After five years of Cook, more cash, less splash

Apple’s stock price, profits have soared as innovation sputtered

It has been five years since Tim Cook took over as Apple CEO from a gravely ill Steve Jobs. His report card is a contradiction of Apple’s still- impressive financial strength with signs innovation has slowed.

Since Cook was named CEO on Aug. 24, 2011, Apple’s stock price and revenue have doubled. Its net income has surged 84%. Apple is still the largest company, by market value, in the world.

The half- decade of gains have been clouded by more recent worries. Apple reported its first quarterly sales drop in more than a decade, followed by another, as the iPhone sales engine finally sputtered.

With no new must- have product, investors torpedoed the stock that once knew only one, nosebleed direction. The stock has lost about a fifth of its market value since an April 2015 high.

The Apple of the Jobs era — brash, innovative and uber cool — is now a different place. Under Cook, it’s bigger, more profitable, cautious and more prone to up- date older products minimally than introduce new cultural hits.

The comparisons with Jobs, Cook’s friend and mentor, were destined to be tough. Apple was on quite a roll during the last years of Jobs’ life, with the iPhone introduction in 2007, App Store in 2008, 27- inch iMac allin- one computers in 2009, and iPad in 2010.

Cook has had different challenges, and he has carved a different tack. He’s managing a significantly larger company and transitioning it from one dependent on hardware to one delving in services, artificial intelligence, TV and, probably, cars.

“Cook better manages the operations of the company while Jobs innovated,” says Angelo Zino, senior analyst at S& P Global Market Intelligence. He pointed to Cook’s decision to go with a larger screen for the popular iPhone 6, something Jobs opposed. “It was a phenomenal product. They finally decided to change with the times, and it paid off well.”

As Apple Watch evolves, it, too, will bolster sales before Apple eventually makes the transition to an expected car project and TV- guide- like service, Zino says. “Apple has clearly entered a mature phase behind Cook,” he says.

Where Jobs was focused on product, product, product, Cook has been more issues- based — championing gay rights and engendering broad tech support in its fight against the government over encryption.

He has shown a willingness to partner with companies such as Didi, a leading ride- hailing service in China, and expanding and refining Apple’s supply chain for some 600 million to 800 million customers, says Carolina Milanesi, analyst at market researcher Creative Strategies. “It’s a very different style from Jobs — Tim is much more down to Earth, approachable,” Milanesi says.

But under Cook’s rule, Apple has fallen behind Google, Facebook and Amazon in releasing cool new products the past three years. Its rivals have been luring engineers and carving out a view of the future with virtual- reality apps, 360- degree video viewing, driverless cars and a connected speaker that controls your smart home.

Apple seems stuck in a phase of iteration — thinner, bigger, faster, better- performing iPhones and iPads and just one all- new product, the Apple Watch, in 2014.

Cook’s biggest product success over the last five years has clearly been keeping the iPhone machine churning at factory records.

But amid declining iPhone sales, and with rivals breathing down Apple’s neck, Cook’s next five years are going to be a lot tougher.

RICHARD DREW, AP