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Five years without Jobs, Cook is Apple’s flavour
Five years after Steve Jobs died on October 5, Apple looks and feels very different under the reign of Apple’s chief executive officer (CEO) Tim Cook. The company has introduced many features, which Jobs opposed.
Five years after Steve Jobs died on October 5, Apple looks and feels very different under the reign of Apple’s chief executive officer (CEO) Tim Cook. The company has introduced many features, which Jobs opposed.
Jobs, former Apple CEO, never wanted bigger screens – the phablet model – but Cook introduced the “plus” size iPhone 6 and 7. When Jobs died, iPhone 4’s screen was 3.5 inches. Apple posted its best-ever profits in the quarter after “plus” was launched.
In September 2015, Cook introduced the Apple Pencil with the iPad Pro. In 2007, Jobs said, “Nobody wants a stylus”. He told his biographer Walter Isaacson, “as soon as you have a stylus, you’re dead.”
Apple also launched the HomeKit, its software platform that uses Siri to control lights, locks and other smart home devices. However, Google is ahead in the game after it launched home-automation apps such as the Echo and Home.
Apple also doesn’t have virtual reality products to rival Daydream or Gear VR, but is said to be working on them.
“If you look at the last five years, technology has evolved,” said Tarun Pathak, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research. He further said Google was betting big on artificial intelligence and machine learning, and Apple was out of its comfort zone when it invested in AI. In January, Apple acquired Emotient, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to read people’s emotions and analyse facial expressions.
When Jobs was at the helm, Apple didn’t undertake many acquisitions, as he believed they would reduce the firm’s ability to build technology.
Cook started changing Apple a while ago. He launched the “force touch” that allows you to access an app without opening it, last year, and the Apple Watch that is ranked third in the industry.
But there are a few things that Cook needs to fix. Apple’s virtual assistant Siri that was launched a day before Jobs died still lags behind Microsoft’s Cortana and Google Now.
