All the same bad business decisions are back at today's Apple (too many unrelated and wasteful projects, focusing on profit margins instead of product quality, losing sight of the core Apple product line, etc), and there is no Steve Jobs out there any more that will step back into the company to straighten it out.
Compare a company making three orders of magnitude more money per quarter now to '80s and early '90s Apple at your own conversational peril.
You're making the logical mistake of presuming vast sums of profit (and stock values) are proof of doing things right in the long term.
Today's Apple is still riding on the success of 2007's (or 2007-2012) Apple. The success and good faith trust in Apple were well earned, via great product (as a result of great attention to detail, Q/A, and design). That value doesn't disappear over night when bad decisions start being made. That success was so great that Apple can continue to burn it for years yet, especially when Wall Street gamblers are kept happy.
So few people seem to understand that change isn't instantaneous. We see how one government administration will take credit for the systemic improvements of its predecessor while evading the blame for the harm they themselves have done once they're eventually replaced by their successor. They succeed at this illusion because of how long it takes for the changes to be measured and reported. This game is played repeatedly, whenever the political pendulum swings.
This is the same process happening with Apple; everyone just promotes the illusion of Wall Street value and profit margins as being absolute indicators of success and "doing things right".
It's not.
We already have plenty of signs that the lack of long term planning with Mac hardware has damaged Apple's installed user base in content creation businesses. We have the media slowly waking up to the short product cycle, the way existing iOS devices are crippled by progressive OS updates, the battery consumption problem, the peak level of bugs in "shipping" product, etc.
[Please don't bother reposting that "debunking" article about how new iOS versions aren't slowing CPUs... a misdirect that has become especially egregious and ironic now that it's been proven that the CPUs are definitely throttled for claims of battery quality issues.]
Apple can turn things around easily at this stage. The concern is whether or not upper management cares to attend to any of these long term quality issues, rather than continue to obey obsessions over profit margins and Wall Street pathology.
There's a lot wrong here, not the least of which is assuming your opinion is the only possible way to interpret events. We've been around and around on the minutiae of this, and I'm not going to go point by point again. At some point, the current head is fully responsible for what's going on, and considering Jobs died seven years ago, and Cook was in charge well before that, at least the last three to four years is fully on Cook and company.
And regarding "egregious and ironic" -- battery throttling for low-volt batteries is not the same as your claim that new iOS versions slows CPU speed -- because they still don't.
Do your thing, man. If Apple's not right for you anymore for whatever reason you want, there are plenty of other tools for you to pick from.
All the same bad business decisions are back at today's Apple (too many unrelated and wasteful projects, focusing on profit margins instead of product quality, losing sight of the core Apple product line, etc), and there is no Steve Jobs out there any more that will step back into the company to straighten it out.
Compare a company making three orders of magnitude more money per quarter now to '80s and early '90s Apple at your own conversational peril.
You're making the logical mistake of presuming vast sums of profit (and stock values) are proof of doing things right in the long term.
Today's Apple is still riding on the success of 2007's (or 2007-2012) Apple. The success and good faith trust in Apple were well earned, via great product (as a result of great attention to detail, Q/A, and design). That value doesn't disappear over night when bad decisions start being made. That success was so great that Apple can continue to burn it for years yet, especially when Wall Street gamblers are kept happy.
So few people seem to understand that change isn't instantaneous. We see how one government administration will take credit for the systemic improvements of its predecessor while evading the blame for the harm they themselves have done once they're eventually replaced by their successor. They succeed at this illusion because of how long it takes for the changes to be measured and reported. This game is played repeatedly, whenever the political pendulum swings.
This is the same process happening with Apple; everyone just promotes the illusion of Wall Street value and profit margins as being absolute indicators of success and "doing things right".
It's not.
We already have plenty of signs that the lack of long term planning with Mac hardware has damaged Apple's installed user base in content creation businesses. We have the media slowly waking up to the short product cycle, the way existing iOS devices are crippled by progressive OS updates, the battery consumption problem, the peak level of bugs in "shipping" product, etc.
[Please don't bother reposting that "debunking" article about how new iOS versions aren't slowing CPUs... a misdirect that has become especially egregious and ironic now that it's been proven that the CPUs are definitely throttled for claims of battery quality issues.]
Apple can turn things around easily at this stage. The concern is whether or not upper management cares to attend to any of these long term quality issues, rather than continue to obey obsessions over profit margins and Wall Street pathology.
So basically, you're saying "Apple is doomed, any day now". Got it!
I don't get the warm and fuzzy feeling from Apple products any longer: they've become ... I'd like to say "iterative" or "evolutionary" but in some cases they've gone backwards. iPhone performance, especially in the latest models simply cannot be beat, but I still don't agree with removing the 3.5mm headphone jack or the fingerprint sensor on the X.
You want evolutionary and complain that Apple no longer innovates, but you'd rather have wires instead of wireless, and physical fingerprint ID instead of facial recognition.
Wires are more reliable, faster, and higher bandwidth than wireless could ever be. A home button iPhone was less convoluted and finger print sensors on home buttons were less complication and more flexible usage.
There's a technology mindset that's kind of pathological. Just because a thing is possible doesn't make it the best choice for the widest usage.
All the same bad business decisions are back at today's Apple (too many unrelated and wasteful projects, focusing on profit margins instead of product quality, losing sight of the core Apple product line, etc), and there is no Steve Jobs out there any more that will step back into the company to straighten it out.
Compare a company making three orders of magnitude more money per quarter now to '80s and early '90s Apple at your own conversational peril.
You're making the logical mistake of presuming vast sums of profit (and stock values) are proof of doing things right in the long term.
Today's Apple is still riding on the success of 2007's (or 2007-2012) Apple. The success and good faith trust in Apple were well earned, via great product (as a result of great attention to detail, Q/A, and design). That value doesn't disappear over night when bad decisions start being made. That success was so great that Apple can continue to burn it for years yet, especially when Wall Street gamblers are kept happy.
So few people seem to understand that change isn't instantaneous. We see how one government administration will take credit for the systemic improvements of its predecessor while evading the blame for the harm they themselves have done once they're eventually replaced by their successor. They succeed at this illusion because of how long it takes for the changes to be measured and reported. This game is played repeatedly, whenever the political pendulum swings.
This is the same process happening with Apple; everyone just promotes the illusion of Wall Street value and profit margins as being absolute indicators of success and "doing things right".
It's not.
We already have plenty of signs that the lack of long term planning with Mac hardware has damaged Apple's installed user base in content creation businesses. We have the media slowly waking up to the short product cycle, the way existing iOS devices are crippled by progressive OS updates, the battery consumption problem, the peak level of bugs in "shipping" product, etc.
[Please don't bother reposting that "debunking" article about how new iOS versions aren't slowing CPUs... a misdirect that has become especially egregious and ironic now that it's been proven that the CPUs are definitely throttled for claims of battery quality issues.]
Apple can turn things around easily at this stage. The concern is whether or not upper management cares to attend to any of these long term quality issues, rather than continue to obey obsessions over profit margins and Wall Street pathology.
There's a lot wrong here, not the least of which is assuming your opinion is the only possible way to interpret events. We've been around and around on the minutiae of this, and I'm not going to go point by point again. At some point, the current head is fully responsible for what's going on, and considering Jobs died seven years ago, and Cook was in charge well before that, at least the last three to four years is fully on Cook and company.
And regarding "egregious and ironic" -- battery throttling for low-volt batteries is not the same as your claim that new iOS versions slows CPU speed -- because they still don't.
Do your thing, man. If Apple's not right for you anymore for whatever reason you want, there are plenty of other tools for you to pick from.
Sigh... did you even read what I wrote?
Aside from the two speed issues you seem to refuse to read correctly...
No, there aren't "plenty of other tools" for me to pick from. There is bad and there is worse. Those are the choices.
The computer industry was a frelling disaster before Apple pushed the damn thing forward (in the years around the first few iPhones and Snow Leopard's era). Apple forced the rest of the industry into dealing with long standing issues. Now, after a brief period of enlightenment, Apple is back to being part of the problem, and the industry is pretty much the same abusive mess it was before (Windows is slightly better, given all the pluses and minuses since XP). I still choose Apple product because, right now, it's the least bad stuff. Things are bad across the board again and tech geeks continue to act like there's nothing wrong and that all computers should be treated as some kind of miracle (and then there's all the special pleading). I was done with that era, but it's come back after a brief respite.
I want Apple to go back to being chosen because of superiority, not because of less annoyance / lesser evil.
All the same bad business decisions are back at today's Apple (too many unrelated and wasteful projects, focusing on profit margins instead of product quality, losing sight of the core Apple product line, etc), and there is no Steve Jobs out there any more that will step back into the company to straighten it out.
Compare a company making three orders of magnitude more money per quarter now to '80s and early '90s Apple at your own conversational peril.
You're making the logical mistake of presuming vast sums of profit (and stock values) are proof of doing things right in the long term.
Today's Apple is still riding on the success of 2007's (or 2007-2012) Apple. The success and good faith trust in Apple were well earned, via great product (as a result of great attention to detail, Q/A, and design). That value doesn't disappear over night when bad decisions start being made. That success was so great that Apple can continue to burn it for years yet, especially when Wall Street gamblers are kept happy.
So few people seem to understand that change isn't instantaneous. We see how one government administration will take credit for the systemic improvements of its predecessor while evading the blame for the harm they themselves have done once they're eventually replaced by their successor. They succeed at this illusion because of how long it takes for the changes to be measured and reported. This game is played repeatedly, whenever the political pendulum swings.
This is the same process happening with Apple; everyone just promotes the illusion of Wall Street value and profit margins as being absolute indicators of success and "doing things right".
It's not.
We already have plenty of signs that the lack of long term planning with Mac hardware has damaged Apple's installed user base in content creation businesses. We have the media slowly waking up to the short product cycle, the way existing iOS devices are crippled by progressive OS updates, the battery consumption problem, the peak level of bugs in "shipping" product, etc.
[Please don't bother reposting that "debunking" article about how new iOS versions aren't slowing CPUs... a misdirect that has become especially egregious and ironic now that it's been proven that the CPUs are definitely throttled for claims of battery quality issues.]
Apple can turn things around easily at this stage. The concern is whether or not upper management cares to attend to any of these long term quality issues, rather than continue to obey obsessions over profit margins and Wall Street pathology.
So basically, you're saying "Apple is doomed, any day now". Got it!
Did you even bother to read my last paragraph? No, it's just more fun for you to toss out "another stupid doom prediction" meme, right? Why should I care about what Apple does? I must hate Apple and want them to fail, right?
Hell no. Apple got me to leave the hell that is the PC and Windows voodoo combo. Why would I want them to fail? An "I told you so" would be absolutely zero win for me in terms of my future computer usage.
But, Fanboy forbid anyone practice some critical thinking and dare to criticize Apple's shortsighted behavior. Sure, let's all just praise Apple blindly, cite the stock market as proof perfect against any and all criticism (as if the stock market were something rational), and never ever ever put voice to the actual viable issues that might indeed lead Apple down a path of self harm yet again (for the same reasons as last time).
A large part of my working career was closely tied with Apple from the late 70's. Looking back, IMHO, we would not have the Apple we have today had Steve not been fired and gone through the entire life experience he had, that being Apple, NeXT, (let's not forget Pixar) and back to Apple. I just wish he'd survived but that's another story.
As an aside, imagine where Apple might be (or not be) had Jean-Louis Gassée not held out for too much money for Be-OS and thus opening the door for NeXT.
All the same bad business decisions are back at today's Apple (too many unrelated and wasteful projects, focusing on profit margins instead of product quality, losing sight of the core Apple product line, etc), and there is no Steve Jobs out there any more that will step back into the company to straighten it out.
Compare a company making three orders of magnitude more money per quarter now to '80s and early '90s Apple at your own conversational peril.
You're making the logical mistake of presuming vast sums of profit (and stock values) are proof of doing things right in the long term.
Today's Apple is still riding on the success of 2007's (or 2007-2012) Apple. The success and good faith trust in Apple were well earned, via great product (as a result of great attention to detail, Q/A, and design). That value doesn't disappear over night when bad decisions start being made. That success was so great that Apple can continue to burn it for years yet, especially when Wall Street gamblers are kept happy.
So few people seem to understand that change isn't instantaneous. We see how one government administration will take credit for the systemic improvements of its predecessor while evading the blame for the harm they themselves have done once they're eventually replaced by their successor. They succeed at this illusion because of how long it takes for the changes to be measured and reported. This game is played repeatedly, whenever the political pendulum swings.
This is the same process happening with Apple; everyone just promotes the illusion of Wall Street value and profit margins as being absolute indicators of success and "doing things right".
It's not.
We already have plenty of signs that the lack of long term planning with Mac hardware has damaged Apple's installed user base in content creation businesses. We have the media slowly waking up to the short product cycle, the way existing iOS devices are crippled by progressive OS updates, the battery consumption problem, the peak level of bugs in "shipping" product, etc.
[Please don't bother reposting that "debunking" article about how new iOS versions aren't slowing CPUs... a misdirect that has become especially egregious and ironic now that it's been proven that the CPUs are definitely throttled for claims of battery quality issues.]
Apple can turn things around easily at this stage. The concern is whether or not upper management cares to attend to any of these long term quality issues, rather than continue to obey obsessions over profit margins and Wall Street pathology.
There's a lot wrong here, not the least of which is assuming your opinion is the only possible way to interpret events. We've been around and around on the minutiae of this, and I'm not going to go point by point again. At some point, the current head is fully responsible for what's going on, and considering Jobs died seven years ago, and Cook was in charge well before that, at least the last three to four years is fully on Cook and company.
And regarding "egregious and ironic" -- battery throttling for low-volt batteries is not the same as your claim that new iOS versions slows CPU speed -- because they still don't.
Do your thing, man. If Apple's not right for you anymore for whatever reason you want, there are plenty of other tools for you to pick from.
Sigh... did you even read what I wrote?
Aside from the two speed issues you seem to refuse to read correctly...
No, there aren't "plenty of other tools" for me to pick from. There is bad and there is worse. Those are the choices.
The computer industry was a frelling disaster before Apple pushed the damn thing forward (in the years around the first few iPhones and Snow Leopard's era). Apple forced the rest of the industry into dealing with long standing issues. Now, after a brief period of enlightenment, Apple is back to being part of the problem, and the industry is pretty much the same abusive mess it was before (Windows is slightly better, given all the pluses and minuses since XP). I still choose Apple product because, right now, it's the least bad stuff. Things are bad across the board again and tech geeks continue to act like there's nothing wrong and that all computers should be treated as some kind of miracle (and then there's all the special pleading). I was done with that era, but it's come back after a brief respite.
I want Apple to go back to being chosen because of superiority, not because of less annoyance / lesser evil.
Nope, I read it correctly, here and in a bunch of other posts. Now, and before, I think you have a rose-colored view of history, and a different interpretation of current events than I do. That's okay, of course.
I get what you want, and why. You're just not going to get it as Apple has a different user base it caters to now that it is making very happy, and I think you know it.
From every credible thing I have seen and heard it seems that the clash was really a clash of cultures that became personalized:
Scully was a corporate executive steeped in making "responsible decisions" (my words). Jobs was a passionate product guy where the product drove the corporation.
Neither, especially Jobs would bend. I suspect that Scully would have liked to have bent and compromised but didn't see any room on the balance sheet to do so.
During his prolonged absence Jobs acquired new and broader insights into how things worked and, when he returned he was better able to integrate and balance both positions.... In short, firing Steve was the best thing Apple ever did for the world: It pushed Steve to grow and mature and he came back stronger than ever.
All the same bad business decisions are back at today's Apple (too many unrelated and wasteful projects, focusing on profit margins instead of product quality, losing sight of the core Apple product line, etc), and there is no Steve Jobs out there any more that will step back into the company to straighten it out.
Compare a company making three orders of magnitude more money per quarter now to '80s and early '90s Apple at your own conversational peril.
Oh ye of limited, quarter focused, ‘vision’. People like your drone a— never create anything and never hold a long view...Shirley Polykof, Mary Wells Lawerence, David Ogilvy, Fax Cone, David Bernbach, Henry Ford, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Berry list goes one. Were they to have the same ignorance as you, i hate to think what the world would have gone without. You are the perilous one.
All the same bad business decisions are back at today's Apple (too many unrelated and wasteful projects, focusing on profit margins instead of product quality, losing sight of the core Apple product line, etc), and there is no Steve Jobs out there any more that will step back into the company to straighten it out.
Compare a company making three orders of magnitude more money per quarter now to '80s and early '90s Apple at your own conversational peril.
Oh ye of limited, quarter focused, ‘vision’. People like your drone a— never create anything and never hold a long view...Shirley Polykof, Mary Wells Lawerence, David Ogilvy, Fax Cone, David Bernbach, Henry Ford, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Berry list goes one. Were they to have the same ignorance as you, i hate to think what the world would have gone without. You are the perilous one.
Might want to revisit the commenting guidelines, internet tough guy. You have no clue what my "long view" is, and there is literally nothing you can glean from it by this comment.
You want to disagree with me, that's fine. However, you will do so respectfully. And, preferably with more content and less noise.
You started off so good... Then you ended with an absurd bit of hand-wringing DOOM narrative. Sorry, but no - Cook will be remembered as one of the most successful CEOs in tech, with incredible, ass-kicking metrics of success. Things like revenue, profit, size...the kind of things owners of a company are actually into. In addition to continuing to be one of the most beloved brands with highest consumer satisfaction ratings.
Your claim that Apple isn't innovated is also poppycock. Their engineering chops continue to push the envelope in multiple product sectors and their product design is routinely aped and imitated by the rest of the industry.
But you want new Macs and you want them now, we get it.
I appreciate your point of view and I admit I'm an "engineering first" sort of person; pragmatism and functional design rule the roost for me. I still have my first iPad 1 (64GB model!) as a nostalgia piece and although the UI has aged, it's surprising just how smoothly it works: the UX is still incredibly intuitive. It really doesn't feel like an old device, despite being stuck with iOS 5.
I still see the original iPhone as being one of the most important consumer electronic devices ever created and although many criticized the iPad when it was released ("it's just a big iPod touch") it resonated with me immediately. As I am back in Canada the first sanctioned iPhone available to me was the 3G and I was smitten. I'd never experienced such a beautifully thought out product (even if backups could take 1/2 hour in those early days). I had some experience developing on early releases of PalmOS and PocketPC systems as well as early universal mobile efforts (specifically WAP) and the iPhone wasn't just a generation ahead, it was jaw-dropping. I still watch the original iPhone keynote once in a while as it was ... perfect. I had every version of the iPhone up to and including the 7+ but then I played with a Pixel XL (revision 1) and I sincerely hope it lasts a while because it's almost the perfect no-compromise phone.
I don't get the warm and fuzzy feeling from Apple products any longer: they've become ... I'd like to say "iterative" or "evolutionary" but in some cases they've gone backwards. iPhone performance, especially in the latest models simply cannot be beat, but I still don't agree with removing the 3.5mm headphone jack or the fingerprint sensor on the X. Siri has stagnated for a significant length of time; there's simply no comparison to Google Assistant. The iMac Pro offers pretty decent performance but I wouldn't dare try to upgrade even something as simple as RAM, and that disqualifies it as a true workstation. I'm an independent developer and I'm simply not spending $6k every two years for a new machine just because I'm looking for a capacity or performance boost. A perfect example of "new Apple" problems is the butterfly keyboard: I don't want a portable that has keyboard issues when exposed to even the smallest quantity of particulate. I've got a ten year old Dell M6400 "Precision Workstation" and it still works flawlessly (with a very simple SSD swap) despite some fairly rough roadwork and a tumble off of a truck tailgate, and my 1950X-based primary workstation should give me a solid ten years with regular updates and maintenance.
I get it, Apple products remain very popular and are constantly being aped, as you say, but that doesn't mean they're the best in class any longer.
Anyway, rant over. I respect your choice of ecosystem but MacOS / iOS just don't have the productivity plus-delta that they used to, at least for my needs. I remain interested in Apple's progress and hope to see a return to a Snow-Leopard-like environment where everything worked, and worked incredibly well. Maybe I'm just getting old. :-)
Maybe it is your age, or maybe it's just a lack of awareness. For an "engineer" you seem strangely unaware of the enormous, industry leading tech leadership Apple has displayed in so many areas, e.g., blown away the competition in that little area called processors??? And, when you are lamenting the "loss" of the 3.5 mm jack in lieu of two way digital interface called lightning, or don't see the huge technological advances required to have achieved Face ID (and yes Apple engineered the first truly successful fingerprint ID ) you should do some re-examination. After that, take a fresh look at things like Apple Watch, where Apple's technology has been so successful that they've left everyone else behind in the new category of wearables, along with the incredible technology packed into the amazing AirPods.
Notsofast said:Maybe it is your age, or maybe it's just a lack of awareness. For an "engineer" you seem strangely unaware of the enormous, industry leading tech leadership Apple has displayed in so many areas, e.g., blown away the competition in that little area called processors??? And, when you are lamenting the "loss" of the 3.5 mm jack in lieu of two way digital interface called lightning, or don't see the huge technological advances required to have achieved Face ID (and yes Apple engineered the first truly successful fingerprint ID ) you should do some re-examination. After that, take a fresh look at things like Apple Watch, where Apple's technology has been so successful that they've left everyone else behind in the new category of wearables, along with the incredible technology packed into the amazing AirPods.
"Engineer" (in quotes) is pretty accurate: I have the degree but didn't get the designation (Apple hired me right out of university to build software so I never did my four year EIT).
I acknowledged the immense delta between the Axx SoC and the SnapDragon / Exynos etc. There's simply no comparison. I do lament the loss of the 3.5mm jack and TouchID; there are both dead-reliable technologies and TouchID doesn't distract while driving at all. Go ahead, tell me that I shouldn't be paying attention to my phone while behind the wheel at all, but when stopped at a light a fingerprint sensor works brilliantly.
You bring up a great point about the Watch (and also one of my points of contention). I wasn't a believer at first, but I'm all in on wearables. I'd LOVE to have an Apple Watch -- it's easily best-in-class, especially WRT the phenomenal sensor array it sports, but it requires an iOS device. Thus I bought one for my wife (who will take her iPhone SE to the grave :-) and I settled for the next-best thing, a Samsung Gear Sport (which, to it's credit, has phenomenal battery life).
I grew up with Apple during the years of the TRS-80, TI-994/A, Atari 400/800 and C64. I always was impressed with what they built. Was the Apple ][ the best gaming machine at the time? Nope, the C64 was, but the phenomenal expansion capability and hackability of the Apple kept me entranced. Never mind the gorgeous PCB layouts that Woz created ... he's a unique genius. I bought a "Fat Mac" (512K) the moment it was released, then a Mac Plus, SE/30, IIx, IIci, IIfx, Quadra 660AV, PowerMac 8100/80, bondi-blue PowerMac G3, dual 1.42 MDD and a tonne of Intel-based machines. I had Rhapsody running on an 8100 long before OS X was released. All in, 100%. The day Apple hired me I damn near went through the roof. I just don't see the same level of commitment to greatness that I once did.
Comments
And regarding "egregious and ironic" -- battery throttling for low-volt batteries is not the same as your claim that new iOS versions slows CPU speed -- because they still don't.
Do your thing, man. If Apple's not right for you anymore for whatever reason you want, there are plenty of other tools for you to pick from.
So basically, you're saying "Apple is doomed, any day now". Got it!
There's a technology mindset that's kind of pathological. Just because a thing is possible doesn't make it the best choice for the widest usage.
Aside from the two speed issues you seem to refuse to read correctly...
No, there aren't "plenty of other tools" for me to pick from. There is bad and there is worse. Those are the choices.
The computer industry was a frelling disaster before Apple pushed the damn thing forward (in the years around the first few iPhones and Snow Leopard's era). Apple forced the rest of the industry into dealing with long standing issues. Now, after a brief period of enlightenment, Apple is back to being part of the problem, and the industry is pretty much the same abusive mess it was before (Windows is slightly better, given all the pluses and minuses since XP). I still choose Apple product because, right now, it's the least bad stuff. Things are bad across the board again and tech geeks continue to act like there's nothing wrong and that all computers should be treated as some kind of miracle (and then there's all the special pleading). I was done with that era, but it's come back after a brief respite.
I want Apple to go back to being chosen because of superiority, not because of less annoyance / lesser evil.
Did you even bother to read my last paragraph? No, it's just more fun for you to toss out "another stupid doom prediction" meme, right? Why should I care about what Apple does? I must hate Apple and want them to fail, right?
Hell no. Apple got me to leave the hell that is the PC and Windows voodoo combo. Why would I want them to fail? An "I told you so" would be absolutely zero win for me in terms of my future computer usage.
But, Fanboy forbid anyone practice some critical thinking and dare to criticize Apple's shortsighted behavior. Sure, let's all just praise Apple blindly, cite the stock market as proof perfect against any and all criticism (as if the stock market were something rational), and never ever ever put voice to the actual viable issues that might indeed lead Apple down a path of self harm yet again (for the same reasons as last time).
As an aside, imagine where Apple might be (or not be) had Jean-Louis Gassée not held out for too much money for Be-OS and thus opening the door for NeXT.
Scully was a corporate executive steeped in making "responsible decisions" (my words).
Jobs was a passionate product guy where the product drove the corporation.
Neither, especially Jobs would bend. I suspect that Scully would have liked to have bent and compromised but didn't see any room on the balance sheet to do so.
During his prolonged absence Jobs acquired new and broader insights into how things worked and, when he returned he was better able to integrate and balance both positions.... In short, firing Steve was the best thing Apple ever did for the world: It pushed Steve to grow and mature and he came back stronger than ever.
You want to disagree with me, that's fine. However, you will do so respectfully. And, preferably with more content and less noise.