John KeplerMay 10, 2025
Hypercritical
Apple Turnover: https://hypercritical.co/2025/05/09/apple-turnover
Apple Turnover

May 9, 2025 at 5:48pmIvory for Mac
Show threadRick van VoordenMay 9, 2025

@hypercritical I'm not sure if current leadership has any monopoly on anti competitive behavior at Apple. It was 20 years ago when Apple leadership all the way up to the CEO started engaging in anti competitive hiring practices that artificially lowered wages for workers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation

High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation - Wikipedia

Show threadLuke KaniesMay 9, 2025

@vanvoorden @hypercritical yeah. The problem is not leadership. The problem is power. Jobs would have always loved to have the power to demand this kind of stuff from users and developers. He would quite possibly be worse.

I’m not sure it’s possible for any company to have this kind of power and not turn into an abusive monopolist. But Apple was already constitutionally set up to abuse anyone it’s in a relationship with.

Show threadJoshua JungMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical Clearly a time to refrain from embracing.
Show threadJoseph HumfreyMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical excellent post! Love the header image. Also love the Ambrosia reference :)
Show threadadacostaMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical What we are seeing today in Apple has always been its nature. Its now in a position to wield that power. Remember, Steve Jobs himself said he will use all of Apple's 40 billion at the time to nihilate Google when it was just healthy competition. Apple has always wanted to be in full control and that characteristic is why they are the way they are now. 25 years ago they were humble because they had no choice, a lot of good came from that.
Show threadChris PMay 9, 2025

@hypercritical "It’s time for new leadership at Apple. The road we’re on now does not lead anywhere good for Apple or its customers. It’s springtime, and I’m choosing to believe in new life."

Thanks for writing this!

I also would love to see new leadership at Apple. Even so, I'm not sure that a change will bring better treatment of its customers or developers.

Show threadJames AtkinsonMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical @siracusa Do you believe it's just Cook who should go, or are further cuts to SVPs needed?
Show threadJohn SiracusaMay 9, 2025
@jimmyjamesuk Cook and anyone else who can't be convinced of the fundamental wrongheadedness of their current value system.
Show threadJames AtkinsonMay 9, 2025
@siracusa Sounds fair. I’m just curious who those might be. No way for us to know from the outside I suppose.
Show threadJohn SiracusaMay 9, 2025
@jimmyjamesuk Well, Luca Maestri…but he's already on his way out.
Show threadJames AtkinsonMay 9, 2025
I suppose my other question is: what are the methods or forces that can precipitate such a change? Seems like unless profits are threatened, the shareholders won’t call for Cook’s removal.
Show threadFreediverXMay 9, 2025
@jimmyjamesuk
What we want and what the shareholders want are quite different.
Show threadJames AtkinsonMay 9, 2025
@freediverx Hence the question.
Show threadFreediverXMay 9, 2025

@siracusa @jimmyjamesuk
I suspect there were plenty of sleazy suits at Apple during Jobs' era. But while Apple owes its success to the collaborative efforts of many highly talented people over the years, it's pretty clear that Steve Jobs was the guiding force (however flawed) that brought it all together to create magic.

I’m not optimistic that anyone else can rekindle that today.

Show threadeobetMay 10, 2025
@siracusa @jimmyjamesuk seems to me that includes most shareholders… (or the entire stock market for that matter) 😉
Show threadAnton LeuskiMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical from outside, it feels like Jobs priority was always the product, making the change in the universe. Sure, he loved the margins, but the product came first. And, not just the product. Remember the 2x2 matrix of Apple devices? How elegant that was. I do not get that feeling from the current Apple leadership.
Show threadFreediverXMay 9, 2025
@anton_leuski @hypercritical
It's not that Jobs was an altruistic saint, but he knew how to read a room and how to control the narrative. Above all, he had a sense for what would delight customers and he had good taste—rare qualities in a CEO.
Show threadJimmiXMay 9, 2025

@hypercritical

Had an #apple Music subscription stopped it for 2 months and lost 20 years of playlists...😡 I love #freeform checked were it stores my files on the mac and... it doesn't... it's cloud only (files are not mine anymore) 🙄. Trying to leave the walled garden to #linux check my music library and... it's not on the mac anymore (l payed the apple tax for a 2tb ssd!)... i learnt not to fight the apple way of doing things and adopt it... Now i don't trust it anymore!

Show threadRandy ClaytonMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical good synopsis and criticism. However, at nearly $3 trillion market cap, how likely is Wall Street to allow the type of leadership you envision? I’ve long feared the greatest threat to apple is Wall Street.
Show threadJohn SiracusaMay 9, 2025
@RandyClayton Tim is going to retire in not too many years…
Show threadACMay 9, 2025

@RandyClayton @hypercritical There’s no way the big shareholders will allow a CEO to let Apple fall out of the Fortune 3. After all, as Milton Friedman would remind us, the purpose of corporations is to generate as much profit and shareholder value as possible.

Apple under Tim Cook chose to be great when they could have chosen to be good. They can’t be both.

Show threadFreediverXMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical
Show threadImthazMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical why did I think this was about the rumoured Apple foldable?
Show threadACMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical I miss Ambrosia SW a lot. “Harry the Handsome Executive” was 🔥🔥🔥
Show threadLudwig FranzenMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical That was really good. Thank you for posting it.
Show threadFreediverXMay 9, 2025

@hypercritical
No one can say for certain how different Apple would be today if Jobs were still around, but I think it's pretty safe to say that, after his passing, it was only their financial success that kept the shine on the company.

Once we reached peak iPhone and there were no other products with comparable impact in the pipeline, Apple was destined to join their competitors in the dirty game of enshittification. And I think it’s all downhill from here.

Show threadsayrerMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical aw man, it's a critique of Capitalism itself, right? I don't think a management switch will do the trick. You do have to know how to run an organization that can make millions of iPhones.
Show threadsayrerMay 9, 2025
@hypercritical I think the Byrds reference is way out of date. I knew it, but this is only because I worked at a record store and spent my very young time with radio stations that played "Classic Rock", "Country", "Adult Contemporary", and "Modern Rock (Nirvana, Jane's Addiction, etc)"
Show threadJoseph GaeddertMay 10, 2025
@hypercritical I know this wasn’t the purpose of the article but dang if I don’t miss Maelstrom
Show threadJohn SiracusaMay 10, 2025
@jgaeddert I think it’s playable on modern macOS in various ways.
Show threadJoseph GaeddertMay 10, 2025
@siracusa You know, as soon as I read your article I started looking up ways to do that. So many classic Mac games I’ve forgotten about!
Show threadDerek MartinMay 10, 2025
@[email protected] @siracusa I very sadly agree! 😢
Show threadnSonicMay 10, 2025

@hypercritical @marcoarment The content - sure good 👍
But let me thank you for using commas and paragraphs, both in a way that helps reading longer texts without starting sentences all over again 3 times 😀

I know this should be normal, common sense - but it isn’t. So thank you for valuing your readers ⭐️

Show threadDarcy KishidaMay 10, 2025
@hypercritical I’d say now’s the time to ask what Steve would have done.
Show threadSteve WilliamsMay 10, 2025
@hypercritical
Excellent post. Sad but true.
Show threadScott NourseMay 16, 2025
@hypercritical I really appreciate these detailed, analytical takes on big topics. Thank you.