Bad Apple

Let's face it, Tim Cook is to technology what David Moyes is to football. A good guy with a decent reputation away from the higher echelons, but whi can't hack it at the very top.

Cook has run Apple now for more than two years and the company remains more valuable than Goigle and Microsoft put together. But it no longer has Steve Jobs, and you can really tell. The iPhone looks and feels ancient and I'm not even considering replacing mine with the latest version now that my contract is up. I will be buying an Android.

The iPad on which I'm writing this seemed magical when it was released, but I find myself using my Surface far more since I can control the cursor without having to delete whole sentences. And it has an USB port.

But the really scary move is Apple buying Beats, purveyor of highly over-rated hipster headphones. Jobs wouldn't have done this deal in a billion years and it shows up Cook for the schmuck he is. Of course, Apple needs to do something with its cash mountain, but holding it all offshore and then borrowing money to pay back to shareholders and then buying a music badge shows that Cook isn't just a bad manager, but is totally incompetent and out of ideas. He is the new Steve Ballmer.

In the meantime, if iTunes had been evolved it would have been Netflix or Spotify, but it isn't. There is no sight of a decent new product or even a phone that can compete in the marketplace.

Apple has really lost its way. There are no more Steve Jobs, but the Board should consider if there is a better alternative to Tim Cook.