Walt Mossberg on Apple’s Decade

Walt Mossberg, writing for The Verge:

How do you replace a legend like Steve Jobs and, at the same time, adapt to the slow decline of your most important, most iconic product? Those were the twin challenges Apple faced in the 2010s. Under CEO Tim Cook, the company has found some answers and flourished financially, but it hasn’t been without a few wrong turns and big changes to the very nature of its business.

In the past decade, Apple has grown huge. Its fiscal 2019 revenues were six times the size of revenues in fiscal 2009. Its new headquarters building is larger than the Pentagon. Each of its five business segments would be a Fortune 500 company on its own.

But what about its products? Its culture?

A fair look back at Tim Cook’s first decade in charge of Apple. The biggest knock? Taking their eyes off the Mac ball in the middle of the decade — with a Mac Pro that wound up not being very pro and a MacBook Air that stagnated with a non-retina display.

★ Tuesday, 17 December 2019