It happens with all big companies. I don't think Cook is a bad CEO, he's just not a -great- CEO. He also had the unlucky chance to step into Steve Jobs' shoes, and also came in so late in the cycle that much of the market is already saturated.
Similar happened to Balmer, he came in after the boom was over. But tried to push into new markets (and failed.) I don't honestly think Balmer was a bad CEO, he was just very bad at pushing into new markets...and they already had the FTC on their backs, so their strangle hold on the existing market was diminished. Doing walled gardens like Apple and Google did would draw FTC ire, so they couldn't really do it.
In the end, Apple doesn't have the FTC on its back, basically controls the supply chain. They'll be fine, but they are in a saturated market and their explosive growth is over. Investors are much more interested in explosive growth in tech than slow steady cash flow.
I'm more concerned about the Google model than the Apple model. Apple's margins will probably fall, but I think the Google PPC cashcow is soon going to hit a wall as millennials become the majority and their adblockers and immunity to online advertising drives down conversions.
> Similar happened to Balmer, he came in after the boom was over.
Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft on June 11, 1980, before DOS on the IBM PC transformed the company. He was a big part of its success all the way through.....
> But tried to push into new markets (and failed.)
When he became CEO the company was under close US judicial supervision (which lasted more than a decade), under attack from the EU, and paying out $billions in fines. So he started with a mess and operated with one hand tied behind his back, but he still managed to triple turnover and double profits.
Ballmer had some spectacular failures on the new product front, but when he handed over to Nadella, Azure was already a success, Microsoft had an online Office suite better than Google's, and it was already moving into Android and iOS apps (of which there are now dozens).
Not the best CEO of all time, but he could have done a lot worse. He certainly beat the forecasts of the Linux/OpenOffice fans of the day, who reckoned the company would be out of business by 2007 ;-)
Similar happened to Balmer, he came in after the boom was over. But tried to push into new markets (and failed.) I don't honestly think Balmer was a bad CEO, he was just very bad at pushing into new markets...and they already had the FTC on their backs, so their strangle hold on the existing market was diminished. Doing walled gardens like Apple and Google did would draw FTC ire, so they couldn't really do it.
In the end, Apple doesn't have the FTC on its back, basically controls the supply chain. They'll be fine, but they are in a saturated market and their explosive growth is over. Investors are much more interested in explosive growth in tech than slow steady cash flow.
I'm more concerned about the Google model than the Apple model. Apple's margins will probably fall, but I think the Google PPC cashcow is soon going to hit a wall as millennials become the majority and their adblockers and immunity to online advertising drives down conversions.