According to recent analysis by The Wall Street Journal, Apple product delay’s have been almost doubled under Tim Cook. Meanwhile, the company posted Q3 earnings of US$8.7 billion in profits on US$45.4 billion in revenue in 2017. So product delays don’t necessarily mean Apple is doomed and gloomed.
Product Delays
And the piece acknowledges that it’s not fair to criticize Tim by one metric:
Mr. Cook’s tenure has been successful by other measures. Revenue has more than doubled, despite stalling in the past two years, and Apple’s share price has more than tripled in the past six years to record-high territory. The company has said it expects in final three months of 2017 to hit a new sales record.
The product delays the WSJ refer to are the HomePod, the original Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Pencil, and the Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro. I’m not going to bother comparing Tim with Steve Jobs; they are different people with different leadership styles and Tim’s Apple is different than Steve’s Apple.
It’s not the little Ferrari that Steve built for himself,” said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates. “It’s become this big organization, and that has to contribute to some unevenness of execution.
I think Apple definitely missed an opportunity not having the HomePod and AirPods ready for the holiday season. Instead, the App Store made records for strong holiday sales. Personally, I would rather have Apple wait until the HomePod is ready, rather than rushing a half-baked device to market.