I used to like him. I worked for the company when he took over. On the first day in the driver’s seat, he sent an email to all employees stating that the policy on company-matched donations to charities was being expanded. I can’t remember the details, but it was something about adding charities that SJ considered too political or something (SJ liked to keep the brand away from controversy, which is why you’ve never been able to get a porn app in the App Store).
I thought it was a classy way of signaling to everyone, “I’m in charge now.” I really had a lot of respect for Tim Apple as a result.
The way he’s fucked things around for third party developers with the App Store tax and locking down what developers can build has been so tone-deaf in the last however many years that Apple released a breakthrough hardware device (Vision Pro) and it’s basically useless because no one wants to build for it. I know that he’s sucking up to ensure that the admin favors his company’s needs wrt manufacturing in China, but it’s still a feckless move. Fuck Tim Apple. He’s part of the problem now. Not like Ol’ Lonnie or Zuck, but still a problem.
I remember when I liked him better when I liked him better.
For anyone else who, like me, didn’t know: Trump once referred to Tim Cook as “Tim Apple”, as described in the Wikipedia article on Tim Cook:
Two take aways from that. One, Trump does not understand why any company would not be named after its founder. Two, Trump has never created a successful company that he ever stepped down from or been trusted enough to take over someone else’s company. Well, he torpedoed the USFL, which wasn’t named after him.
Intelligent analysis I concur with and thank you for. I sometimes wonder what myths our flawed present may pass down to our uncertain future. Who knows? After two millennia, our descendants might think of Trump the way we conceive of Narcissus while they recall the new flood myths we are delivering them.