Jorge Figueroa

“After years of being hounded by the same question—What’s the next new device?—Cook had finally delivered his answer: There isn’t one. His message hadn’t been aimed at Main Street; it was for Wall Street. He wanted investors to see that Apple was making a major shift. Rather than its products creating glory, Cook outlined a future in which Apple basked in the glory of others. He didn’t want to merely update the iPhone every year; he wanted people to pay Apple subscription fees for the movies they watched on that iPhone. He didn’t want to enable digital payments; he wanted Apple to be the processor of every transaction. And he didn’t want Apple to make the screen on which people read articles; he wanted to sell access to the magazines they read. For years, Cook had seen new revenue opportunities in each of those businesses. He had plotted a path to get there, buying Beats in 2014, courting Hollywood agents and directors in the years that had followed, and forging strong ties with Goldman Sachs throughout that time. He saw in all of it a way to shed the burden of a device business that was running out of juice and enter a world of services that promised unlimited growth.”
― Tripp Mickle, After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul

“The $9 billion decrease in iPhone revenue had been the largest drop in a single quarter since 2007. The company’s most important product was running out of steam.”
― Tripp Mickle, After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul

“The plan had frustrated some members of Apple’s privacy and security team. They couldn’t reconcile Apple’s public refusal to help the FBI in the San Bernardino case with its quiet compliance in China. Instead of his high-minded promise to protect customers’ privacy, Cook had capitulated to the demands of a government known for surveilling its citizens, only to later ask for help from the very U.S. government he had once defied. The practical Cook seemed to lose his moral compass when faced with pressures in the market he had built.”
― Tripp Mickle, After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul

“Amid a series of heated meetings in early 2019, Cook and Ahrendts agreed to part ways. An abrupt announcement in February that she would leave ignited rumors that she had been fired. Apple’s public relations team swung into action to suppress the rumors, pushing a story that the departure had been planned. Indeed, Ahrendts told friends, she was ready to leave. She had spent five years at the company and made $173 million. She was ready to exit an empire where an aloof CEO assaulted staff with interrogation.”
― Tripp Mickle, After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul