Cook appeared on time at the live broadcast of Apple’s press conference. This was his tenth tenth as Apple’s CEO and the last year of his contract.
Back to August 25, 2011, Steve Jobs, who was seriously ill, announced his resignation as Apple’s CEO and nominated Tim Cook to take charge of the company. At that time, the outside world was not familiar with Cook and he was full of doubts about his ability. But Cook made the best response with rising stock prices. During the nine years he took charge, Apple became the world’s most valuable company.
Cook, a boring rich man
How to evaluate Cook? This is probably as difficult as evaluating historical figures. Of course, Cook must not be measured by Jobs’ standards, otherwise Cook is definitely a loser. Jobs and Cook are two completely different kinds of people. Jobs is a genius product manager, brilliant, eloquent, and has the magic power of a spiritual godfather; while Cook is better at business operations and is an operational talent with a big picture. To make a visual analogy, if Apple is placed in the historical story, then Jobs must be the one who beats the world, while Cook is the one who defends the world. From this perspective, Cook is not the best Jobs is bad.
Jobs was a devout Zen religious believer. He believed in minimalism and infiltrated this concept into Apple products. When he left, Cook was left with almost three minimalist product lines: iPhone, iPad, and iPod. But Cook It went against Jobs’ wishes.
After Cook took over, iPhone models became more and more, iPhone SE, Plus, Pro, Max…the words used for naming are almost not enough. The same is true for the iPad, which Jobs saw as an iPad mini without a market. It was very popular when it was launched. Later, it also launched products with different positioning such as iPad Air and iPad Pro…Facts have proved that Cook did the right thing. While expanding the products frantically, Cook won more markets and users for Apple.
If the products beginning with the word “i” are the precious wealth that Jobs left to Cook, then the Apple Watch released in 2014, the Apple Pencil in 2015, the AirPods in 2016 and the HomePod in 2017 are completely dominated by Cook. For products with Cook’s brand, take the best-selling AirPods as an example, its net profit of up to 35% can generate huge revenue for Apple every year. Some developers analyze that if AirPods is compared to a company, then it is in The market value in 2020 is expected to be 175 billion US dollars, almost the same as the entire Nike company.
But Cook’s most visionary strategy is to establish a complete software and hardware ecosystem. Once you have an iPhone, you want to experience Apple’s entire set of products and services. This is the personal experience of every Apple user. For Cook and Apple, based on the closed and powerful iOS ecosystem, they can completely free their hands and feet to try other things. In recent years’ Apple conferences, more and more services such as Apple Music, Apple New+, Apple TV+ and iCloud have been mentioned. These have provided a steady stream of impetus for Apple’s future development. .
But there is a phenomenon that is also worthy of Apple’s vigilance. Unlike the Steve Jobs era, the Apple conference in Cook’s period is difficult to attract interest, and many people are also complaining about Apple’s conference becoming more and more boring. Indeed, even with first-class product experience and first-class content services, it is difficult to make up for the embarrassing situation caused by lack of innovation.
Who is Cook’s successor?
Can Cook’s successor lead Apple out of its lack of innovation?
Jeff Williams (Jeff Williams) is regarded by the outside world as Apple’s number two person. He has always been regarded as a potential successor to Apple. His current position is Apple COO (Chief Operating Officer). A position was promoted to become CEO. If Cook retire next year, it is logical for Jeff to succeed Cook.
Jeff Williams is like Cook’s shadow. They all have MBA degrees from Duke University. They have worked at IBM for more than 10 years in the 1990s, and they are very close in their areas of expertise. Before joining Apple, Jeff held many operational and engineering positions. After joining Apple in 1998, he became the head of global procurement, responsible for product planning, procurement and logistics. In 2010, he took over the global operations of all Apple products and was promoted to Apple in 2015 COO (Chief Operating Officer), took over Jony Ive, who was solo last year, and began to lead Apple’s design team, responsible for the design of all Apple hardware and software.
Jeff also has abilities that Cook does not possess. In the eyes of many people, Cook is more like a businessman, because Cook is a manager who focuses on operations and light on products. He seldom participates in the product development process, and Jeff is obviously more enthusiastic about products than Cook Some, he will personally participate in product development. If you have watched the press conference a few days ago, you will find that the explanation part of the Apple Watch was completed by Jeff, because he led the development of the Apple Watch. It has been 6 years since the first generation of Apple Watch was released. What started out as an iPhone accessory has become a smart butler and sports health assistant that many people can’t live without. This is inseparable from Jeff’s thorough understanding and precise positioning of the product. From this perspective, Jeff is also Excellent product manager.
In addition to Apple Watch, Jeff has also participated in the early development of iPhone 4, but it has been too long, and the current dilemma facing Apple is much more difficult than that of the iPhone 4, especially in the case of Jonathan leaving, Jeff Whether the design team led by him can maintain the lead and whether Apple led by Jeff can present a refreshing and brand-new look is also a question mark.
Will Apple continue to be great?
In the hearts of many fruit fans, they may still be imagining that Apple can return to the Steve Jobs era and the era of rapid change, but obviously this is impossible. Fantasy is fantasy. Apple has developed into a great company, and its greatness is destined to be impossible. Only stay at the product level, but should have more diverse ways. We can see that Apple is now beginning to take on more social responsibilities, beginning to pay attention to environmental protection, personal privacy, education equality, personal health… and these may be difficult to happen in the Jobs period. But it must also be admitted that Apple has indeed slowed down innovation in recent years. Of course, the delay in innovation is not the only problem Apple faces. At the time when the whole world is moving towards 5G and the Internet of Things, Apple still To face new challenges, even new battlefields, whether it can lead the next wave of technology consumption again, we still have to answer in the future.
Image source: Apple, MacRumors
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