We’re all in this together

The respect of its users and developers is an asset Apple shouldn’t squander

First published in MacUser Vol 29 No 6, June 2013

Throwing shade at Tim Cook is the latest tech trend. Analysts, journalists, rivals, commenters, they’re all at it. This seems a bit unfair. It’s true that Apple’s share price has fallen by 40% in a year. But that hardly supports the narrative that things were great with Steve Jobs and went pear-shaped under Cook. He was appointed CEO in August 2011. More than a year later, the share price peaked. Shouldn’t he get some credit for the ups as well as the downs?

It’s not as if Cook arrived wet behind the ears. When he was promoted to the key role of chief operating officer in 2005, AAPL was at one eighth of its price today. All the products introduced since then, including every iPhone and iPad, were manufactured by the supply chain he built and managed.

Frustratingly, a publicly listed company’s perceived value and predicted fortunes don’t depend entirely, or sometimes at all, on its ability to ship and sell product. This is a world where endless metrics are bandied about, yet everything comes down to the gut feeling known as ‘confidence’. Never mind what Tim Cook has actually achieved or is known to be capable of. If confidence in Tim Cook falls, AAPL falls. And, circling viciously, vice versa.

Trying to guess what would rebuild Wall Street’s confidence in Apple is a job for pages pinker than mine. But it must also matter whether, in the more mundane domain we like to call the real world, those of us whose fortunes are enmeshed with the company’s as customers and developers have confidence in it. And that’s something Cook ought to find a lot simpler to address.

There may be a good reason why Apple has launched no new products for six months and is hinting that we should expect to wait six more; but we’d feel happier knowing what it was. Perhaps there’s amazing stuff that we could be looking forward to, but the Cupertino wall of silence, erected by Jobs and defended by Cook, means we have little clue.

Buyers of Apple products have found their consumer rights poorly explained and patchily honoured. In China, official complaints were answered swiftly with a public apology. In Europe, nothing.

Hundreds of thousands of independent developers are working on apps for iOS, but they don’t know if Apple will let them sell those apps. They might put all the time and money they can scrape up into something they believe complies with the vague and shifting App Store guidelines, only to be told it doesn’t, with no comeback. That can’t build confidence. Even Apple’s biggest bridge-building event for developers, WWDC, has become an opportunity to crow about its success at their expense. This year, the $1,599 tickets sold out in two minutes. Impressive, but ‘Click faster, suckers!’ is no way to make friends.

When companies want to correct negative perceptions, they often talk to journalists. Apple’s communications strategy is about preventing its people talking. Especially to journalists.

So I’d suggest one effective way to escape the shadow of Jobs would be to let Apple itself out of the shadows. We can all be more confident in a company that’s open and honest with us. It’s time Tim Cook showed he has the confidence to do so.