rogifan_old

nolamacguy said:

rogifan_old said:

I go back and forth on Cook. He probably was the right guy to be interim CEO when Steve was sick because that was mainly managing Apple operationally. And maybe he was the only one the other SVPs would report to. But I never thought he was very good at giving the world Apple's vision and when you watch a keynote you get a lot of what and how (Schiller & Ive) but very little why. And because Apple is so secretive everyone is left guessing where it might be going next. What was the point of letting CBS into Apple's design studio when all we saw were a bunch of tables draped in sheets?

I can't remember the keynotes where Jobs unveiled their product roadmap or opened the design kimono to the press. which were those?

I never used the phrase "product roadmap". That is not the same thing as vision. Name me the last keynote where you got a clear sense of Tim Cook's vision for the company, outside of his typical only Apple can do hardware, software, services blah blah blah. Why hasn't he done a better job of getting Wall Street to stop focusing on iPhone units and more on, say, install base and ARPU? The biggest reason the stock has lost over $200B in the last 6 months is because Wall Street is panicking over how many iPhones will Apple sell and is it more or less than the same time period from the year before. I think it's up to Tim Cook and the management team to get Wall Street thinking about the company differently, and that goes beyond telling them not to focus on supply chain noise.

johnjohnstone said:

rogifan_old said:

I wonder at what point we hear louder complaints about Tim Cook's leadership like we did back in 2013. Yeah there's never shortage of analyst blabbing on sbout what Apple needs to do but in 2013 there were actual rumors about whether the board was looking to replace Cook. They were most likely BS but they were out there. Having over $200B in market cap wiped away in 6 months is something Tim will have to answer for even if Apple the company and AAPL the stock are alternate universes in some ways. I have a feeling this earnings call is going to be brutal. 

Tim Cook and Apple really needs to change their strategy with dealing with Wall Street. Growing iPhone units alone is not good enough anymore. Being super top secret is not good enough anymore. You got to give investors something to look forward to. If Cook confirmed they were working on a car I bet the stock would have not been hit so hard.

At this point I'm not 100% sure Tim Cook is the right CEO right now. He was the right CEO to maximize iPhone unit sales with his vast knowledge of the supply chain. But in this point in Apple's history I think its less about pushing out more units but rather growing services. They may need a new CEO who understands how to grow new services and who is an expert in M&A to put that $200 billion in cash to work. 

Apple's biggest problem right now is its over reliance on iPhone. Until that is solved they will forever be haunted by these supply check stories. They need to grow more services or acquire companies.

Stock is at $95 right now. Stock has lost about $50,000,000,000 in value just this week.

I go back and forth on Cook. He probably was the right guy to be interim CEO when Steve was sick because that was mainly managing Apple operationally. And maybe he was the only one the other SVPs would report to. But I never thought he was very good at giving the world Apple's vision and when you watch a keynote you get a lot of what and how (Schiller & Ive) but very little why. And because Apple is so secretive everyone is left guessing where it might be going next. What was the point of letting CBS into Apple's design studio when all we saw were a bunch of tables draped in sheets?

johnjohnstone said:

rogifan_old said:

Wall Street won't care about that until Apple shows new revenue streams that are effectively monetizing this large install base. All rumors suggest a streaming TV service is off the table. Apple has been pretty quite re: Apple Music, we don't really have a feel for what percent of the install base is subscribing. And Apple Pay doesn't seem to be designed as a money maker in and of itself. So outside of App Store sales what good is this large install base right now?

I've said this before and I'll say it again, one way I think Apple could calm investor fears is if Cook hired an SVP to run Apple's cloud business and oversee maps and Siri. Task this person with really stepping up Apple's game in machine learning and search. Then make Eddy Cue 100% focused on Apple's content business and expanding Apple Pay. Let the design and engineering teams focus on hardware and software and new products and have Eddy be 100% dedicated to monetizing the install base and creating recurring revenue streams. I think the stock would be in a different place right now if Apple Music was thriving and the probability of a streaming TV service was high. So in theory you'd have under Cook:

Jony, Craig, Dan and Johny focused on existing products + new hardware and software;
Phil overseeing product marketing and improving the App Store;
Eddy focused on iTunes, Music, TV, Pay and monetizing the install base
Angela expanding Apple's retail footprint, especially in China;
and then support staff like operations, finance and legal

just my 2¢

I like these ideas.

IMO, Apple has not been aggressive enough in services. They really need to bring in some new hires to head up new services or acquire some companies.

For me paramount is getting Eddy Cue out software as much as possible. Clearly Apple needs to be doing more to monetize it's install base and from everything I've read about Eddy his forte seems to be doing deals so I think having him focus 100% in content and Pay is the way to go. I see little to no evidence that he's the right person to improve Apple's clouds services or get Apple deeper into machine learning and search.

More nonsense about making the phone thinner. Hey media get a clue. There are existing phones plus iPod touch that are thinner than the iPhone 6/S but still use the headphone jack.

johnjohnstone said:

dasanman69 said:

What do you think happens to all those iPhones sold to Gazelle, on eBay, Craigslist and such? 

good point. Forgot about that. If that's the case I wish Tim Cook would announce total iPhone install base each quarter. That way even if the iPhone sales for a specific quarter may be down the install base is steadily climbing.

Wall Street won't care about that until Apple shows new revenue streams that are effectively monetizing this large install base. All rumors suggest a streaming TV service is off the table. Apple has been pretty quite re: Apple Music, we don't really have a feel for what percent of the install base is subscribing. And Apple Pay doesn't seem to be designed as a money maker in and of itself. So outside of App Store sales what good is this large install base right now?

I've said this before and I'll say it again, one way I think Apple could calm investor fears is if Cook hired an SVP to run Apple's cloud business and oversee maps and Siri. Task this person with really stepping up Apple's game in machine learning and search. Then make Eddy Cue 100% focused on Apple's content business and expanding Apple Pay. Let the design and engineering teams focus on hardware and software and new products and have Eddy be 100% dedicated to monetizing the install base and creating recurring revenue streams. I think the stock would be in a different place right now if Apple Music was thriving and the probability of a streaming TV service was high. So in theory you'd have under Cook:

Jony, Craig, Dan and Johny focused on existing products + new hardware and software;
Phil overseeing product marketing and improving the App Store;
Eddy focused on iTunes, Music, TV, Pay and monetizing the install base
Angela expanding Apple's retail footprint, especially in China;
and then support staff like operations, finance and legal

just my 2¢