Apple CEO Tim Cook's Legacy Is Dull Products and Spineless Capitulation

HotGarbage 39 points 35 comments August 31, 2026
karlbode.com · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (13 comments)

jleyank

It seems, sadly, that the techbros aren't trying to change the world for must of us. Perhaps change it for themselves, certainly prevent their pile from being reduced. More "F*ck you, I got mine!" I guess.

mrhottakes

Worthington's Law strikes again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vudnMLzZjTg

chuckadams

Seems a lot of people bought those dull products.

ksec

>despite no limit of "fuck you money" (Apple has a $4.665 trillion market cap and $62.5 billion cash on hand). $62 billion is not a lot of money for Apple's size. And if there is one major thing that changed between Steve Jobs and Tim Cook's Apple, it is Steve Jobs prioritise a lot more for stakeholders , while Tim Cook 100% prioritise for shareholder . They went from being a pirate to become the navy. Other than that the whole piece is more about Apple getting close to Trump than anything else.

FireBeyond

I like the other article today, where Tim Cook has gone from "possibly the best manufacturing and logistics person in the world", to "Apple blindsided by demand for AI use of products".

vekntksijdhric

There is a lot to criticize about TC, but if you think the Apple Silicon move is dull (not in terms of technology, but what experiences it opens), you are incredibly stupid and shortsighted.

karim79

Great article but I think the better one is linked at the bottom of the page. I'll paste it here for convenience: https://karlbode.com/the-hulk-hates-fascist-media-consolidat...

rtklpp

"presumably to be replaced with younger white men similarly incapable of standing up to fascism" Wow. Google, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Micron, Nvidia all have Asian men incapable of standing up to fascism. White CEOs appear to be the minority in tech companies.

trencedamp

> Our dull corporate press is unsurprisingly obsessed with wealth. If you make large gobs of money you are inherently very smart, skilled, and good. Absolutely everything else is a pesky afterthought. It's why Elon Musk, an unremarkable bigot cosplaying as a supergenius engineer, so easily enamoured a shaky U.S. media for the fifteen year run up to his recreational ketamine-fueled nazi ego implosion. What a fantastic piece of writing. I reread this five times.

SpicyLemonZest

I would point out that the Apple Watch and AirPods are both great rather than dull products, but I strongly suspect the author here was not making a good faith attempt to analyze Tim Cook's product legacy.

hn_throwaway_99

I kind of want to flag this because it reads like dumb rage bait, but I'll comment instead. > While Apple certainly made boatloads of money during Cook's tenure, the company also steadily morphed into something unthinkable to company founders Jobs and Steve Wozniak: it became not just increasingly unethical... If you think Tim Cook is/was less ethical than Steve Jobs of all people, my only rational conclusion is that you don't know Jobs' history or you're an idiot.

Synaesthesia

The phone I bought from China eats Apple hardware for breakfast. It's got IP69 protection, only 7mm thick, a massive battery that charges incredibly quickly (4800mah). It's basically like an iPhone air but it only cost me about $500 (Motorola X70 Air) When Apple embraces Silicon Carbide batteries I'm sure they're going to make amazing stuff. It's not like they haven't impressed on the hardware side. If you look at something like the M4 iPad Pro which was released 2 years ago, there is no competition even close. Nor with their laptops.

pmavrodiev

This reads like a particularly biased and hateful rage-infused hit piece by someone suffering from woke psyschosis.

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