Better Apple CEO: Steve Jobs or Tim Cook?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Neither. 

[TheKDub]

The iPhone still had a headphone jack while Steve was around. Tim took it away from us.

[Video Beagle]

Cook by far is the better CEO. That's a business role, and that's his thing. He's one of the best businessmen there is. That's one Jobs picked him.

 

Jobs was a tech visionary. Brilliant at seeing trends and uses for technology that others didn't. He wasn't a particularly good businessman, but generally had a back for finding the right people for the right job. 

 

In MCU terms, it's Tony Stark vs Pepper Potts. (Though movie Tony would be more a merging of Woz and Jobs).

[Video Beagle]

24 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

I mean it's probably a "let our employees present their labour of love" thing for the recent years, but has Tim Cook ever demoed a product on stage?

Cook isn't the tech guy..he's the business guy.  Jobs was more a cult of personality...it all came from him..even if it didn't...while Cook is "I'm the leader of a great team".

[Video Beagle]

12 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

I'm probably too biased from them removing the headphone jack and 3D touch

I still use a 5s, so I have a headphone jack, never had 3d touch, and love my home button.

[Sauron]

15 hours ago, Derkoli said:

Apple wasn't overpriced when steve jobs was around

Yes, it was

 

Tim Cook is "better" if for nothing else because he brought the company to previously unthinkable heights of profit and stock value. That's what a CEO's job is.

13 hours ago, Donut417 said:

But all of these recalls and programs Apple has to setup due to piss poor hardware, wouldn't have happen under him.

Oh, yes they would. Just as an example of how incredibly problematic Apple products could be when Jobs was around, take a look at reliability statistics for G5 powermacs. Up to a 32% failure rate in the first year for some models. Oh, and what about antennagate? I don't think iphones released under Cook have ever reached that level of unusability as a phone. Jobs was a good bullshitter and could sweep all of this under the rug more efficiently than Cook, that's about it.

15 hours ago, RollinLower said:

welcome to tech. everyone in the industry does that.

Not everyone does that and acts like they invented it though.

[DoctorNick]

When jobs was around everything wasn't glued and soldered like it's now

[Fasauceome]

Apple is spinning their wheels, really failing to innovate. The new iMac models are underwhelming with no remarkable new features, the new Mac pro is a meme, including its monitor ($1000 stand RREEEEEE) and the iPhone generations are doubling up, the iPhone 8 is just an iPhone 7 and the iPhone 11 looks to be just an iPhone X with a funky camera. iPads are doing ... something, attempting to replace laptops.

[lloose]

Jobs introduced products and services that defined Apple as a company. 

Macintosh computers.

Itunes

Ipod

Iphone

Ipad

Imac

Macbook Pro

Apple TV

Icloud

 

Tim Cook has yet to innovate or create anything new hardware wise. He has literally just taken when Steve Jobs has done and tried to upgrade it. I say try because while he was upgrading these, they lost some of that special attention to detail that Jobs was famous for.

[Devin92]

if jobs was still around, he would fire/kill the guy that came up with the big-ass notch design of the iphone. No doubt.

As other said jobs defined what is apple. He is the guy in the army that actually conquer lands, while cook is more like maintain what the predecessor has done. Plus, tim became the CEO when android phones were on a inevitable raise. Jobs won't even be able to beat android to ground.

[spartaman64]

23 minutes ago, Devin92 said:

if jobs was still around, he would fire/kill the guy that came up with the big-ass notch design of the iphone. No doubt.

As other said jobs defined what is apple. He is the guy in the army that actually conquer lands, while cook is more like maintain what the predecessor has done. Plus, tim became the CEO when android phones were on a inevitable raise. Jobs won't even be able to beat android to ground.

jony ive? hes the lead designer so it was probably approved by him at least 

[Devin92]

39 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

jony ive? hes the lead designer so it was probably approved by him at least 

what do you mean?

sure Jony ive need to approve the new design before cook sees it. but cook decide to go with it anyway.  we are comparing jobs and cook here.

[spartaman64]

28 minutes ago, Devin92 said:

what do you mean?

sure Jony ive need to approve the new design before cook sees it. but cook decide to go with it anyway.  we are comparing jobs and cook here.

you said jobs will fire the guy that came up with it so that guy is probably jony ive the person jobs hired and is a close friend with

[Drak3]

5 hours ago, lloose said:

Tim Cook has yet to innovate or create anything new hardware wise

1. Not the CEO's job to innovate.
2. Apple was not innovative under Jobs either. Every product you listed, existed prior to Apple.

[realpetertdm]

It's no contest, Tim Apple is the best CEO. This guy knows how to make money - sell overpriced accessories and overpriced pRoo0 products at unknowing consumers.

[macminitosh]

In terms of success, Tim Cook takes the cake every day of the week.

 

But judging by the "cult"-factor, i.e. the way of generating buzz about products, "the art of the keynote" and pushing his team to deliver extraordinary innovations, no one will ever beat Steve Jobs. This man was so far away from reality, he took others with him and made them create what they thought was impossible.

 

Even if at the end of the day, both are great businessmen, I can't help but feel a lack of passion for the product out of Tim Cook. When Jobs was talking about what his company created, you could almost feel how much energy and passion went into creating what you see before you. With Cook, you only get told how much "courage" they had to have to kill a port. Jobs would not have even mentioned it, and you wouldn't have noticed.

 

We've seen what businessmen who don't understand Apple can do the company. That's what John Sculley did: - "Apple is boat, with a hole in the front, and my job is to keep everyone paddling!" (something along those lines)

 

Jony Ive also has had an essential role, but once Jobs was out, and Ive took over UI design, that's when things got crazy. They only produced the best design when Ive and Jobs where around to balance each other out.

 

Apple is becoming a regular company, which is diversifying its lineup to suit all potential customer bases, and in doing so, is killing everything that made apple special. Too many cooks, too many people trying to get even more money than they already make.

[TempestCatto]

Jobs was allegedly an asshat, idk and won't research it so it stays as allegedly. But Apple has turned itself into a company that lies to consumer's faces and to its employees to somehow stay afloat. I don't honestly know how they're even around still knowing what they make and how they are as a company. But at any rate, I don't personally think Jobs would have let Apple fall into this debauchery it now wallows in. I believe he would have kept some morals and we'd have products that not only look good, but that are good. There wouldn't be any of those intentional engineering flaws, third party repairs wouldn't be considered criminal, we'd still have a fucking headphone jack, we wouldn't be using so many damn dongles, there wouldn't be near as much of an up-charge on products that sport 2 generations late hardware - No one would be able to trash Apple as harshly as we do if he was still around. There would be very little to trash them about, mostly petty shit at that.

 

This thread is gonna turn into an all out rage against Apple.

[danomicar]

This thread is going about as expected. Tim Cook is a better corporate face than jobs in my opinion, but I can definitely see why people are preferring Jobs here. Dude has a freakin movie made about his life. You can't compete in that sense. 

[Zodiark1593]

On 9/12/2019 at 4:38 AM, DoctorNick said:

When jobs was around everything wasn't glued and soldered like it's now

Gen 1 iPhone had a soldered battery, as does many iPods from the time.

[macminitosh]

10 hours ago, TempestCatto said:

Jobs was allegedly an asshat

At least the official biography backs up that claim.

 

Jobs wasn't nice, neither to his own family nor to his employees. But especially that last point is playing a huge part in how Apple was able to innovate in the way they did in the early 2000s. Jobs wouldn't accept a 'no, that's not possible' from his engineers. When shown the first iPod prototype, he dunked it in a fishtank and said "there's still air coming out of it, so there's room to make it smaller" (no exact quote). Many people said that Jobs had a Reality-distorting field surrounding him, which affected everyone around him and let them to believe that they could achieve the perceived impossible.

 

And then there's his style of crowd work. You can watch almost any keynote from him and pick up some techniques on how to present better. Cook just doesn't transport the same kind of energy, even when he's trying.

 

10 hours ago, TempestCatto said:

we'd still have a fucking headphone jack, we wouldn't be using so many damn dongles

I don't think that would be necessarily the case. Apple is famous for ditching industry-wide standards for the sake of minimalism and technological advancement (think floppy drives, which apple killed way back in 1998 or something like that).

 

There is many thinks I like about post-Jobs Apple, and I still use primarily apple hardware in my life. Airdrop and iCloud are a huge plus, as well as the integration of iPhone and iPad into macOS (Sidecar, Import from iPhone, etc...) and I really like not having to bother to tinker around with my own devices when I don't want to. 

But there are so much things that are heading in a very dangerous direction: While Mac production quality (100% recycled aluminium) are better than ever, things like the keyboard are a huge disaster. They figured out how to make the very best trackpad in the entire industry, and then they screw up the keyboard. At least they owned up to it and replaced the entire bottom housing including the battery when I turned it in for service. Still, there's a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about what to do when my warranty runs out. The iPhone is becoming feature-overloaded, to an extend where it isn't "so intuitive, a toddler could pick it up and navigate the phone without ever having seen it before".  All the subscriptions that they are pushing. Flexing 130$ wireless keyboards that even come with a 15,000$ iMac Pro. Still having Fusion Drives in 1000$+ devices, and even 5400RPM drives. I mean, come on, not everyone is opening their iMac to replace their hard drive.

 

 

 

[adman29]

On 9/11/2019 at 3:01 PM, Den-Fi said:

Rem is trash.

Take that back! They were a good band

[Devin92]

16 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

you said jobs will fire the guy that came up with it so that guy is probably jony ive the person jobs hired and is a close friend with

well sure. but that design came after jobs passed away. you never know what he would do if jony ive presented this design to him now. I just can't imagine jobs approving such ugly design when he (or under his lead) came up with the original iphone, ipod mac etc.

[TetraSky]

I mean.... What has Cook done that wasn't started by Jobs? So far all I've seen from Apple in the last couple years is re-iterations of products from Jobs' time.... Except maybe for the Apple Watch?

Cook is building on top of Jobs' legacy and as long as he doesn't fuck up, he shouldn't fail.

[RejZoR]

Notch was and still is meant to prevent status info eating away the screen estate, but for some dumb reason people always took it as "notch is eating into the screen estate".

[macminitosh]

12 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

What has Cook done that wasn't started by Jobs?

In Terms of new products, i guess the Apple Watch, Airpods, AirPower (could not not mention), and in Terms of redesigns everything above the iPhone 5, the thin iMacs, and that awful Mac Pros (trash can and cheesegrater 2).