Coincidences may not exist, but it is extraordinary that the man who runs Apple as CEO, Tim Cook, was born in 1960 in a small Alabama town called Mobile. This week, the manager has made one of the most important decisions in recent times in his company. After investing billions in research, the apple company puts the brakes on Project Titan, to develop an electric car.
On paper, the initiative made perfect sense. Vehicles like Tesla's are basically mobile with wheels. Their owners update the features of the cars in the same way as the iPhone operating system and in this way improve the features, battery performance, lighting, maps and video games they have for leisure time.
But the car project that was being forged at Apple Park has not managed to come to fruition. He has gone through many ups and downs over almost ten years, always under the leadership of Tim Cook, who took the position as the successor designated by the company's co-founder, Steve Jobs.
From the first moment he took office, there were many who reflected on how the change in leadership could affect such an iconic company, which went from the visionary Jobs, capable of outbursts as brilliant as they were thoughtless, to someone who does not raise his voice. , with serene manners. Up close, Cook exudes confidence in everything he does. He never rushes his answers. He pays attention to what his interlocutor says, breathes and responds after thinking for a brief moment.
This calmness can deceptively hide a man who firmly defends his deep convictions. His ability as a manager was not in doubt when he took over the reins of the company, because under his leadership Apple became more global than ever, with millimetric management of the production and supply chains. An engineer by profession with a master's degree in business administration, Cook worked at IBM and Compaq before joining the apple company in 1998 as vice president of Global Operations.
In the little more than twelve years since he began leading Apple, Cook has taken the company to new horizons. Apple's stock market value has gone from $358 billion to a shocking and indisputable $2.78 trillion. The services, with the iPhone as the star that ties everything together, are the key to that success.
Strong investments in renewable energy, firm defense of user privacy – it has made an enemy in Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook/Meta – and human rights are its flag. Cook is also an LGTBI icon having declared his homosexual condition as “the greatest gift” that God has given him.
Its first major launch, in 2015, was the Apple Watch. Aware of the symbolism of the event, he presented it at the Flint Auditorium at De Anza University in Cupertino, the same one where Jobs presented the Macintosh in 1984. Last June, he announced the Vision Pro extended reality viewer, which Apple calls “ spatial computer”, with a new interface based on gaze and hands.
Since the advent of ChatGPT, in November 2022, the main technology companies have launched a wild race for the dominance of generative artificial intelligence, in which Microsoft seems to be ahead of everyone. Apple is holding its breath before unveiling its AI towards the end of this year, as Cook has already announced. The car remains parked. We'll see if it's forever.
