You two are talking about separate things.

Parent is talking about brand goodwill.

You're talking about revenue.

The two are different, but not unrelated. One reason Apple can run the margins and move the product that it does is because it's Apple. If it were "random company" and didn't benefit from its RDF, those numbers wouldn't be sustainable.

Which, in a nutshell, is the Tim Cook problem -- you can make all the sales numbers go in the right direction, but that's not the product magic that Apple has historically benefited from (and been valued at).

To be clear, I don't think the ad itself is the issue, I think this is pretty benign given their scale.

But I think they have a leadership problem. Tim Cook is a glorified bean counter, not a creator, not a visionary, and it shows.

I know that most people are looking at the stock and will say that everything is fine. Sure. I am looking at the products, and except for M series of SoC, this is all boring.

Apple's valuation is up over 1000% since Tim Cook became CEO. His greatest failing is that he isn't Steve Jobs, but most corporations would literally kill to have a bean counter like Tim Cook. Yes, he's in the hot seat, and Wall Street is very "What have you done for me today?", but I don't see shareholders calling for his head.

All empires fall, but today is not that day for Apple.

> Apple's valuation is up over 1000% since Tim Cook became CEO

GE's valuation was up ~4500% during Jack Welch's tenure as CEO.

Executive dysfunction seems the root issue. Tim, Phil, and Craig have been running on Steve and Jony's fumes for years, and now have no ideas beyond incrementing numbers and buying back stock. It's like ol' Gil all over again.

Apple is the default choice for grandparents again, but they don't even have the schools anymore (Google conquered edu with Chromebooks).