<story><title>Apple’s new headset meets reality</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-05-18/apple-s-mixed-reality-headset-may-define-tim-cook-s-legacy</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zamnos</author><text>And that, dear reader, is how we ended up with hundreds of bland copy-cat Android phones to the iPhone. There&amp;#x27;s something to be said, mentally, for working somewhere that&amp;#x27;s inspiring. A shitty office in yet a clone of all the other office parks, buried in office-park-landia of San Jose, is not it. Even a stroll through the secret underground parking lot at Apple is inspiring with all the exotic cars that are owned by early Apple employees, instead of Honda Civics and Toyota Camrys. Not that there&amp;#x27;s anything wrong with that, I drive a Honda, but they just don&amp;#x27;t have the same emotional pull.</text></item><item><author>deet</author><text>I strongly doubt that the campus is any more of a force multiplier than a collection of far cheaper class A office buildings of similar capacity, with similarly serene grass and vegetation connecting them.</text></item><item><author>bredren</author><text>It is hard to not compare the breakthrough product release count between Jobs and Cook.&lt;p&gt;If that is the measure, then we have to bring in Jobs&amp;#x27; tenure as not only CEO but company founder that stretched 25 years as CEO, 1976 to 1985 and 1997 to 2011.&lt;p&gt;Cook only took the reins in 2011, and at that time arguably the company should not have focused on releasing yet more revolutionary products.&lt;p&gt;iPhone is the most successful consumer product in history, focus was correctly placed in supporting that, building moats around it and positioning the ecosystem to support the next big thing.&lt;p&gt;One product often left out, which may have started with Jobs, but delivery should be attributed to Cook is the new Apple HQ. The initial impact has crumbled due to Covid WFH.&lt;p&gt;However, this campus may turn out to be a force multiplier going forward. If so, it is a victory, but not in the minds of consumers.</text></item><item><author>tguedes</author><text>Absolutely. Between Apple Silicon, Apple Watch, AirPods, and scaling operations to be able to sell the amount of products they do in a year, that is hard to argue against being an overwhelming success for Tim Cook as CEO.&lt;p&gt;Is it equal to the legacy of Apple under Jobs? Definitely not. But how many other companies&amp;#x2F;people released 3 revolutionary products?</text></item><item><author>bredren</author><text>&amp;gt;underscoring the narrative that the company’s biggest victories were initiated under his predecessor, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs&lt;p&gt;What does the author consider to be a victory?&lt;p&gt;Tim Cook was elevated because he had the operational capability to grow Apple. Jobs did not consider Cook to be a product design person. But Jobs trusted Cook to find and keep people who could design products.&lt;p&gt;By any stretch of the imagination, the company&amp;#x27;s biggest victories have been in growing and holding together the vast ecosystem of HW &amp;#x2F; SW and services that continuously deliver the highest customer satisfaction ratings. The reward for that has been becoming the biggest company in the world. (Some might consider this a victory.)&lt;p&gt;If introducing new hit products is the only kind of victory that can exist, then Apple Silicon and AirPods victories also go to Cook.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>KerrAvon</author><text>This is nonsense. The place where the iPhone was invented, and iterated upon for many successful years, was the Infinite Loop campus, which is pretty much a clone of all the other office parks. Initially, when the iPhone was invented, developers had their own individual offices there, with closeable doors, which was nice.&lt;p&gt;Apple Park: it kinda sucks to actually work at Apple Park. It’s a goldfish bowl. It’s impossible to focus. But, yes, it looks really nice. It’s very pretty, that is undeniable.&lt;p&gt;Also, Teslas and Mercedes aren’t exotic or rare. They just cost a bit more than most Hondas. And the rare, occasional actual exotic doesn’t inspire new features, better design, or QA polish, they just indicate someone’s a pretentious ass with more money than sense. Remember that Steve drove a fairly pedestrian Mercedes.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple’s new headset meets reality</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-05-18/apple-s-mixed-reality-headset-may-define-tim-cook-s-legacy</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zamnos</author><text>And that, dear reader, is how we ended up with hundreds of bland copy-cat Android phones to the iPhone. There&amp;#x27;s something to be said, mentally, for working somewhere that&amp;#x27;s inspiring. A shitty office in yet a clone of all the other office parks, buried in office-park-landia of San Jose, is not it. Even a stroll through the secret underground parking lot at Apple is inspiring with all the exotic cars that are owned by early Apple employees, instead of Honda Civics and Toyota Camrys. Not that there&amp;#x27;s anything wrong with that, I drive a Honda, but they just don&amp;#x27;t have the same emotional pull.</text></item><item><author>deet</author><text>I strongly doubt that the campus is any more of a force multiplier than a collection of far cheaper class A office buildings of similar capacity, with similarly serene grass and vegetation connecting them.</text></item><item><author>bredren</author><text>It is hard to not compare the breakthrough product release count between Jobs and Cook.&lt;p&gt;If that is the measure, then we have to bring in Jobs&amp;#x27; tenure as not only CEO but company founder that stretched 25 years as CEO, 1976 to 1985 and 1997 to 2011.&lt;p&gt;Cook only took the reins in 2011, and at that time arguably the company should not have focused on releasing yet more revolutionary products.&lt;p&gt;iPhone is the most successful consumer product in history, focus was correctly placed in supporting that, building moats around it and positioning the ecosystem to support the next big thing.&lt;p&gt;One product often left out, which may have started with Jobs, but delivery should be attributed to Cook is the new Apple HQ. The initial impact has crumbled due to Covid WFH.&lt;p&gt;However, this campus may turn out to be a force multiplier going forward. If so, it is a victory, but not in the minds of consumers.</text></item><item><author>tguedes</author><text>Absolutely. Between Apple Silicon, Apple Watch, AirPods, and scaling operations to be able to sell the amount of products they do in a year, that is hard to argue against being an overwhelming success for Tim Cook as CEO.&lt;p&gt;Is it equal to the legacy of Apple under Jobs? Definitely not. But how many other companies&amp;#x2F;people released 3 revolutionary products?</text></item><item><author>bredren</author><text>&amp;gt;underscoring the narrative that the company’s biggest victories were initiated under his predecessor, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs&lt;p&gt;What does the author consider to be a victory?&lt;p&gt;Tim Cook was elevated because he had the operational capability to grow Apple. Jobs did not consider Cook to be a product design person. But Jobs trusted Cook to find and keep people who could design products.&lt;p&gt;By any stretch of the imagination, the company&amp;#x27;s biggest victories have been in growing and holding together the vast ecosystem of HW &amp;#x2F; SW and services that continuously deliver the highest customer satisfaction ratings. The reward for that has been becoming the biggest company in the world. (Some might consider this a victory.)&lt;p&gt;If introducing new hit products is the only kind of victory that can exist, then Apple Silicon and AirPods victories also go to Cook.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kbenson</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve always found that after a while the wonder at the flash and pomp of some place that seems new and wonderful like that dies down and it&amp;#x27;s just another place that you do work in.&lt;p&gt;Much more important is the people you interact with every day, both in person and at a distance.  If I had to choose between jobs doing the same work but one was in a closet but interacting with people I like or the apple campus and interacting with people I felt no connection to, I would take the former in a heartbeat.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;m an outlier.  If indeed I&amp;#x27;m not, what does that say for how important and special Apple HQ will end up being in the long run?</text></comment>