> A leader doesn't have to be visionary all the time
Yes they do. If they're not visionary, then they're just a manager.
Apple grew because of a visionary, and now it shrinks because the best a manager can do is try to maintain the status quo in the face of changing factors. It's fundamentally a losing battle.
Jobs was a business man and manager, and Apple hasn’t had ‘visionary’ product release every single time, some of them were run-of-the-mill upgrades. Arguably, iPhone may be the only major visionary achievement after Mac 1. Anyway, all of the Apple hecklers talked about how Jobs wasn’t a visionary, or had lost his vision, with every single product release, every Mac change, every iPhone, tablet, watch. Claiming that Jobs was the singular visionary and Apple is doomed without him has a long history, somewhat buys into a pro-Apple narrative, and views Jobs with rose-colored glasses. It’s a nice thought, but not exactly accurate.
> and now it shrinks
By what metric is Apple shrinking? They just reported their best quarter ever.
Cook is riding on the upward trajectory that was set before he took his role. Brand image carries a lot of inertia, and as a manager rather than a visionary, cook focused on getting the most use out of that pre-set trajectory while it lasted.
It has run out of energy. If AR doesn't pay off, it's all downhill for Apple from Q4 this year onwards.
This argument gets more and more ridiculous as time progresses. Apple is worth nearly ten times what it was eight years ago. It’s launched a watch which has, in a few short years, overtaken the entire Swiss watch industry in revenue.
This is just another take on the tired argument that Apple is only successful because of a core group of fanboys/girls who will buy anything just because it’s Apple, despite Apple’s customer base being an order of magnitude greater today than it was back then.
I set some fairly short term and trivially verifiable predictions. Save this comment and come back to it at the end of this year.
Unless Apple's AR play succeeds, they're going to be left in the dust by Chinese offerings with better functionality at half the price.
Cook has had the better part of the decade to come up with something new, and has failed to deliver anything except incremental minor updates which are increasingly convergent on competitor offerings. There is clearly no vision.
Are you going to pretend either AirPods or Apple Watch are meaningfully competitive against other offerings on the market?
There are headphones with better spec than airpods at half the price available right now. They're not locked to any ecosystem. Apple has no idea how to continue competing in the envelope of modern hardware because competitors either beat them or match them on every move but without the premium.
Save my comment. Check back in a year. It'll be a good lesson.
> Are you going to pretend either AirPods or Apple Watch are meaningfully competitive against other offerings on the market?
The definition of meaningfully competitive is growth, revenue, and market share. You're implying they're not competitive, which implies you think they're not making money. By what metric are they not competitive?
> There are headphones with better spec than airpods at half the price available right now. They're not locked to any ecosystem. Apple has no idea how to continue competing in the envelope of modern hardware because competitors either beat them or match them on every move but without the premium.
This claim has always been made, for 35 years, and has always been true of all Apple hardware. Yet they compete and make a lot of money. What you're demonstrating is you don't understand what Apple is making or why people buy their products. What you're demonstrating is that better spec cheaper hardware isn't enough to beat the competition.
An upward trajectory set in motion over 8 years ago?
You have no idea what you are talking about. Watch and AirPods were entirely Tim Cook and that’s one of their biggest successes in the history of the company. You don’t think Jobs had significant misfires? The hockey puck mouse, the Cube, the iPhone antenna issue, etc.? People are mad because the thermal properties of their computer are perceived to be less than perfect and somehow Cook is a failure? That’s ridiculous.
In the context of what we're discussing here, everything Apple does is product (including services), and needs a product visionary.
They've degenerated to minmaxing profits and running focus groups to tell them what to do without any overarching vision or long term plan, just like GP commenter said. It's sad. Steve Jobs is spinning in his grave.
Yes they do. If they're not visionary, then they're just a manager.
Apple grew because of a visionary, and now it shrinks because the best a manager can do is try to maintain the status quo in the face of changing factors. It's fundamentally a losing battle.