Comparing Apple under Tim Cook to Apple under Steve Jobs.
John Gruber, the technology writer who has been writing about Apple for several decades, has written a fascinating article pondering why he – and others – felt a little underwhelmed by Apple’s latest product announcements. In particular, he explores the contrast between Apple when it was led by Steve Jobs and Apple as led today by Tim Cook.
Cook has patience where Jobs would grow restless. In the Jobs era, when a keynote ended, we’d sometimes turn to each other and say, “Can you believe ____?” No one asked that after last week’s keynote. Much of what Apple announced was impressive. Very little was disappointing. Nothing was hard to believe or surprising.
This isn’t bad for Apple, or a sign of institutional decline. If anything, under Cook, Apple more consistently achieves near-perfection. Tolerances are tighter. Ship dates seldom slip. But it’s a change that makes the company less fun to keenly observe and obsess over. Cook’s Apple is not overly cautious, but it’s never reckless. Jobs’s Apple was occasionally reckless, for better and worse.
