I don't think so. Yes, he led Apple to become a $1T company, but making money doesn't make someone a bozo alone.

If anything compromises Apple products, in 90% of cases it's Apple's design philosophy or (stubborn?) ideals. Not a push from the spreadsheet bozos.

For better or worse, I think Tim managed to keep the product side of the company very close to what Steve wanted.

One of the concerns I have, and I believe Steve shared, is the dilution of their offerings. I'm frankly having a hard time navigating their iPad and Mac offerings. It isn't clear where each of their products sit, and it's certainly going to be very confusing to non-enthusiasts who have the grit to swim thru it all. Similarly, someone explain the 13in Macbook Pro? Why is it still here and getting updates? It seems to me that they are just making all possible combinations of their products, and Steve hated that.

I'm with you on that, but it's very far from how bad it could be - just take a look at the other computer manufacturers.

And the trend of making the product lineup more convoluted doesn't seem to be steep (it happens slowly and over time), so I'm not too worried. It seems there is time to steer it back before it gets too ridiculous.

It seems to be mostly a case of, as various product sets evolve, you sometimes end up with adjacent products that are probably too similar. This has happened with the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro at various times. In general, Apple seems a lot more guilty of being slow to upgrade niche segments (smaller laptops, high-end desktops, smaller phones) than the other way around.

iPhone 14 Pro Max sounds anti-Apple to me for some reason. Like a tamer version of "Mountain Dew Ultimate Extreme"

I'm not sure personally what a better name scheme would be to differentiate it but "Pro" and "Max" together sounds funny.

MKBHD perfectly describes Apple's product strategy and why it has been so profitable for them.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XeDPwpIFs-I

Thanks, this does seem right to me.

Steve repeatedly vetoed any kind of expandability on the original Mac[0]. And he tried to sabotage the memory layout because he thought it looked ugly[1].

There was never any "good" Apple, it was rotten from the very core. And that's just from a user perspective, nevermind what a toxic and abusive employer he has been shown to be over the years.

[0]: https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...

[1]: https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...

I think Tim seems like the type that would be a bozo but he is really admirable in that he recognizes what he’s good at and what he isn’t. And has been willing to change the leadership to find the right people.

There have definitely been product missteps and the typical nickle and diming of storage but it hasn’t seemed like the quality has suffered too much as you’d expect if he was a true bozo.

From what I read about him, he's more like the supply chain guy.

have you interacted directly with him?

Why would this be downvoted? It’s genuine personal testimony about his character — certainly more reputable and meaningful to hear than what the news says about him.