Tim Cook’s legacy as Apple’s excellent CEO seems unlikely to be threatened. But in recent months, especially in recent days, it is at least conceivable that it is impossible.
The latest tremor is apple The announced chief operating officer Jeff Williams will retire every year after 27 years. Just a day ago, the company’s executive, Ruoming Pang, left YuanAnother senior AI researcher, Tom Gunter, also left a few weeks ago. The image of leading the Exodus is taking shape.
More broadly, Apple stocks have fallen 7.2% over the past year, while S&P has risen 6.5% Nasdaq Increased 12.9%.
These events have put Apple’s most worrying weaknesses at the forefront. Most importantly: the obvious serious lag behind competitors that incorporate AI into products and services. Last year, as Hollywood shines, the company launched Apple Intelligence, a version of AI that can only be created by Apple, the creator of the world’s most friendly products and services. But this is not that way. So far, the company has formed a partnership with Openai to do some trivia for Apple’s virtual assistant Siri, which has reportedly considered working with the crowd, and working with Anthropic and Cloxity AI.
For companies with Apple’s size and status, the main competitors behind AI are like competitors behind the Internet in 2000. AI is a general technology and these things don’t happen often. The Internet is one. The same is true for digital calculations and electricity. They changed the world and completely changed the business landscape of every company.
With that in mind, it’s clear how Tim Cook became one of the greatest CEOs from 2011 to date, but it may not be the best choice for the AI era.
As a background, remember that Apple has had amazing success in Cook. When Steve Jobs became CEO, the company was worth about $300 billion. Now worth $3.2 trillion, which is a significant CAGR of 18.4% over 14 years. Few people realize that Cook creates far more shareholder wealth than Jobs.
But now you can observe carefully. Craig Moffett, founder of Moffettnathanson Research, is one of the few Wall Street analysts who have selling advice on Apple Stock. He is also an admirer of the chef. “By any normal metric, his tenure has been a huge success,” Moffett said. But then he looked at how to succeed. “They haven’t made major new products outside of earbuds in a decade,” he said. “Apple is doing much more in the innovation process than Tim Cook’s tenure.”
“But to be fair, no one can deny Cook’s record, which is through precisely executing strategies and manufacturing products that have taken action a few years ago,” Moffett said.
Now, product innovation issues are becoming particularly important, because it is not clear which products are suitable for the AI revolution. Apple’s long-time design genius Jony Ive left the company in 2019 and is now working with Openai; rampant speculation led him to create a new device for AI, perhaps a pendant or pen. If any such projects are being carried out at Apple, they will be deeply hidden.
Among the known products, Apple’s Vision Pro goggles are a high-end niche, with its HomePod and HomePod Mini Smart Smart speakers having little success. But if smartphones are not at the center of life in the AI world, Apple could be hurt. “There is an annoying problem among investors, and it’s growing, which makes people unprepared for Apple’s things like this change,” Moffett said.
Cook will still surprise us. After all, Apple is a famous secret. Maybe it will suddenly reveal amazing new equipment or services. Maybe it will buy with a large AI company or partner, changing the entire competitive landscape. If that happens and succeeds, Cook can consolidate his position as one of the great CEOs of all time. But if none of these events happen at some point–they seem unlikely to happen, then Apple’s board of directors must remember that no CEO is suitable for all seasons, and the advent of AI makes the new season fundamentally different from the past 14 years.
