Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo / AP
Apple and the Press
Tim Cook has been CEO of Apple for over a year now, and has been subject to a lot of examination lately. It's assumed the CEO will keynote this year's World Wide Developers' Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco on the stage former (and late) CEO Steve Jobs so relished, and this is almost invariably the forum for launching new stuff.
I know at least one person going to DubDubDeeCee and I will talk to her afterwards (if you are going, I am interested to talk to you, too, so if you'd like to talk about it after, please get in touch).
You never really know what's going to come out, as Apple is so super secretive, but when the totally new iMac shape (still current, after some gentle form tweaks and a move to aluminium) came out a few years ago, it surprised everybody. That level of surprise is almost impossible these days - both the leaks and the levels of scrutiny have ratcheted up dramatically since then. On the back of that, it's widely expected that new MacBook Pros are a cert, at least in the 15-inch variety, iPhone 5 comes next, and new iMacs with new CPUs are possible. People also hope for some kind of announcement on the Mac Pro: a new model or will it be deleted? But there have been no leaks about that at all. For months.
Apple used to invite journalists but that hardly happens any more - I have, to my great regret, never been to an Apple event, but I really hope to go. One day ...
Apple has a strange relationship with the press. When you try and control a relationship so stringently, mutual trust normally becomes a casualty, and Apple is extremely cautious with any kind of contact that may get out of hand. As an example, I love this passage from CNN Money: "In February of this year, a group of investors visited Apple as part of a 'bus tour' led by a research analyst for Citibank. The session started with a 45-minute presentation by Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, and the 15 or so investors who attended the session were treated to Apple's unique brand of hospitality: They met in a threadbare conference room in Apple's Town Hall public conference centre at the 4 Infinite Loop building in Cupertino, California, where the refreshments consisted of "three stale cookies and two Diet Cokes," in the words of one participant."
All de rigueur for Apple, I'm afraid. But that's when things changed. What really shocked the investors, as it was so unlike the Old Regime of Jobs, was that CEO Tim Cook popped into the room about 20 minutes into Oppenheimer's talk, sat down quietly in the back, and he listened. He didn't check his email once. He didn't interrupt.
Those three things are all completely the opposite of the late Jobs' self-absorbed manner.
Cook later answered all their questions in a straightforward manner.
People think Cook's an excellent CEO. eWeek gives ten reasons why, starting with the seamless transition from Jobs to Cook with no lag for uncertainty and disquiet.
There may be a sea change at the top, but it hasn't so far led to anything perceptible to the more peripheral characters who need to deal with Apple.
I haven't met Cook (I didn't meet Jobs either), but so far I appreciate his honesty and the fact he's brought some humanity back to The Inc.
Before becoming CEO, Cook strengthened Apple's cooperation with its contract manufacturers in China and took it as a personal blow when the New York Times ran a prominent article critical of the working conditions in China at Foxconn, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer that assembles most of Apple's products. The exposé painted a bleak portrait of the lives of workers in the factories. To be fair to Apple, plants like this manufacture virtually all the products we buy in the West, not just Apple's, but the schadenfreude seemed to single out Apple in particular to carry the can, as this wonderful Joy of Tech cartoon aptly illustrates (thanks to Paul Stowers for pointing this out).
It seems staff morale is still high at Apple, but so far under Cook's watch, no dramatically new product has been released - the iPhone 4S might be much better than the iPhone 4, but it's basically an upgraded smartphone. So all eyes turn back to that WWDC keynote (June 11, with the keynote scheduled for 10AM US Pacific Time).
As I have written before, a new MacBook may be the departure-from-form we've all been hoping for, and iOS6 and Mac OS Mountain Lion may also at least have their availability definitively announced. But who knows what else?
Cook, hopefully. Recently, he gave a rare interview which has ramped up the general speculation even more, although inevitably some of this comes from reading between the lines.
Cook sounds a bit modest and unassuming, but almost anybody is by comparison to Steve Jobs - and even by comparison to Steve Wozniak, these days. I have even read about how modest Cook's house is, by Silicon Valley magnate standards anyway. But his All Things D appearance presided over by Apple sycophant (in my opinion) Walt Mossberg was in front of a live audience and preceded by a gospel choir and a marching band, I kid you not. To Cook's credit, his opening words were "I would have never agreed to follow that act if you had told me."
It's a fascinating interview despite the shenanigans.
The AppleBitch blog (excuse the name, not my fault) has indulged in this along with many others, but this site often carries good, informed opinion. Besides, I like its attitude: "What makes us so special? Our opinion does. If you don't like it, contribute to the discussion, or bugger off," which kinda succinctly nails the zeitgeist of opinion blogs, don't you think? And please do note that Mac Planet is also an opinion blog, and not 'journalism'.
Reassuring to the faithful, Cook said that 'not accepting things good or very good, but only the best' is embedded at Apple.
"I'm not going to witness or permit the change of that."
But if your burning question was whether Apple was going to merge the toaster and the refrigerator ... no. As Cook told AllThingsD "That's not what is coming next week."
Phew.
Economists expect the recovery continued during the first quarter of the year.