He’s a product guy.

Cook was an efficiency expert.

Although not a total surprise, the timing of this changing of the guard was unexpected. It illustrates that everything comes to an end, and you’re better off if you prepare for it. As for those hanging on too long…

We now realize Disney was failing not because of the loss of Bob Iger, but because of a change in the landscape.

And the landscape has changed in tech.

What we’ve learned since the death of Steve Jobs in 2011 is it’s all about software, which somehow seems hard to comprehend for both pundits and the hoi polloi. In other words, it’s more about what it can DO than what it IS!

So…

The iPhone dominates in the U.S. with a market share north of 50%. Overseas, it just achieved number one in sales, but iOS is dwarfed by Android. So, the juggernaut will continue for a while, Apple isn’t losing its stranglehold on the market, it is not going anywhere, until..?

That’s the question.

For some reason, writers keep focusing on hardware. Remember that AI clip, the one you attached to your clothing? That failed miserably. As for glasses…there’s a market there, but if you think people are going to control their lives via their eyes, you’ve got to wonder why evolution has left us with the dexterity of ten fingers on two hands. Or to put it another way, used to be in American cars you changed the lights from bright to low beam via a pedal in the floor of the car, but then U.S. manufacturers took a page from their European brethren and moved the bright/low-beam function to a stalk on the steering wheel, because the hand functions faster and more easily than the foot. Actually, we’re in the midst of a usability crisis right now, automobiles have replaced buttons with touch screens and endless menus and…some have gone back to buttons, but one thing is for sure, everybody agrees buttons are easier to use. And all the functions you do on your smartphone will definitely not be easier to do with your eyes.

So, it’s become about the ecosystem, locking you into one or another. And at this late date, the selling point of Apple is still the same, usability. A power user might lament being unable to customize to his heart’s desire, but the average person just wants the damn thing to work, and Apple does…more than any other platform, never mind the reliability of its products is always topnotch/best in field.

So where do we go from here?

The AI path is unclear. And to what degree is it consumer facing, in terms of where all the money is. Most of the scuttlebutt on AI has to do with job replacement. As for search, Apple abandoned that field years ago, it would rather have Google pay it billions to be the Cupertino company’s preferred provider. Staying out of AI could be the best decision Apple ever made, whether it be conscious or unconscious.

And, although the lion’s share of Apple’s revenue comes from the iPhone, service income is no longer de minimis, it’s significant.

And, Apple has a full product line. You don’t only have an iPhone, but a Mac and maybe an iPad too. The competition does not cover the market as well, nor is the software unique/proprietary, keeping users in the walled garden.

So… Where is it all going?

WE DON’T KNOW!

Look at Mark Zuckerberg who professed the metaverse to be the future and just wrote off tens of billions of dollars as a result of this wrong turn.

Amazon makes its money via AWS, i.e. Amazon Web Services.

Microsoft also got into web services, i.e. cloud storage/computing, and its focus is on business, it’s the opposite of Apple.

Google… Give the company credit for owning the browser with Chrome, never mind its cash cow search, then again, traditional Google search is being challenged by AI and ad revenue might be heading for a cliff.

As for Nvidia… A one trick pony, and competitors are now doing their best to catch up.

So. Apple still looks pretty good, by being consumer-facing, which was one of Steve Jobs’s edicts when he returned to the company in the late nineties.

But there is one product that is making all the difference, which most people can’t see or fathom, and that is Apple’s proprietary chips, developed under Johnny Srouji, who was rumored to be leaving but just got a promotion to Chief Hardware Officer. Apple not only has its own chips, they’re one step ahead of competitors and they’re optimized for Apple products. Also, chip development allowed the release of the new MacBook Neo, which is a juggernaut… They say people want to use the same computer at home as they do in the office? Get kids on Apple with a $499 machine…and they may be in the ecosystem for life!

In other words, right now Apple looks pretty good, healthy in both products and financials.

Where ‘s it all going?

NOBODY KNOWS!

Don’t ever forget that Apple was almost never first, it was late and better. That philosophy can continue to triumph. Assuming John Ternus can see around corners like Steve Jobs did.

This transition, this changing of the guard, is a good thing. Something we rarely see not only in tech, but other corporations and the government. Everybody from the old world hangs on too long, they don’t understand the new world, they didn’t grow up in it, they aren’t entrenched in it. But the Boomers and Gen-X always believe they know better.

These are corporations, not people. As soon as they hew to tradition, become calcified, they’re done.

Let’s be clear, if it weren’t for their catalogs, all three of the major label groups would be done. They’re neither prescient nor nimble when it comes to new music exploitation.

Give Tim Cook credit, he didn’t wait to be pushed out, he walked. If only more of those in power would do this, would pass the torch.

As for John Ternus… He’s got the CV. Can he do the job?

You never know until you give someone the gig.

But you can only survive via change, and oldsters tend to be averse to this.

The king is dead.

Long live the king!