I think Apple should give Sony more or less what they want and get on with it, they can afford too. Sony have obviously managed to come to agreements with all the other music streaming services, including this latest Google variation. Why not with Apple? The company must be trying to cheap skate on price too much, or Sony just has it in for Apple maybe. But I'm getting a bit fed up with the company falling behind all the other tech entities on all these new developments. I'm worried its going to get to the point that nobody cares anymore, and then Apple is really screwed!
Didn't you read the article? It was rumored that negotiations with Sony were holding things up, just like it is rumored that Apple is working on some sort of streaming service. Both may be prove to be true but no one knows for sure.
I really would like to see what you or anatksundaram could come up with that Tim Cook could conceiveably say .....
It's really quite simple.
Consider that he is the CEO of the largest (or the second largest, depending on the day), and arguably, the most exciting company in the world. It is a company that, in the past decade-and-a-half, has consistently and radically defined the future of consumer tech. It is a job for which he has been carefully groomed over many years (by one of the greatest visionaries of our time), and one that he actually had experienced (before going solo). He has been an integral part of its second coming.
I expect that someone in that role is a thinker, and not just a doer.
He should do a major speech addressing the following types of issues (given all of the above, it is not at all a tall task -- I would ask these of a garden variety CEO, let alone a company about which I deeply care as both a consumer and a shareholder):
1) Lay out his vision for consumer technology. What is his framework for thinking about the industry and its future?
2) Looking ahead to 2025, what are the big forces, the mega-trends, shaping opportunities in the industry? What are the major threats?
3) Where does he think the industry is headed? What makes the future exciting? When he gets up every morning, what gets him juiced up about the possibilities that might the next 15 years?
4) In the broadest terms, where does he see Apple as a company in 2025? What is his vision for the business? What are its greatest strengths? How does he plan to enhance those strengths? Building? Buying? Enhancing existing positions or creating new products and services? How does he view competition?
5) How will supply chains, manufacturing, customer experiences evolve in the future? What leadership role does he see for Apple in these areas?
I have little interest in hearing about Apple's product roadmap or ROIC goals or whether or not they have great innovation the pipeline or whether they expect to have an EPS of $100 by 2018. Those are details. I want to know who he is, and what he thinks about the future. Most importantly, I want to have confidence in his framework for thinking about the future.
This mentality that its the market and not Apple is comical at best, but more likely delusional. Apple screwed up. Anyone without their head in the sand can see it. They missed a product cycle. They rested on their laurels. They misunderstood consumer demand. Earnings are expected to drop like a rock this quarter, down 23% year over year. Earnings for the fiscal year are expected to drop 15%. The market is reacting to a shrinking company, a company that is in a secular growth market but seemingly can't grow any longer. Any top line expansion is getting eaten up by margin erosion. Markets they dominate are getting saturated. Nobody doubts the products are top notch, but the company, the business, the management has certainly lost its luster. Everyone expected growth to slow at some point. Few saw this company hitting a wall overnight and earnings grow going from hugely positive to negative in such a short period of time, all while its peers continue to grow. I can't see how even the most ardent Apple supporters aren't alarmed by the appearance that this company will basically go an entire year without a single new product or announcement. Nothing. Who in their right mind manages a company like this and puts everything out all at once. Competitors have figured out how to beat Apple - move faster and make Apple look bad, take the narrative away......sadly it is working and this has the feel of a self-fulfilling implosion because of the arrogance management is showing.
Everyone laughed at Tim's "doubling down on secrecy" statement and now that it is actually working, everyone thinks Apple is resting on their laurels and doing nothing. If this is true, where are all of the mass layoffs? It shouldn't take that many employees to maintain the status quo especially for a company as greedy as big bad Apple. Heck it should only take a couple of unpaid interns to flatten out iOS7. Wall Street hates Apple because the don't have to bow to their pressure so they bash them as being not innovative. You should be happy that Cook is giving in somewhat with actually taking on debt so analysts would be happy. What Google announced today is not innovative, it is just a combination of existing services that exist separately. Convenient maybe, but not innovative. If you are so confident in them, sell any Apple stock you may have and ride the Google wave. Then you will have no reason to cry here.
You really need to stop boring the heck out of us with this EV crap.
I'd say it once and move on if every tom, dick and harry here didn't immediately look at market cap for a 'gotcha' moment. OK, you guys got me, Apple has a higher market cap despite dropping by ~$250 billion while Google has increased by 50-100 billion the last 6-12 mos. Does the $300+ billion change in market caps make you feel better now?
Consider that he is the CEO of the largest (or the second largest, depending on the day), and arguably, the most exciting company in the world. It is a company that, in the past decade-and-a-half, has consistently and radically defined the future of consumer tech. It is a job for which he has been carefully groomed over many years (by one of the greatest visionaries of our time), and one that he actually had experienced (before going solo). He has been an integral part of its second coming.
I expect that someone in that role is a thinker, and not just a doer.
He should do a major speech addressing the following types of issues (given all of the above, it is not at all a tall task -- I would ask these of a garden variety CEO, let alone a company about which I deeply care as both a consumer and a shareholder):
1) Lay out his vision for consumer technology. What is his framework for thinking about the industry and its future?
2) Looking ahead to 2025, what are the big forces, the mega-trends, shaping opportunities in the industry? What are the major threats?
3) Where does he think the industry is headed? What makes the future exciting? When he gets up every morning, what gets him juiced up about the possibilities that might the next 15 years?
4) In the broadest terms, where does he see Apple as a company in 2025? What is his vision for the business? What are its greatest strengths? How does he plan to enhance those strengths? Building? Buying? Enhancing existing positions or creating new products and services? How does he view competition?
5) How will supply chains, manufacturing, customer experiences evolve in the future? What leadership role does he see for Apple in these areas?
I have little interest in hearing about Apple's product roadmap or ROIC goals or whether or not they have great innovation the pipeline or whether they expect to have an EPS of $100 by 2018. Those are details. I want to know who he is, and what he thinks about the future. Most importantly, I want to have confidence in his framework for thinking about the future.
And why would they do it? So Sams and Googles of the world would steal is and use it? We all get mad off any tiny leak about any future product and you want them to layout the whole roadmap til 2025? Maybe, since there are at it, reveal the engineering drawings and computer codes? Because, you know, a few shareholders want to know.
I'd say it once and move on if every tom, dick and harry here didn't immediately look at market cap for a 'gotcha' moment. OK, you guys got me, Apple has a higher market cap despite dropping by ~$250 billion while Google has increased by 50-100 billion the last 6-12 mos. Does the $300+ billion change in market caps make you feel better now?
And how exactly does it affect Apple? It didn't change their on-hand cash, did it? Well, maybe a little.
And why would they do it? So Sams and Googles of the world would steal is and use it? We all get mad off any tiny leak about any future product and you want them to layout the whole roadmap til 2025? Maybe, since there are at it, reveal the engineering drawings and computer codes? Because, you know, a few shareholders want to know.
Quite clearly, you're clueless about what I actually wrote.
Shades of "Fringe", an alternate universe is intruding on our own!
Google rolls out a streaming "radio" service today and offers it as a subscription, users paying real dollars. Apple's radio service is still to come but rumored to be ad-supported??
Consider that he is the CEO of the largest (or the second largest, depending on the day), and arguably, the most exciting company in the world. It is a company that, in the past decade-and-a-half, has consistently and radically defined the future of consumer tech. It is a job for which he has been carefully groomed over many years (by one of the greatest visionaries of our time), and one that he actually had experienced (before going solo). He has been an integral part of its second coming.
I expect that someone in that role is a thinker, and not just a doer.
He should do a major speech addressing the following types of issues (given all of the above, it is not at all a tall task -- I would ask these of a garden variety CEO, let alone a company about which I deeply care as both a consumer and a shareholder):
1) Lay out his vision for consumer technology. What is his framework for thinking about the industry and its future?
2) Looking ahead to 2025, what are the big forces, the mega-trends, shaping opportunities in the industry? What are the major threats?
3) Where does he think the industry is headed? What makes the future exciting? When he gets up every morning, what gets him juiced up about the possibilities that might the next 15 years?
4) In the broadest terms, where does he see Apple as a company in 2025? What is his vision for the business? What are its greatest strengths? How does he plan to enhance those strengths? Building? Buying? Enhancing existing positions or creating new products and services? How does he view competition?
5) How will supply chains, manufacturing, customer experiences evolve in the future? What leadership role does he see for Apple in these areas?
I have little interest in hearing about Apple's product roadmap or ROIC goals or whether or not they have great innovation the pipeline or whether they expect to have an EPS of $100 by 2018. Those are details. I want to know who he is, and what he thinks about the future. Most importantly, I want to have confidence in his framework for thinking about the future.
Just an opinion, but I think Tim Cook is such a great strategist, and such a thinker, that he knows he can't address any of your points honestly without incurring great fear and/or ridicule from the likes of those whom you see posting on this very thread.
The project Apple is engaged in is too revolutionary to be explicitly outlined. It would be suicidal to do so, and I think Tim Cook has pondered this with Jobs and others in the company long and hard.
The closest historical parallel to what has happened in personal computers since 1984 is, as I've said here before to great scepticism, the appearance of the Aldine portable book around 1500. In effect, Aldus put out the first personal book, and he focused on aesthetics, usability and great software in doing so.
Apple's project is no less than the total reform of all communication, all recording technology, and all knowledge distribution, including both entertainment and education. This is a 500-year event in human media history.
If Apple were to talk honestly about the future, there would be a great howling from the likes of Tim O'Reilly (the publisher), who said that Apple is after total domination of the world, or words to that effect, a couple of years ago.
This is not true, because I think Steve Jobs made sure that everybody after him would follow the Buddhist/psychedelic precepts of focusing on the moment (the product at hand) and making the world better.
If you do that, you may indeed end up ruling the noösphere (as did the printed book until now) but it would be for a good purpose, and it would be very wrong to talk about it in advance. Nor would you want to own the Enlightenment, just help it along.
Tim Cook can't say a word about wearable computing or worldwide face-to-face communications, or whatever. The fundamentalists, the opportunists, the paranoid and the Luddites are watching.
If you don't mind, take a look at my addition to the post right above this. I really would like to see what you or anatksundaram could come up with that Tim Cook could conceiveably say that would not be a tipoff or get him in trouble.
As for Jony Ive, it's not in his character. He's an artist who thinks in terms that can hardly be given human speech. Not a public speaker in business language, bless him.
That's the best part about Ive. It's not business speak. It's passion. In that Bloomberg piece about iOS 7 they mentioned that Ive held a 2+ hour townhall with software engineers/designers to discuss his vision (and that Cook was in attendance). Wouldn't it be great to hear some of that vision? I'd love to know some of what he's thinking (that doesn't give away the store obviously) about computing and interacting with technology in the 21st century.
I guess what really frustrates me is I think Apple is a great company with great products but day after day they're getting punched in the gut and not really doing anything about it. Like a kid at school getting picked on and not fighting back. And after a while perception starts to turn in to reality and it's hard to turn around. Especially now that Steve is gone.
Quite clearly, you're clueless about what I actually wrote.
Surely my fault for expressing it so poorly.
On my initial reading I thought "Why would Tim Cook tell the world what Apple's plans are for the next 20 years" now I realize it's your list of what TC should be doing which of course very few have that insight.
That's the best part about Ive. It's not business speak. It's passion. In that Bloomberg piece about iOS 7 they mentioned that Ive held a 2+ hour townhall with software engineers/designers to discuss his vision (and that Cook was in attendance). Wouldn't it be great to hear some of that vision? I'd love to know some of what he's thinking (that doesn't give away the store obviously) about computing and interacting with technology in the 21st century.
I guess what really frustrates me is I think Apple is a great company with great products but day after day they're getting punched in the gut and not really doing anything about it. Like a kid at school getting picked on and not fighting back. And after a while perception starts to turn in to reality and it's hard to turn around. Especially now that Steve is gone.
I didn't see that Bloomberg piece, I'll have to look it up.
To your last paragraph, I see the same cloud of gnats around Apple, but I think of Tim Cook as more of a solid character hardly bothering to swipe them away. He reminds me of Richard Evans Schultes slogging through the Amazon jungle, gathering specimens, taking notes, getting the job done. The doubters will get their comeuppance when he gets back to headquarters and publishes.
Watch me get nailed on that comparison by someone who knew Schultes.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by tdmelvin
You forgot Google Health as well.
It might be a little bit premature but I would add Google Glasses. Exceptionally hideous product.
Didn't you read the article? It was rumored that negotiations with Sony were holding things up, just like it is rumored that Apple is working on some sort of streaming service. Both may be prove to be true but no one knows for sure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flaneur
I really would like to see what you or anatksundaram could come up with that Tim Cook could conceiveably say .....
It's really quite simple.
Consider that he is the CEO of the largest (or the second largest, depending on the day), and arguably, the most exciting company in the world. It is a company that, in the past decade-and-a-half, has consistently and radically defined the future of consumer tech. It is a job for which he has been carefully groomed over many years (by one of the greatest visionaries of our time), and one that he actually had experienced (before going solo). He has been an integral part of its second coming.
I expect that someone in that role is a thinker, and not just a doer.
He should do a major speech addressing the following types of issues (given all of the above, it is not at all a tall task -- I would ask these of a garden variety CEO, let alone a company about which I deeply care as both a consumer and a shareholder):
1) Lay out his vision for consumer technology. What is his framework for thinking about the industry and its future?
2) Looking ahead to 2025, what are the big forces, the mega-trends, shaping opportunities in the industry? What are the major threats?
3) Where does he think the industry is headed? What makes the future exciting? When he gets up every morning, what gets him juiced up about the possibilities that might the next 15 years?
4) In the broadest terms, where does he see Apple as a company in 2025? What is his vision for the business? What are its greatest strengths? How does he plan to enhance those strengths? Building? Buying? Enhancing existing positions or creating new products and services? How does he view competition?
5) How will supply chains, manufacturing, customer experiences evolve in the future? What leadership role does he see for Apple in these areas?
I have little interest in hearing about Apple's product roadmap or ROIC goals or whether or not they have great innovation the pipeline or whether they expect to have an EPS of $100 by 2018. Those are details. I want to know who he is, and what he thinks about the future. Most importantly, I want to have confidence in his framework for thinking about the future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdnc123
Value = enterprise value
You haven't been paying attention.
You really need to stop boring the heck out of us with this EV crap.
Sign up before June 30th and it's only 2X for more functionality and to actually make a profit.
Everyone laughed at Tim's "doubling down on secrecy" statement and now that it is actually working, everyone thinks Apple is resting on their laurels and doing nothing. If this is true, where are all of the mass layoffs? It shouldn't take that many employees to maintain the status quo especially for a company as greedy as big bad Apple. Heck it should only take a couple of unpaid interns to flatten out iOS7. Wall Street hates Apple because the don't have to bow to their pressure so they bash them as being not innovative. You should be happy that Cook is giving in somewhat with actually taking on debt so analysts would be happy. What Google announced today is not innovative, it is just a combination of existing services that exist separately. Convenient maybe, but not innovative. If you are so confident in them, sell any Apple stock you may have and ride the Google wave. Then you will have no reason to cry here.
Huh, that's interesting. . . The Galaxy S4 available with stock Android?? Available thru Google Play beginning June 26th
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
You really need to stop boring the heck out of us with this EV crap.
I'd say it once and move on if every tom, dick and harry here didn't immediately look at market cap for a 'gotcha' moment. OK, you guys got me, Apple has a higher market cap despite dropping by ~$250 billion while Google has increased by 50-100 billion the last 6-12 mos. Does the $300+ billion change in market caps make you feel better now?
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
It's really quite simple.
Consider that he is the CEO of the largest (or the second largest, depending on the day), and arguably, the most exciting company in the world. It is a company that, in the past decade-and-a-half, has consistently and radically defined the future of consumer tech. It is a job for which he has been carefully groomed over many years (by one of the greatest visionaries of our time), and one that he actually had experienced (before going solo). He has been an integral part of its second coming.
I expect that someone in that role is a thinker, and not just a doer.
He should do a major speech addressing the following types of issues (given all of the above, it is not at all a tall task -- I would ask these of a garden variety CEO, let alone a company about which I deeply care as both a consumer and a shareholder):
1) Lay out his vision for consumer technology. What is his framework for thinking about the industry and its future?
2) Looking ahead to 2025, what are the big forces, the mega-trends, shaping opportunities in the industry? What are the major threats?
3) Where does he think the industry is headed? What makes the future exciting? When he gets up every morning, what gets him juiced up about the possibilities that might the next 15 years?
4) In the broadest terms, where does he see Apple as a company in 2025? What is his vision for the business? What are its greatest strengths? How does he plan to enhance those strengths? Building? Buying? Enhancing existing positions or creating new products and services? How does he view competition?
5) How will supply chains, manufacturing, customer experiences evolve in the future? What leadership role does he see for Apple in these areas?
I have little interest in hearing about Apple's product roadmap or ROIC goals or whether or not they have great innovation the pipeline or whether they expect to have an EPS of $100 by 2018. Those are details. I want to know who he is, and what he thinks about the future. Most importantly, I want to have confidence in his framework for thinking about the future.
And why would they do it? So Sams and Googles of the world would steal is and use it? We all get mad off any tiny leak about any future product and you want them to layout the whole roadmap til 2025? Maybe, since there are at it, reveal the engineering drawings and computer codes? Because, you know, a few shareholders want to know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdnc123
I'd say it once and move on if every tom, dick and harry here didn't immediately look at market cap for a 'gotcha' moment. OK, you guys got me, Apple has a higher market cap despite dropping by ~$250 billion while Google has increased by 50-100 billion the last 6-12 mos. Does the $300+ billion change in market caps make you feel better now?
And how exactly does it affect Apple? It didn't change their on-hand cash, did it? Well, maybe a little.
Surely my fault for expressing it so poorly.
Shades of "Fringe", an alternate universe is intruding on our own!
Google rolls out a streaming "radio" service today and offers it as a subscription, users paying real dollars. Apple's radio service is still to come but rumored to be ad-supported??
Quote:
Originally Posted by willb2064
So the 'uniquely Google approach' is to charge 2.5x what a Pandora subscription costs?
I didn't know Pandora allows me to pick any song to play. Did they just add this?
Just an opinion, but I think Tim Cook is such a great strategist, and such a thinker, that he knows he can't address any of your points honestly without incurring great fear and/or ridicule from the likes of those whom you see posting on this very thread.
The project Apple is engaged in is too revolutionary to be explicitly outlined. It would be suicidal to do so, and I think Tim Cook has pondered this with Jobs and others in the company long and hard.
The closest historical parallel to what has happened in personal computers since 1984 is, as I've said here before to great scepticism, the appearance of the Aldine portable book around 1500. In effect, Aldus put out the first personal book, and he focused on aesthetics, usability and great software in doing so.
Apple's project is no less than the total reform of all communication, all recording technology, and all knowledge distribution, including both entertainment and education. This is a 500-year event in human media history.
If Apple were to talk honestly about the future, there would be a great howling from the likes of Tim O'Reilly (the publisher), who said that Apple is after total domination of the world, or words to that effect, a couple of years ago.
This is not true, because I think Steve Jobs made sure that everybody after him would follow the Buddhist/psychedelic precepts of focusing on the moment (the product at hand) and making the world better.
If you do that, you may indeed end up ruling the noösphere (as did the printed book until now) but it would be for a good purpose, and it would be very wrong to talk about it in advance. Nor would you want to own the Enlightenment, just help it along.
Tim Cook can't say a word about wearable computing or worldwide face-to-face communications, or whatever. The fundamentalists, the opportunists, the paranoid and the Luddites are watching.
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
Quite clearly, you're clueless about what I actually wrote.
Surely my fault for expressing it so poorly.
No, you expressed your thoughts quite succinctly . It just they don't make any sense at all.
I guess what really frustrates me is I think Apple is a great company with great products but day after day they're getting punched in the gut and not really doing anything about it. Like a kid at school getting picked on and not fighting back. And after a while perception starts to turn in to reality and it's hard to turn around. Especially now that Steve is gone.
On my initial reading I thought "Why would Tim Cook tell the world what Apple's plans are for the next 20 years" now I realize it's your list of what TC should be doing which of course very few have that insight.
I didn't see that Bloomberg piece, I'll have to look it up.
To your last paragraph, I see the same cloud of gnats around Apple, but I think of Tim Cook as more of a solid character hardly bothering to swipe them away. He reminds me of Richard Evans Schultes slogging through the Amazon jungle, gathering specimens, taking notes, getting the job done. The doubters will get their comeuppance when he gets back to headquarters and publishes.
Watch me get nailed on that comparison by someone who knew Schultes.