![]() On Wednesday, it closed at $671.45.īut by staying the course, Cook has raised some concerns that he may lack the imagination and the bold ability to conjure up mind-blowing new products, which was Jobs’ hallmark. A year ago on October 4, Apple stock closed at $381.80 a share. They’ve all been met with solid reviews (Maps app aside) and sold well.Īpple has gone on to become the most valuable company in history. So far, the company has only released minor updates of popular products, like speedier laptops, the new Mac operating system, the refreshed iPod line and the new, taller iPhone 5. ![]() Remember Ping, Apple’s failed attempt at a social network centered around music?Ĭook has not launched any bold new products in the past 12 months. “To simply put Steve Jobs on some sort of pedestal and say Apple could do no wrong under Steve’s leadership is wrong,” said Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg. Unfortunately for Apple’s soft-spoken chief executive, he has been incessantly compared to his predecessor after every presentation, successes and failures. He is still discovering his own style – a tricky undertaking given the abnormal amounts of scrutiny that follow Apple’s every move.Ī recent article by Bloomberg Businessweek, citing interviews with current and former Apple executives, employees and partners, states “the company is happier and even somewhat more transparent than it was during Jobs’ tenure … There are fewer frantic calls at midnight, and there’s less implicit pressure on engineers to cut short or cancel vacations in the heat of product development cycles.”Ĭook recently announced that most Apple employees at company headquarters will get the week of Thanksgiving off with pay, according to reports. His product announcements are not one-man shows, but presentations shared with other Apple executives. Cook comes off as having a far more relaxed and approachable personality, and he is less inclined to be the center of attention. Who is the next Steve Jobs (and is there one)?Ĭook’s mea culpa is just the latest demonstration of how he, and by extension Apple, is different from Jobs and the Jobs era at the company. Some pundits compared his swift and contrite reaction to a terse and rare public apology from Jobs more than a month after complaints over the iPhone 4’s antenna erupted in 2010. The new Maps app crafted in-house by Apple to replace Google Maps on iPhones and iPads was riddled with flaws, from missing features to misplaced businesses, landmarks and even towns.Ī week after the phone hit stores, Cook apologized for the map publicly and, with surprising humility, even pointed customers to competing products. The most recent display of the company’s shift in tone was its reaction to the bungled iOS 6 Maps app. Apple also allowed the Fair Labor Association to do a thorough audit of conditions at the China factories, and Apple vowed to improve pay and hours. He took a trip to China and toured a Foxconn plant in person. On a call with investors in February, Cook answered questions, cracked jokes and was generally open and friendly.ĭid Apple’s fanboy fever peak with Steve Jobs?Īfter an outcry over working conditions at the factories of Apple’s manufacturing partners, most notably Foxconn, Cook took swift action. ![]() ![]() A more sizable act of goodwill was the cash dividend Apple paid out to investors – the first in 17 years. There was a bus tour of investors that stopped at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, where they were treated to cookies and a presentation by Apple’s chief financial officer. Apple was no stranger to lobbying (although it spends far less than some other Silicon Valley companies, like Google), but sending Cook was a way of letting politicians know Apple was ready to grow its relationship with Capitol Hill and that the company might take a stronger interest in policy issues in the future.Īpple also has worked harder to woo Wall Street. In May, Cook went to Washington to meet with congressional leaders to open lines of communication that were mostly blocked in previous years. By contrast, Apple from the outside has appeared more open under Cook, thanks to a number of orchestrated meetings and trips meant to appeal to the various factions – consumers, investors and politicians – interested in the world’s leading tech company. ![]() In the year since Steve Jobs’ death, Apple has undergone a gradual and subtle brand makeover, shaking off some of the more unpleasant characteristics associated with Jobs and taking on bits of the personality of its new leader, Tim Cook.įor all his brilliance at product design, Jobs showed little interest in glad-handing with Apple partners or investors. ![]()
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