Skip to main content

FOX: Apple Board pressuring Tim Cook to innovate

Fox Business News’ Charlie Gasparino, noting that his “sources are solid on this”, reports that Apple’s Board of Directors are concerned about Apple’s pace of innovation and the product pipeline coming from the company. From the video above, Gasparino states that this “does not mean that Tim Cook is out of a job or that there’s a job search inside Apple”, however, the Board is expressing deep concern about the lack of notable products coming out of Cupertino.

He also notes that “the stock price is down 35% from its all-time high” and no major, innovative products have been released to the public since Steve Jobs was at the helm. The iWatch is mentioned multiple times in the video as an upcoming breakthrough product, but it doesn’t seem like the Board – comprised of J. Crew’s Millard Drexler, Al Gore, Bill Campbell of Intuit, and several other notable executives – appreciates the slow-paced timeline.

Whether or not this will affect the product pipeline and if Apple’s executives will be pressured to release products faster than originally anticipated is still to be seen, but it looks like the Board still trusts Tim Cook to steer the company in the right direction.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. Nicholas Chan - 11 years ago

    Asking Tim to innovate? That’s like asking Steve Jobs to run Worldwide Operations.

  2. Angel Kwordax - 11 years ago

    Fox is stupid. Looking to deep into this. Jobs put Cook there for a reason the board doesn’t know shit.

  3. rogifan - 11 years ago

    Sorry I call BS on this one. A little too convenient that the boards alleged concerns match perfectly to the current media meme about Apple.

  4. It really is time that they tried to get Jack Dorsey on board in some sort of capacity.
    He appears to be the intellectual successor to Steve Jobs regarding innovation and implementation.
    John Clemens

  5. Mark3785 (@Mark3785) - 11 years ago

    If the new non expandable Mac Pro is from Mr.Cook, then Apple is in deep trouble. Apple needs a powerful and expandable workstation for professionals in it’s lineup. So far Thunderbolt offerings have been few and enormously expensive and I doubt Thunderbolt will take the place of slots.

    Let’s hope he has some good ideas, or at least knows how to spot other people’s good ideas.

  6. Kevweb (@kweb75) - 11 years ago

    Yes, they are correct. I want to buy an iWatch, the new iTV and I want my iPad 5 ASAP. I also want a bigger screen for the iPhone.

  7. Brandon Yowakim - 11 years ago

    Haha and we trust Fox News?

  8. BADGOP (@BADGOP) - 11 years ago

    Let’s not forget this is the same network that has claimed Romney was going to win in a “landslide” and Apple was going to buy AMD and every B.S. story in between. Nonsense. The board is small and tight and they don’t talk— especially to Fox.

  9. Michael Kim (@mkimid) - 11 years ago

    BOD ask an innovation to Apple not just to T. Cook. They just said to him because of he is CEO now.
    But, It is clear, Apple never had created any leading technology last two years. even not catched up.
    At least, iPod with iTune, iPhone and App Store, Retina, iCloud, Siri.. It is much faster than the competitor. and, 1-2 years eariler than the others. but, Last two years, what has been happen ? Basically, I can agree about Apple has made many of Improvements. but, It is really hard to find any Creative Things.
    Apple have to remind Apple in 10 years ago !!!
    They just have two more years.

  10. Greg Gliemi - 11 years ago

    I believe Jobs chose Cook because Cook is a good business man–and he would
    let the creative people do their work.

    But I concur with the point of this article. An iWatch? We know what a watch is—so it better be good.

    Did we know what an iTouch was before it was introduced? iPad? Say iPhone and we know what it’s about.
    And it did not disappoint. The watch better do the same.

    But what I want is a new”i”—-something we never new we needed and now we can’t live without.

  11. Marklewood at Serenity Lodge - 11 years ago

    And we should believe FOX because . . ?

  12. Piliger Black - 11 years ago

    Cook needs to do what Jobs would have done – given the Board the finger !

    Apple is doing just fine, better than anyone could ever have predicted ten years ago. New products will come when they are ready. Not just to satisfy some idiots impatient need for a new gadget. Let Google etc release products that don’t work, aren’t ready for the market trying to get other people to help them get it right. Apple will only release products when they are ready. Good on ya !

  13. Apples last notable innovations have been the 1st iPhone and second gen iPad, since then they have been releasing the same products over and over with minor, stupid updates

  14. drtyrell969 - 11 years ago

    Tim Cook is Al Gore’s robot brother. He defaces the very soul of what Steve rebuilt. He might be the greatest guy in the world, but he’s wrong as a front-man for Apple, PERIOD. Apple is not doing fine. They are declining in every single market they’re in, and the only professor positive news we ever hear is that declining statistics still have Apple on top of their competition. This is not the definition of success in any sense of the term.

    Jony Ives is their only calculated hope at this point. He should be pushed to the front of every Apple exhibit leaving Tim in the background. Apple needs to secure their desktop market, go back to great software, cease using innovation as a sales gimmick, and stop patching their legacy devices to run slow forcing a new purchases. Toyota doesn’t kill their 5-year old models using some OnStar transmission, and that’s why their customers remain loyal. Apple purposely destroys performance under the umbrella of “security updates” that conceal their features under the guise of “too secret to share.”

    This fanboy crap is what landed Apple in the crapper in mid-90s. It’s happening again, but this time, it won’t have Steve to recover. It will be acquired by Google, and that’ll be all she wrote.

  15. rettun1 - 11 years ago

    Asking him to innovate is a little unreasonable. With a company like apple, I’d wait 4 or 5 years until we can judge Tim’s success.

  16. This ignorant tech nerd obsession with BS “innovation” is shameful. People keep saying “Apple isn’t innovating like Samsung/Google/etc.” – I’m sorry, but half-baked feature-checklist stuff isn’t innovation.

    And this whole “IT’S BEEN TWO YEARS WHERE IS THE INNOVATION TIM OMG STEVE GAVE US THE IPHONE AND IPAD” stuff is nonsensical. Let’s take a look at the release dates for the last few true impactful products Apple has released:

    iPod: October 2001
    iPhone: June 2007
    iPad: April 2010

    All of you calling Apple’s demise didn’t seem to mind giving Steve Jobs 3-6 years to come out with new stuff, but now that the media’s manufactured this stupid “OMG APPLE IS DOOMED AGAIN” nonsense, you’re piling on about two years?

    I don’t know Tim Cook, I don’t care about Tim Cook beyond a basic human level…but the mindless parroting of this stuff in the tech nerd world is ridiculous.

  17. Hector Lara - 11 years ago

    I can not believe this crap. Apple is doing fine, what is wrong is that nyse is mad that they’ve been wrong so many times about Apple. nyse Just wants their stock prices to soar again. Greedy fucks!

  18. “Cant innovate anymore, my ass”

  19. Michael Garnett (@_jorts) - 11 years ago

    Just another example of the “media” trying to be sensational. This would only be news if he WASN’T under pressure to innovate. Any company that wants to be successful, whether it’s Apple or a lemonade stand, should always be under pressure to innovate.

  20. “But I do know how to report” What a giant tool.

  21. hisdudenessman - 11 years ago

    I consider this report completely baseless and idiotic. Just another attempt at artificial manipulation of Apple’s stock price. This is getting crazy, man!

  22. Brian (@BrainGameMayhem) - 11 years ago

    Can’t seem to reply to Comments when logging in with Twitter. Regardless, THANK YOU, Kevin Buchanan! I couldn’t have said it better myself.

  23. Steve (@StephenWC) - 11 years ago

    Any company with Al Gore on the BOD is in serious trouble.

  24. This is the meaning of “Collaboration” that Cook meant when he and Ive kicked Forstall out the work. CEO is the “Collaboration” that Cook couldn’t learn from Jobs, thats why Jobs always known as a leader and a wise man.
    Forstall may was ugly, peevish, bad whatever you want but he was the other side that Jobs was adhering to keep in the company, and he was hardworking, and firing him was a “Military Coup”.