the legacy of tim cook
Apple Desperately Needs Its Next Big Thing
The tech giant needs a cool new product — but it seems like Tim Cook is running out of ideas.
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The Lede
By the time Steve Jobs died in 2011, Apple was the most valuable tech company in the world. Then Tim Cook took over. Cook is a numbers guy, not a design guy. Under his tenure, Apple's share price has soared, and investors have been kept happy. But other than the Apple Watch, which was already in the works before Jobs' death, there have been no earth-shattering product launches. Instead, his time as CEO has been defined by squeezing as much as possible out of the successes of the second Jobs era.
Key Details
- In 2023, the company saw four quarters of declining revenue. Apple's own outlook suggests poor iPhone sales will persist, especially as sales in China decline.
- As the Justice Department's recent antitrust case against Apple makes clear, the company's success stems in part from its walled garden that makes it difficult for users to switch to Android devices.
- Already this year, we've seen two major flops from Apple. The first is the Vision Pro headset while the Apple Car didn't even make it out of the gate.
