Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2013, during the fall in Apple’s share price. The references to falling shares, “nothing to announce until June,” the iPhone screen size debate, Samsung gaining ground and the iPad mini as the best-selling tablet describe early 2013.
We already knew that Apple would suffer from the absence of Steve Jobs, and I think very few people expected any new CEO to measure up to Jobs. (Read: The Apple case: since Jobs has been gone, an iPhone is just a phone.) Even so, Tim Cook has made mistakes at the company that we could consider avoidable, to the point that some of them have been such blunders that, if Steve Jobs were still alive, heads would have rolled, especially over number one.
1. Apple Maps was a disaster
In an attempt to compete with Google Maps, Apple launched its own mapping service, which quickly drew thousands of complaints around the world for its huge errors. They even moved the Alhambra of Granada to Cancún. It’s all very well for a product not to be perfect so that there’s room to keep improving it, but when a product is as half-baked as Apple Maps was, the sensible thing is not to release it to the public until it can at least hold its own against its rivals.
2. Hiring John Browett
Companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft usually know very clearly whom they want to hire and why. Tim Cook hired John Browett for a vitally important position at Apple, and he was quickly fired for failing to meet expectations, in what was a record-fast dismissal for this kind of company. It showed that Apple was somewhat lost about what it needed.
3. Losing control of communication with the press
When Apple’s shares plunged, Tim Cook did nothing to stop the rumours and the gloomy predictions in the financial media about Apple’s future. Tim Cook did eventually speak, but his argument was very weak for a situation like that, and the shares kept falling. Most experts agree that Steve Jobs would have managed to stop the bleeding in the share price.
4. Getting the marketing strategy wrong
Apple’s ads aren’t what they used to be. There was a time when Apple focused on the people its products were aimed at, and it did so in a simple, clear and fun way. Now its ads are said to be “stale”, because they’re so focused on the product itself that they forget to reach consumers.
5. Announcing all its launches at the end of 2012
There may be some reason why Apple showed all its cards at the end of 2012. Perhaps it was to stop its shares from falling. The fact is that we could now consider it another serious mistake, because in the middle of the slide Apple has nothing to announce until June, unless it surprises us. As a result, its competitors are getting more visibility today, with all its rivals filling the tech headlines. Apple only gets talked about to remind us how badly its shares are doing.
6. Its products
We’re not sure this part can be called a mistake, although some tech websites complain that iCloud (Apple’s cloud service) doesn’t work well, and say the new iPhone should have had a bigger screen, since Samsung may be gaining ground on the iPhone because of screen size, among other things. “Has Apple stopped understanding what consumers need?” is the question some tech websites are asking.
To be fair, of course, we could say that Tim Cook has also had his smart moments by going against two of Steve Jobs’s decisions:
The first was setting up a dividend plan at the company, since Jobs was not in favour of Apple paying dividends, although it hasn’t been enough to hold up the share price.
The second was not blocking the release of the iPad mini, since before he died Jobs said it should not be brought to market. In the end Cook decided to go ahead with it, and today, according to analysts, it is the best-selling tablet in the world.
Further reading
- Steve Jobs: the CEO inside the genius, and his dark side
- Warren Buffett: “Buying Apple shares now is like buying $1 bills for 80 cents”
- 5 undervalued stocks that could take off
Featured image: Mike Deerkoski, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
