How about we avoid the politics of all this stuff on here?
It’s never productive. It sometimes becomes distasteful.
And there are plenty of other places to discuss that stuff.
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I agree 100%. This will allow Cook to do some of the more (unfortunately) necessary parts of being part of one of the largest companies in the world - doing the Potomac Two-Step with politicians. In trade, Ternus gets to focus more on the products and growth of Apple while Tim acts as the firewall.
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Something else not mentioned is that Cook is 65. Many public corporations have a mandatory retirement age for senior executives. It fosters good transition planning along with not getting too stagnant. The company I retired from had a mandatory retirement age of 65 for the C suite people. It didn’t apply to us wage slaves.
What a lot of people have against Cook is all the stuff he let happen under his watch, including but not limited to.
- The butterfly keyboard saga. A misstep that lasted far too long.
- Inisisting on taking a cut of any transaction that occurred on one of their devices.
- Failure to recognise that not walking back that previous point would result in regulation.
- Pushing back so hard on regulation in ways that seemed unreasonable to almost anyone who understood what was being regulated. (See linking out for purchase.)
- A push into advertising in places it doesn’t really belong.
- Acting by a set of rules that they will not allow for others. (See push notifications advertising Apple services.)
- Letting the Mac Pro languish. More than once.
- …and so on.
For me, personally, it’s their behaviour in “rent seeking” (not my term, it’s what ATP use).
It’s funny how we all care about different things @zkarj. The only thing on your list that bothers me is the butterfly keyboard, and - in my mind - that was @SteveJobs’ fault, for letting @JonyIves play with too many things. I’ve no idea if that’s true, but it makes me happy thinking it is!
BTW: Hope you’re doing okay with those horrible storms and floods. My daughter is at uni in Wellington and she spent most of yesterday wrapped up in a duvet, hiding from the rain.
I hear what you say, and I have also thought about this. But – I think he has interacted with the Duck as good as it can be done. They all have actually (MS, Dell, and other big US companies).
It’s like working with your hands tied behind the back – I don’t think it’s a smart move for a US company to fight against the administration, it can easily end in mayhem.
OTOH I think all US companies (and citizens) should do something about the clown.
But now we are talking politics and we shouldn’t. 
(please delete this post if it’s inappropriate)
I didn’t know this.
This isn’t a thing in the UK because that would be unlawful as age discrimination. (not judging, it’s always interesting to understand global differences.)
Cook may have persisted this on the App Store, Steve Jobs oversaw the 30% introduction which isn’t surprising as Jobs always hated seeing others making money directly or indirectly from Apple.
Jobs introduced the Made for iPod (MfI) programme in the first place.
For one bad thing, and the Butterfly Keyboard was REALLY BAD, allowing Ive to try different things brought us some fantastic designs over the years.
I think it was Cook who put Ive in charge of ALL design, which did not go well.
We’re fine, thanks. Have heard a few trees fall, but they’ve been felling 25-year-old pines on the hill behind us and we reckon some of the remaining, exposed ones are taking the full brunt. The rain is just wet. Had a 52mm/hr event on Sunday but it was very short. Good drainage where we are.
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‘Hullo clouds, hullo sky!’
I had the small MacBook and the butterfly keyboard was fine to type on - I found it quick and reliable. It helped not to be a clunking-fist typist, because the key travel was so short, but once you’d made that simple adjustment, it was a perfectly pleasant experience.
In my experience, the problem was the poor shielding so that crumbs would too easily key under keys, requiring taking off the caps.
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I still have my butterfly MBA. It’s been fine. Once again, tech press has different priorities from many users
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Yeah, I doubt that pre-release testing included eating multiple sandwiches over it. 
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Guilty as charged, m’lud…
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I’m glad you have had no problems, but it wasn’t a tech press thing.
Apple made two design changes to the butterfly keyboard over its life, to try and introduce a membrane to stop crumbs getting under the keys.
If I remember correctly (and I may not) if you took it in for repair with Apple, they couldn’t just replace the keyboard due to the design, it was part of a larger piece which cost hundreds of pounds to replace.
After making those two design changes and still not fixing the issue, Apple publicly recognised that it was a manufacturing defect and launched a repair program for any laptop with the butterfly keyboard. They also issued refunds to people who had previously paid to have their butterfly keyboards replaced.
And beyond any of those things, after about 5 years, Apple then reverted to a non butterfly keyboard on all laptops.
All of this because they tried to fix a non problem, claiming that the pre butterfly design of keyboard they shipped could see the keys wobble as you were typing.
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I didn’t say it was a good design, just that Apple failed to subject it to real world conditions.
In the same way that they think that the rest of the world is like California, and that everyone has connectivity at all times with effectively unlimited cellular data.
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Shouldn’t they be testing products under real-world conditions?
Is Apple Park one of those workplaces that doesn’t allow you to eat at your desk?
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‘Enshitification’ of the whole Apple platform for users.
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This headline from Wired says it all:
Tim Cook’s Legacy Is Turning Apple Into a Subscription
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