The Curse of Culture
I've come to a conclusion that Cook's reign at Apple will probably mirror Ballmer's reign at Microsoft. Both are biz guys who inherited companies from technology visionaries with massive revenue streams and yet they both lacked vision and tech expertise to create successful new products. Ballmer tried it numerous times and Cook has tried it with Watch, Music and so on. Neither of them have succeeded. Apple's now become a "me too" company as they keep on releasing products that other companies have released already. Apparently, Apple is now working on their Amazon Echo and Google Home clone. They'll be third to market once it's out.<p>In 2014, when Apple bought an urban fashion brand that sells overpriced headphones, Google bought Deepmind for 1/6 of the price. That said it all about where both companies were headed. Steve Jobs is famous for quoting Gretzky's line about "skating where the puck is headed and not where it is" and it seems that Google's skating where the puck is going  while Apple's skating backwards.<p>Apple's headed for a decade of stagnation... just like Microsoft was under Ballmer. My only question is: how long before Apple gets its own Nadella and who will be their savior? I don't see anyone in their executive ranks who's as good as Nadella.