating system developed by others (Unix... yeah, yeah, yeah... BSD, Mach kernel, blah, blah, blah... but it sure quacks like a Unix, and smells as sweet), and then sticks its own blingy GUI and label - OSX, iOS - on the top. And just like it shouts "Look at us high-fiving, we make the best!" and the hard-of-understanding queue for "designer" Emperor's New Clothes, so the same queue-meisters believe that the "best" includes an Apple designed OS.

        1. Lord Elpuss Silver badge
          Facepalm

          Re: Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

          @WhoaWhoa

          Your argument that Apple didn't design the OS is like saying Ferrari didn't design the 599 GTB because they bought the seats in from Recaro.

          OSX may have a UNIX kernel, but as an OS it's most definitely Apple-designed.

          1. WhoaWhoa

            Re: Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

            "OSX may have a UNIX kernel, but as an OS it's most definitely Apple-designed"

            I think you're confusing operating system with graphical user interface.

            1. Lord Elpuss Silver badge
              Stop

              Re: Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

              @WhoaWhoa

              "I think you're confusing operating system with graphical user interface."

              No I'm not.

              The clue's in the name; the Operating System is the System used to Operate the computer. This is generally accepted to be a combination of the kernel, low-level utilities and an interface, graphical or otherwise. See, amongst others, http://www.linfo.org/operating_system.html.

              Feel free to disagree if you want, but you will put yourself in a massive minority (of one).

              1. Goat Jam

                Re: Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

                "Operating System is the System used to Operate the computer [...]

                Feel free to disagree if you want, but you will put yourself in a massive minority (of one)."

                Erm, make that two.

                op·er·at·ing sys·tem

                noun

                noun: operating system; plural noun: operating systems

                1. the software that supports a computer's basic functions, such as scheduling tasks, executing applications, and controlling peripherals.

                The clue, as you say, is in the word basic.

                Your "definition" may be what is colloquially "understood" by people who do not in fact understand such things at all but anybody who has done a degree in computer science prior to the last decade would understand that the operating system is more closely analogous to the Kernel than the shiny point and drool user environment as used to "Operate the computer".

                1. Lord Elpuss Silver badge
                  Boffin

                  Re: Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

                  "1. the software that supports a computer's basic functions, such as scheduling tasks, executing applications, and controlling peripherals

                  I could be arsey about this, but let's take a mature approach. I said above that an operating system is generally accepted to comprise a kernel, one or more utilities and an interface of some sort. Your quote above serves to reinforce this.

                  Task scheduling is performed by a utility (in the case of user-initiated tasks) or directly as a kernel operation for system-level calls.

                  Executing applications is a kernel operation, often (but not always) driven by an interface where the user or another system can provide input.

                  Controlling peripherals requires an interface; to take input from, and direct output to, the appropriate peripheral.

                  If you still don't agree on this then maybe you could quote an example of an operating system that doesn't include an interface. Bearing in mind that networking is also an interface.....

                  1. Goat Jam

                    Re: Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

                    You are confusing "interface" with "user interface". In this context they are not the same thing.

                    To expand on your printer example. I could use a user interface (bash) to open the vi program to edit a crontab file and schedule a printer to run a job overnight.

                    Later that evening, the operating system will send jobs to the printer via the printer interface.

                    The word "operating" in the term "operating system" has nothing to do with the users interaction with the computer. The user does use a user interface to send commands to the operating system but that is as close as they get.

                    Here is the dummies version of the process of printing to a printer:

                    User -> User Interface -> Operating System -> Printer Interface -> Printer

                    Alternately the cron example I used would be like this:

                    User -> User Interface -> Operating System -> File System Interface -> File (ie modify the cronfile)

                    later . . .

                    Operating System -> Printer Interface -> Printer

                    Of course those arrows can be (and usually are) bi-directional depending on the task being performed.

                    You can wish that your definition is correct all you like, it won't make it true.

                    1. Lord Elpuss Silver badge
                      WTF?

                      Re: Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

                      Utter unmitigated bollocks. Obviously I can't convince you, and I really can't be bothered to try any more; I'll leave you with the wise words of Google. Try searching for 'operating system definition'; doesn't matter which link you click on, they all say you're wrong.

                      For fuck's sake even the first link, the one where you got your definition from, shows an operating system as interfacing with a screen and keyboard (amongst others); i.e. things that USERS use.

                      http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/O/operating_system.html

                      http://cplus.about.com/od/introductiontoprogramming/g/opsystemdef.htm

                      http://www.techterms.com/definition/operating_system

                      http://pcsupport.about.com/od/termshm/g/term_os.htm

                      I'm done here. Feel free to write a 16-page rebuttal; nobody else here is going to read it any more, including me. Have fun.

          2. WhoaWhoa

            Re: Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

            "Your argument that Apple didn't design the OS is like saying Ferrari didn't design the 599 GTB because they bought the seats in from Recaro."

            A better analogy is that the person who did the spray-paint job on the bonnet would be exagerating their role if they told prospective purchasers that the Ferrari is 'their' design.

            It's likely that some punters would believe the painter, especially if they were infatuated by him / her and didn't know or care much about engineering.

        2. Frankee Llonnygog

          Re: Never let the facts get in front of a good argument...

          "Apple hasn't created an operating system for years" - Well, they haven't released one. Created - who knows?

          "giving up on its Next-based efforts" - The Next-based efforts used in all the Apple devices being sold right now.

          I could respond with more arguments but, hey - blah-blah-blah

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    David 45

    I get you don't like Apple products - fine - but just so I understand: do you think paying any extra money for any extra style, looks or quality is completely wrong and should be mocked? You seem to be remarkably angry about the whole thing.

    Do you apply this credo to all parts of your life? Is everything you own ugly and purely functional? Do you own any art? Do you listen to music of any sort? Are you clothes purely for insulation and coverage, or do you occasionally want to wear something that elevates you above the drab and mundane? Does your house (assuming you don't still live with your parents) have any aesthetic qualities at all, or don't you care as long as the rain doesn't come in too much.

    Do you ever see the beauty in anything and feel it's worth a bit extra, or is your world simply monotonous shades of grey?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: David 45

      Do you ever see the beauty in anything and feel it's worth a bit extra, or is your world simply monotonous shades of grey?

      There may be some white spots from spittle. Foaming at the mouth does that.

    2. Nuke
      Thumb Down

      @AC @ 07:19 - Re: David 45

      Is this the same AC who keeps posting pro-Apple rants in such a superior tone?

      Wrote :- " I get you don't like Apple products - fine - but just so I understand: do you think paying any extra money for any extra style, looks or quality is completely wrong and should be mocked? ... Is everything you own ugly and purely functional? Do you own any art?""

      Style is not something I look for in a phone, and anyway I don't like Apple's style (which is unfortunately aped by many others). There is nothing absolute about style - in 50 years time people will laugh at the Apple style, just as we now laugh at the chrome bulges on 1950's cars.

      WTF does it matter how thin a device is beyond a certain point of convenience? I don't spend any time admiring mobile phones - mine is either in my pocket when I'm out or in a drawer when I'm in, and I don't spend much time phoning. First thing I look for when I buy such a thing is whether I can change the battery when it fails.

      I do own art; I have given lectures on art - ie actual paintings, specialist subject the Pre-Raphaelites. I suspect that someone obsessed with how thin their phone or TV screen is would not have much time for real art.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: @AC @ 07:19 - David 45

        Nuke, wasn't he addressing David45 rather than you?

        You seem to have pulled the trigger half-cocked

        1. Nuke
          Holmes

          Re: @AC @ 07:19 - David 45

          Wrote :- "Nuke, wasn't he addressing David45 rather than you?"

          Yes I know he was, but was clear from the way he laid into David45 that he would assume that ANYONE who criticised Apple's style, including me, was a boor with no taste. So I guessed I would also have AC's disapproval, and rose to it.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: @AC @ 07:19 - David 45

        If you're art-competent (sorry, had to dream up a word there) you will also know there is a difference between art & design. "Design" to me means "actually taking the human user into account", which is the sole and single reason Apple managed to turn the then smartphone industry on its head when it launched the iPhone.

        Apple made smartphones usable. They didn't invent the concept, but they changed the UI to something that actually was usable by non-rocket scientists. That's still the case. However, I am 100% with you on the thinness - I would gladly trade thinness for a battery life that actually extends beyond 24h..

      3. Frankee Llonnygog

        Re: @AC @ 07:19 - David 45

        I suspect that most Apple owners aren't nearly as obsessed with Apple devices as you appear to be.

  4. Yet Another Commentard

    "Business as usual"

    I think Cook is trapped in a difficult place. The Apple Faithful are there because of the Cult of Jobs, with whom Apple had "The Cool™". Jobs would jump on stage and punch well above Apple's weight. People in the UK watching him on video screens would sigh, scream and applaud as he unveiled the next shiny trinket. Media types loved him, and his products.

    With him gone Cook feels the need to try and wear the polo neck and do the same things, but he's, well, just too much of an accountant. he needs to be Tim Cook and not Steve Jobs. Investors want a Steve Jobs, so he feels compelled to dance to that tune. Jobs being venerated does not help - he had hits and misses, but in eulogising the misses are forgotten.

    This is the same issue up the coast at Redmond, where (quite rightly) investors are saying to MS' old guard "Go. It is time for change. Thanks for making this one of the biggest corporations in the world, now leave it to someone who can take it forward". The spectres of Gates and Ballmer at the board table will hamstring any incoming leader. The Board venerates Gates too much, he needs to go for good. Properly.

    This is not new, all companies were start-ups at some point, often via some precocious charismatic upstart who'd be a difficult act to follow (Henry Ford anyone?). The trick is letting the upstart go and moving on the next phase of history.

    Back to Cook - I think Apple would be better served with him back in supply chain and a new, external, clear thinking "visionary" to take the big corner office. Quite who that is, I don't know.

    1. SuccessCase

      Re: "Business as usual"

      Cook doesn't wear polo shirts. Also he is venerated at Apple. People working for him really respect what he is doing. He's also moved the right people into place to do the right things and made some bold strong decisions that are not the hallmark of a mere caretaker CEO (sacking Forstall, putting Ive in charge if all software UI design as well as hardware, engineering the top team of Johnny Ive and Craig Federighi). iOS7 was a huge risk with Ive unproven in the discipline of UI design. On balance it appears they have got it right. It's easy to underestimate the scope for iOS7 to have been a disaster. Look at what happened with Windows Vista. There are aspects that can be criticised of course (and some, if I'm honest, that I think are "rookie" mistakes that are probably down it Ive), but overall it is proving systemically to be an intelligent and cohesive update that has been radical in just the right ways while preserving what is good. After prolonged use I'm finding it has real depth and feels better than iOS6 (especially IMO the way gesture based navigation is working on the iPhone form factor - more so than the iPad). Cook ensured the environment that has brought about this success, and make no mistake, it is a success. In terms of the history of Apple product releases if we include hardware, it may not be the most notable release. However it is easy to get software very wrong and this was very different and right up there in terms if jarring customer comfort so comparable with the release of e.g. OSX. To do that and succeed is a notable win.

      The Apple faithful aren't there because of Jobs, they're there because of Apple's products. The iPhone 5s and 5c sold twice the number in the opening weekend to queuing fanboys than any previous launch. Your narrative simply doesn't fit with that fact.

      1. SuccessCase

        Re: "Business as usual"

        "polo neck shirts", I meant to say.

      2. TheOtherHobbes

        Re: "Business as usual"

        Jobs was primarily a sales genius, with enough tech savvy to ride herd on engineers.

        Cook is primarily a supply chain manager, with enough design savvy to understand that he has no design flair.

        Jobs was passionate and obsessive. Cook is careful, consensual, and calculated.

        Cook will do okay while Apple's markets remain stable. But he doesn't have the insight to pounce on new opportunities.

        Meanwhile, the world is moving past computers-as-products towards ubiquitous-data-as-product. I see no evidence that Cook even understands there's a potential problem for a company that makes shiny, never mind has a solution for it.

        He understands how to make boxes. He doesn't understand how to build ecosystems, or collaborate with developer communities, or create new developer communities, or create new classes of product that are wildly successful and unexpected. Watches and TVs are not on that list because they're ancient consumer tech concepts, not the future.

        So I think the suspicion that Cook is basically Apple's shinier and more polished Ballmer isn't misplaced. My guess is we'll see Apple missing more and more opportunities as the years go by now, and stagnating back towards Amelio-esque irrelevance.

        1. SuccessCase

          Re: "Business as usual"

          "He doesn't understand how to build ecosystems, or collaborate with developer communities, or create new developer communities, or create new classes of product that are wildly successful and unexpected. Watches and TVs are not on that list because they're ancient consumer tech concepts, not the future."

          You may be right, but I don't think you have any basis to make a definitive statement to that effect. The answer is we shall see.

          Here the legacy of Steve Jobs and his style remains an important factor. Many people think of him as a dominant egotist and therefore assume he surrounded himself with unimaginative yes men. However people who worked closely with him have remarked on his obsession with getting only A Team players on board. His big ego, but evident success, also carried a self assuredness and confidence that meant he had no fear or need to be seen as the cleverest person in the room. To all accounts he was passionate about getting the best and brightest self starters around him. It was well known that getting promoted by him was something of walking a tightrope because while would often dominate conversation and put others ideas down if he thought they were expressing a bad idea, he also liked it when he sensed someone was standing their ground against him because they passionately believed in something when he disagreed with it. He respected and sought people who would be prepared to stand up to him and argue with him if they though they were right (they wouldn't always get their way of course. He remained the boss).

          Contrast that with Ballmer, who to all accounts tended to eliminate people close to him who he thought might be a challenge. I don't think this was his defining characteristic by the way and I don't think we was worse in this regard than many other CEO's. I think it's quite a common thing. But his top team have very little profile in their own right, I suspect because at some level Ballmer liked it that way. Where are the people with the profile of Bob Mansfield, Johnny Ive, Craig Federigih or Phil Schiller There are equivalents of course, but they are much less industry characters in their own right.

          Looking at Tim Cook on the stage, he doesn't have the same stage presence as Steve Jobs of course. But he does have presence, is his own man, and has bags of self assuredness. There is a lot more there than a mere accountant, and the fact he hasn't wilted from the comparisons with his predecessor, and the fact surveys of Apple staff have shown they are fully behind in him and believe in him; that says a lot about someone having to take over from Jobs.

          He may not be the visionary on the team, but there are very many ways to be a top CEO, and part of that is knowing who on your team you rely on to ensure your own weaknesses are irrelevant.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Get rid of the analysts

    It seems to me that all these analysts (Gene Munster et al) are the ones who have undue influence on punters/investors expectations without having any accountability for their forecasts (or guesses if you will).

    Cook has done a good job as far as I can see - Apple seem to be doing alright!

    I'm pretty sure he gets fed up with all these analysts predictions and expectations.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Get rid of the analysts

      Cook has done a good job - iPhone sales are up and up - 9m in the first weekend is another record and a bigger step up than the previous record than the analysts predicted.

      You want the best mass market tech, well designed products and great support and you buy Apple. The choice not to buy Apple is typically down to price alone - you really can't really fault the service / support and for the majority the design / build quality is great.

      1. Robert Sneddon

        Re: Get rid of the analysts

        Under Cook this year's financial results for AAPL are flat, no numerical growth with reduced profit margins (more money spent for the same revenue). MSFT's profits and revenues under that blundering incompetent Ballmer are up about 7% year on year over the same period. Cook has an MBA, Ballmer doesn't (and neither did Steve Jobs).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Get rid of the analysts

          [citation]

          Define "flat"

          Define "financial results"

          Find references in the financial statements that both support (and undermine) your position and definitions.

          Then we might discuss cogently with you. Otherwise, troll off back under the bridge.

          1. Robert Sneddon

            Re: Get rid of the analysts

            "CUPERTINO, California—July 23, 2013—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2013 third quarter ended June 29, 2013. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $35.3 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.9 billion, or $7.47 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $35 billion and net profit of $8.8 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 42.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter’s revenue."

            Quarterly figures year-on-year, last year was $35.3 billion, this year $35 billion. That's "flat". Margins are down i.e. less profit per dollar revenue. Apple are forecasting their next quarter to be about the same, revenues in the region $34-37 billion, still pretty "flat".

            MSFT revenues for the same quarter year-on-year, roughly, grew from $18 billion in 2012 to $19.8 billion in 2013, that's 10% growth and not "flat". But Steve Ballmer is "fat" and that's nearly the same word so QED!

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Get rid of the analysts

              "this year's financial results for AAPL are flat"

              That is a quote.You definitely wrote that.

              For most numerate humans (excluding you Mr. Sneddon, R), this means one or more of the following.

              1) Calendar year to date

              2) Fiscal year to date

              3) Calendar year ended year-now minus 1 (2012, I saved you the arithmetic)

              4) Most previous fiscal year ended

              I don't seee the word "quarter" in there and somehow I didn't expect to.

              Choose one or all of these options and get back to me with some numbers supporting your thesis.

              "One swallow does not a spring make" - Aristotle

      2. WhoaWhoa

        Re: Get rid of the analysts

        "The choice not to buy Apple is typically down to price alone"

        No it isn't. It really isn't.

        " - you really can't really fault the service / support"

        Yes you can. You really can.

        "and for the majority the design / build quality is great."

        No it isn't. Some times it's cr*p.

        Designed-to-break, too-thin, overpriced cables are cr*p design, whatever you think of the visuals.

        Ditto so-often-shattered iPhone screens.

        Ditto software that is often, in many respects, more fragile than the comepetition and whose seller is almost never up-front about it's bug status and fix status - as credible in the corporate world as a car manufacturer who never admitted to failures like braking system problems and never did recalls.

  6. Phoenix50

    Frothing...

    And this kind of article is always good for an amusing diversion - watch the Fandroids frothing at the mouths, queuing up to slate Apple and decry the smaller screen, the inferior "this" and the rubbish "that"...

    ...and they forget one simple thing, that you can't defeat faith in Apple by attacking it so bluntly. For those people who buy Apple products, they are guided by their faith in the product. If you don't have it, you'll never understand.

    And if you do, no understanding in necessary.

    1. frank ly
      Happy

      Re: Frothing...

      I knew it - it IS a religion!

    2. Philip Lewis

      Re: Frothing...

      "they are guided by their faith in the product"

      You/I might also add, that objectively, Apple do produce high quality kit and have excellent service. These things inspire a certain faith. The "faith" in the quality,functionality and service of Apple's products is apparently not misplaced.

      The same can be said of many tier one products in many markets. People unable to afford tier one products rarely understand why tier one products got to be such.

    3. WhoaWhoa

      Re: Frothing...

      "...and they forget one simple thing, that you can't defeat faith in Apple by attacking it so bluntly. For those people who buy Apple products, they are guided by their faith in the product. If you don't have it, you'll never understand.

      And if you do, no understanding in necessary."

      Hallelujah brother!

      Amen!

      Pass the collection plate and praise the bitten fruit!

  7. hammarbtyp

    I'll give him a B- grade

    If you are a Apple junkie, there is enough in the iPhone 5S to continue your fix. Since most phones in the UK are bought on contract however it is difficult to see where the 5C fits in. The up front price is hidden in the contract and spread over 24 months so the difference is not enough to make people think again. It is not helped the despite the best attempts of the apple spin doctors, the 5C is already seen as the lesser cheap phone.

    Saying that both phones compete well on price with other flagship phones from Samsung and HTC. The bigger problem is tablets. Tablets are bought up front so the price differences are more obvious. The iPad range is looking increasingly expensive compared to similar products from Google, Amazon and a plethora of other android clones. While the App market does not yet have the quality, that has narrowed quite markedly in the last year. With the increased number of android tablets out there developers are seeing a huge benefit of developing both apple and Android versions.

    It may also prove a lot harder to differentiate in terms of features than with phones. It is difficult to see apart from screen resolution and processor power Apple can improve in the iPad. These are areas where the competitors can quite easily keep up or even overtake Apple.

    It will be interesting whether will maintain there premium pricing strategy or do something Apple in the past has never done and discount there products.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'll give him a B- grade

      > It is not helped the despite the best attempts of the apple spin doctors, the 5C is already seen as the lesser cheap phone

      It _is_ the lesser cheap phone. That's because it had less features, sightly less expensive materials, and well, it's cheaper. It's just not lesser-cheap enough to keep the reviewers happy. Apple can't win on this one it seems (too cheap and I predict they would have gotten kicked for producing a crap phone which too few features, and too expensive they get kicked for not cheap enough).

      The interesting data seems to be that rather than buying the 5C punters are buying the 5S. Far from buying a competitor product and abandoning Apple, the 5S shipments are looping excellent. My only complaint is the psychedelic icons and the parallax gimmic - it's pointless, just like window animations on Ubuntu. At least you can turn (most) of it off.

      1. Frank Bough

        Re: I'll give him a B- grade

        Ironically, the white iPhone 5C is the purist bit of Apple industrial design in years.

        1. Philip Lewis

          Re: I'll give him a B- grade

          well spotted, sort of. I disagree that is is the "purest", but it indeed does look good.

          (bootnote: Who chose that 'orrible green??? Fire her arse, before it spreads!)

  8. Tromos

    Curates egg performance from Cook.

    Firstly, let me clarify that I'm not a fan of Apple products, I've always preferred black and gothic to white and rounded.

    It is early days yet in the reign of Tim Cook, but his performance thus far has been good in places, bad in others. Not much different from the last few years of Steve Jobs if the reality shields are breached. The maps fiasco can be weighed against the holding it wrong (but have a free bumper). On the good side, the decision to make a smaller tablet. Having dismissed it, the Jobs ego would never have allowed him to back down and admit the evidence of demand. The peak share price was obviously unsustainable and the company have done well to get it as high as it is riding currently. As for the analyst that predicted the ridiculous 2015 figure, well, there's always one.

    Over the next couple of years, Cook's grades firmly rest on the success or failure of the iWhatever. It is unlikely to be of the magnitude of the iPod or iPhone, but if it turned out to be a success on that scale, it could well start to reduce the hold that the Jobs legend still possesses. Cook is in the comfortable position of knowing that a new set of the current product line with minor tweaks is still likely to bring in enviable profits, even if it disappoints a few analysts. It buys him time to get his people to come up with something. I look forward to reading his report card in a couple of years.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Curates egg performance from Cook.

      >Over the next couple of years, Cook's grades firmly rest on the success or failure of the iWhatever.

      The problem Cook has is that many have very short memories and can only think of the more recent "disruptive"/market-changing iPod, iPhone, and iPad. We shouldn't forget that before the iPod release in 2001, the last market-changing product was the Mac launched in 1984.

      So I think whilst it may be nice to think that the next iWhatever will be disruptive, I suspect it is more likely to be what we are now seeing, incremental (but notable) enhancements of existing products and steps into new product markets related to the existing portfolio. In so doing maintaining the Apple brand and market presence, whilst the out-of-field thinkers come up with the next market-changing product.

      1. Frank Bough

        Re: Curates egg performance from Cook.

        Not true. Much more significant was System 7, which Microsoft copied (poorly) to make Windows 95, which changed the world.

        1. Roland6 Silver badge

          Re: Curates egg performance from Cook. @Frank Bough

          The topic context was Apple...

    2. Frankee Llonnygog

      Re: Curates egg performance from Cook.

      Assuming you could buy a Gothic phone, it would soon wear a hole in your pocket. At least it would be a device you could a-spire to, though the price might be steep-le

      I'll get my cape

  9. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    "Apple, Sun, Novell next companies to die."

    Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

  10. Mage Silver badge

    Cook

    Jobs was erratic and irrational and relied on Charisma.

    Cook is probably a nicer and better boss than those at Google. Balmer, Larry Ellison and Elop.

    The Touch Screen Smart Phone is a mature market now like that for the Mac Laptop or iPod or iPad. It's impossible to predict what the next success for Apple will be or if there will be another like iMac, iPod, iPad and iPhone. An Apple TV or iWatch won't be it. Probably not an iPippin either.

    They would be mad to try and complete on price with entry level tablets, phones and "notebooks". Cook will probably try and maintain the Apple Marketing Ethos and Apple as the world's most successful niche consumer media electronics company. Jonathan Ives isn't even really a true HW designer. He is a stylist and even admits he copies and admires Dieter Rams. Having him set the look and feel of the GUI as well as the package is a good idea. Having him run Apple would be a disaster.

    Apple products fill a niche in the market. I personally find them a bit expensive and limited as I'm a poor engineer. Nor do I update my gadgets because a new version arrives but because the old one is unrepairable.

    We are probably at Apple Peak, but I think that would still be the case if Jobs was in perfect health and magically 10 years younger too. It happens to almost all companies as a market becomes mature. RCA was once a Behemoth, but "died" 1986. Today it's just a badge. A future start up becoming the size RCA was or Apple is is unlikely to be selling Radios and TVs (RCA) or Phones. The iPhone + iPad likely now dwarfs iPod and Mac profits to small change and iPhone much more than iPad.

    The iPhone came just as more powerful ARM, commodity Phone chips and larger Displays were easy to integrate. They could only have done it so well at most a year earlier. Also a big ingredient was widespread network upgrades and good data plans. Without the Data Plans the iPhone would have been merely a phone with local media player. albeit with a sensible GUI (though Trolltech had demonstrated similar a Phone edition touch GUI to replace their WinCE like PDA edition first!) That "trick" can only be done once.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Cook

      One reason why Apple has been so successful is because they are on the leading edge of hardware advancement. Read the story of how the iPod was developed. Apple wanted to do an MP3 player for years but was waiting for the appropriate storage technology to show up--which it did, with miniature hard drives.

      I would be disappointed if Apple tried to do a mainstream TV or watch. I don't know what innovation they could bring to the table. It is fun to think of what they could do. I was hoping they would sort out the whole "pay by bonk" situation. (Even though millions of Android phones have NFC, I think I've only ever seen one person try to pay for something with it, and it didn't work. I think Apple would do a much better job.) Or maybe a system for cars. Or home automation. Dunno...

      1. jonathanb Silver badge

        Re: Cook

        I don't know what Apple could bring to the TV market either. If I did, I would do it myself, and be a lot richer than I am. However, I do know that they can do something.

        I have loads of different boxes attached to my TV, to receive signals from various sources such as DVB-T2, DVB-S2, Ethernet for steaming and on-demand TV, USB, Blue Ray and so on. Each has its own remote control, and different user interface.

        Live TV should work the same whether it comes from IPTV, aerial, satellite or cable. And the UI for on-demand should be the same no matter where it is coming from. It also needs to be much easier to use.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Cook

      "Jobs was erratic and irrational and relied on Charisma"

      She said there was nothing like that between them, it was just a normal boss/PA relationship. That hussy in Accounts Receivable though, she'd do anything in the stationery cupboard except keep stationary.

  11. William Boyle

    Keyword: comfort

    The tech business is NOT the domain for the "comfortable". The only way to succeed or move forward is by conflict/discomfort. Jobs knew this, at least at a cellular level, and that is why he and his teams were such successful innovators. Cook will fail, although the factors of inertia and momentum will carry him though a few more years of "success", albeit declining success, before he drives AAPL into the ground.

    1. Philip Lewis
      Trollface

      Re: Keyword: comfort

      A bold assertion

      We, The Register readership, may choose to remind you of this at some future date

  12. Philomena Cunk

    What I want to know - Jony Ive

    What came first: The Hipster name or the Hipster job?

  13. Daniel von Asmuth
    Gimp

    Ballmer

    Jobs said, "We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that."

    It's in fact easier to sell ten $500 PC's than one $5000 PC. Apart from the price tag and the fact that you have to buy Winddows separately, Apple is selling the same pieces of junk as the Microsoft crowd.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ballmer

      You've obviously never used any Apple hardware then. If you think e.g. a $1000 MacBook Air is the same piece of junk as a $500 PC laptop, you're living in fantasy land. Cheap PC laptops are made of cheap plastic with low structural rigidity, ugly vents positioned seemingly at random, screens with such poor viewing angles that part of the image is washed out no matter where you're viewing it from, keyboards that flex, parts of them get unreasonably hot and they're often loud, poor battery life, large power brick with no cable management system that's awkward to plug in (no MagSafe), a trackpad that spazzes out more often than not when you try to scroll or do multitouch, and plus the trackpad and keyboard are made of cheap plastic that gets shiny and disgusting from oils on your fingers after a few months.

      Don't get me wrong, it's a miracle of technology that anybody can build a modern, functional laptop in the $300-$500 range, but you're an idiot if you think they're just as good as a MacBook (or many more expensive PC laptops).

    2. Frank Bough

      Re: Ballmer

      You make less profit on the ten than on the one. Who's stupid now? Apple has been successfully fighting against commoditisation for decades, and that's why they've got $150bn in the bank.

  14. rcorrect
    Pirate

    "In normal times...

    ...evil should be fought by good, but in times like this, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil."

    This quote from a movie that best describes Steve Jobs. Apple has never been on the side of the consumer, but Steve Jobs was able to make many think otherwise and a necessary evil to save the company from itself. Unfortunately, nothing has really changed, except their profit margins being greater than ever. I love Mac OS X but fixing my 2008 iMac was a pain in the butt. Fixing a new iMac? HA HA HA! Next computer is definitely gonna be a Hackintosh. At least then I can easily replace the hard drive/graphics card or add more RAM.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "In normal times...

      "Fixing a new iMac? HA HA HA! Next computer is definitely gonna be a Hackintosh. At least then I can easily replace the hard drive/graphics card or add more RAM."

      Just buy a Mac Mini. Easy to disassemble, uses standard parts, etc. Plus, small, quiet, and not very expensive (at least when you factor in eventual resale value).

      I wouldn't touch an iMac with a 10 foot pole but I love my Mac Mini.

  15. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    IMHO

    Was Apple's stock overvalued? Most definitely. Is the new CEO a disaster? Well, no, but he does not have Steve Jobs' reality distortion field either, so I don't expect Apple to just keep flying high forever -- I also don't expect it to crash and burn though.

    Re: the Quicktake 150. Yes. A $700 digital camera, 640x480, and took photos in proprietary format (they had to be *converted* to JPEG or TIFF after transfer to the computer.) Oh, and the transfer was by serial cable so it took a while (although, at the time, there was not USB so this is fairly unavoidable.) (The 100 only had Mac cable and software, the 150 also had PC-compatible serial cable and software for WIndows 3.1) The big mistake was the technology wasn't there yet, and Apple overestimated the market for a high cost, low-resolution camera. I don't like saying "Apple was just ahead of it's time" because usually it's simply Apple fanboi'ism and not true. But in this case it's true; if Dell or HP had tried to come out with an inexpensive digital camera, they would have ended up with a $500+ 640x480 camera too.

  16. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Go

    The anti-capitalistic mentality is strong in this thread.

    Apple should be attacked for one thing only: Their attempt to control the market through monopolistic practices: patents, lawfare and engineered incompatibilities.

    For the rest, go forth Apple, and break up sclerotic shit.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Which monopoly is that, actually?

  17. Slap

    Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Google, Linux.

    Don't hate the players, hate the game.

  18. loneranger
    Unhappy

    Whoa

    Two years already!? I am really getting old fast. Seems like it happened just a year ago

  19. Nearly Anonymous
    Meh

    quicktake

    The QuickTake line was introduced in 1994 while Gil Amelio started in 1996. I recall my CS prof having one and taking photos of us. Anyhow, associating Amelio with the QuickTake's development is grossly unfair to both.

  20. Greg J Preece

    And yet my main reaction to this article was "holy shit, it's been two years since we lost Steve?"

  21. Knives&Faux

    Apple are set to release a new OS called Sanctimony and become an official religion by 2017.

    Perhaps then they can do a Jim Jones and spare the rest of us.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Judging by the majority of post here, Sanctimony will be the new flavour of Android...

  22. Smoking Gun

    I haven't any real beef with Apple, at least not enough to foam at the mouth about like some posters. I've had an iPhone 3, 5 and iPad 2 over the years and all have done a pretty decent job for me.

    I like the consistency between devices, ease of OS updates, app management and choice is excellent. I've grown to detest iTunes, I'm convinced there is a Vodafone issue that is limited to iPhone in the UK (I get a better 3G signal in rural France than I do in the Southampton suburbs) and I was loathed to have to changed a load of accessories when I got my 5 which simply seemed like a con.

    They are more expensive than others (and while it was given to me by work), I was willing to pay that bit extra. I don't think I will in future. Apple got a big jump on the market but there is very little between smartphones and tablets these days. I can access the apps I need on most of them now.

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