In a recent all-hands meeting, Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees to "stay tuned" about the company's plans for its upcoming 50th anniversary. Apple was founded on April 1, 1976, so the company will turn 50 in a few more months.
I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment — 50 years. It's an extraordinary accomplishment. We've been going back through old archives, old photographs. We've been going back through the products, the services, the people, and I am struck by how much Apple has changed things, how much Apple has changed the world, how much Apple has given to the world. Are we going to celebrate it? You better believe it. We're not ready to say exactly how yet, so stay tuned. Yes. We're not a culture that looks back. So the group of people working on this have had to kind of build a different muscle for this, as our muscle is always about what's next. We've really had to work hard on this to get in a reflective state, but when you really stop and pause and think about the last 50 years, it makes your heart sing. It really does. I promise some celebration.
While it is likely that Cook was referring to a celebration for Apple employees, the company will almost certainly honor the occasion in a big way publicly too.
Apple went from flirting with bankruptcy in the late 1990s to becoming the world's most valuable public company in the early 2010s. It has introduced many iconic products, including the Macintosh in 1984, the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the Apple Watch in 2015. The company reported an all-time revenue record last quarter, driven by all-time high iPhone sales, so the company is still peaking financially.
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Let's all calm down. Of course he looks back all the time and thinks of Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King etc and thinks of the great things. It's all marketing saying 'we don't look back.' Anyway, great time to celebrate! Here's to another 50!
Sadly... People will reflexively latch on to the tiniest minutia if it provides an opportunity to take a swing at Cook.
Portable hand computers that can make a call have indeed changed the world a bit, but Apple did not invent it. Just improved what was already there. Same with the watch, the VP, etc. (The UI for the original iPhone an exception, but perhaps we should acknowledge the Newton folks a bit here and Jobs of course.)
I would argue that the UI for the iPhone is what made portable hand computers what they are now.
its that never look back mentality that strips away what the mac was for those who fought hard to keep it relevant in the dark days. Wish they would throw them a bone and not just a screensaver after 30 years. BRING GRAY BACK into the os, I have had to switch to dark mode to get away from that awful white. You go a few OS's back and it looked so much better back then.
Portable hand computers that can make a call have indeed changed the world a bit, but Apple did not invent it. Just improved what was already there. Same with the watch, the VP, etc. (The UI for the original iPhone an exception, but perhaps we should acknowledge the Newton folks a bit here and Jobs of course.)
Tim & Apple have not given anything to the world really. Rather they leveraged their better devices/UI to return a couple of billion to Tim, and many trillions to shareholders.
Given Tim's poorly worded stmt (IMHO) likely not a lot of humility in the C-Level execs as they measure how much they have given to the world by the measure of their bank accounts and those of their shareholders.
Yes I know that is what they should measure, but please Tim dial it down a bit. You got handed a rare opportunity and did not screw it up. A bit of humility (and a focus on bug fixes) would be welcome for the 50th.
And this is why Cook is the CEO making billions and you're some unknown person complaining on a tech forum. It doesn't matter who invents the thing. What matters is who makes the thing successful. To say that Tim and Apple have given nothing to the world is just absurd, embarrassing really.
