WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.040 In 2011, Steve Jobs' health failed for the last time, 00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:07.120 and Tim Cook took the reins of Apple Inc. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:12.120 This was a colossal shakeup. I mean, he wasn't just stepping up to the helm 00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:17.120 of a massive company that had revolutionized personal audio, mobile communication, 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:21.920 and personal computing. He was stepping into the shoes of one of the largest personalities 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:26.000 that the tech industry had ever seen. How could he possibly hope to fill them? 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:31.120 In the early days, they didn't look so good. Apple lovers and haters alike 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:35.280 would mourn the Jobs era. Whenever Mr. Cook changed something 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:39.360 or failed to change enough, the comparison was just painful 00:00:39.360 --> 00:00:43.800 between Jobs' obsessive passion and his replacement, 00:00:43.800 --> 00:00:49.000 the awkward supply chain specialist. Surely then, he would turn out to be a poor steward 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:52.080 of the Soul of Apple, a company that treated their products 00:00:52.080 --> 00:00:55.680 like art and fashion as much as like personal electronics. 00:00:55.720 --> 00:00:59.320 And yet, here we are 15 years later, 00:00:59.320 --> 00:01:02.800 as Tim Cook is in the midst of stepping down as CEO 00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:05.840 for a well-earned permanent vacation. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:09.520 And I can say without a doubt that while his haters were right, 00:01:09.520 --> 00:01:12.600 he didn't fill Steve Jobs' shoes. What they failed to predict 00:01:12.600 --> 00:01:16.760 was that he would make his own shoes, and that they would be pretty slick. 00:01:16.760 --> 00:01:19.880 Okay, not every move was a great success. 00:01:19.880 --> 00:01:23.600 And there are folks who fairly have criticized Apple's 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:27.080 less fun design choices over the last decade and a half. 00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:31.680 But as someone who's more focused on the technology of computers rather than their style, 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:35.960 I am actually more excited about Apple's future than I have ever been before. 00:01:35.960 --> 00:01:41.760 And that is in no small part because of Mr. Cook's crowning achievement, IMO. 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:45.560 His careful stewardship of Steve Jobs' parting gift, 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:50.120 Apple Silicon. Let's talk about that. And let's talk about our sponsor. 00:01:50.320 --> 00:02:00.520 It's like I've been working on my Tim Cook impression 00:02:00.520 --> 00:02:05.800 for nothing. When Tim Cook took the reins, Apple was on a win streak for the ages. 00:02:05.800 --> 00:02:11.400 Ever since the triumphant return of Steve Jobs, Apple had made PCs fun again with the iMac, 00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:15.120 turned personal audio completely on its head with the iPod and iTunes, 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:19.280 and did the impossible with the mobile phone that changed the world. 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:22.760 And those are just the highlights. By the time Cook stepped in, 00:02:22.760 --> 00:02:27.880 Apple had gone from the brink of death to a cool $300 billion valuation. 00:02:27.880 --> 00:02:33.160 And in his first year as CEO, Apple became the top smartphone manufacturer in the world. 00:02:33.160 --> 00:02:37.440 And why wouldn't they be? Android devices, sure, were finding some success 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:40.560 after stealing the idea of the iPhone, 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:45.800 but they were still relatively unpolished, both in terms of their hardware and their software. 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:49.200 Meanwhile, Apple's flagship iPhone was the first 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:52.320 to feature an ultra premium double-sided glass sandwich 00:02:52.320 --> 00:02:56.320 design that still dominates today. And it was the first to ship 00:02:56.320 --> 00:03:01.000 with a humble little processor called the A4. Contrary to what most people think, 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.400 the A4 wasn't actually the first custom silicon designed by Apple. 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:09.620 That honor belongs to the Scorpius CPU, a quad core concept chip 00:03:09.620 --> 00:03:14.720 that would have enabled true desktop multitasking, literally 20 years before Intel. 00:03:14.720 --> 00:03:19.040 But what the A4 was, was the first piece of silicon designed by Apple, 00:03:19.040 --> 00:03:23.280 Apple Silicon, you might call it, that ultimately made it into consumers' hands. 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:27.920 And it was a game changer. While everyone else was stuck using off-the-shelf 00:03:27.920 --> 00:03:33.400 or at most lightly modified ARM cores, Apple created a chip that was so powerful 00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:37.560 that it could accommodate multitasking on the highest resolution display on the market, 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:43.280 make video calls with its front-facing camera, and interface with new onboard IO like the gyroscope, 00:03:43.320 --> 00:03:47.080 all with, at the time, downright outstanding battery life. 00:03:47.080 --> 00:03:51.800 The iPhone 4, with the A4 chip at its heart, would remain part of Apple's lineup, 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.920 first as an entry-level model, and then later as a budget option 00:03:54.920 --> 00:03:58.320 for developing markets for almost five years. 00:03:58.320 --> 00:04:03.200 But that doesn't mean that Apple rested on their laurels, at least not on the iPhone side of things. 00:04:03.200 --> 00:04:07.400 Within just 16 months, the previously groundbreaking A4 chip 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:12.840 had already been replaced by the A5, which according to Apple, was twice as fast 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:16.960 thanks to its more advanced architecture and addition of a second CPU core 00:04:16.960 --> 00:04:23.040 alongside vastly superior onboard graphics. And from there, the hits just kept coming. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:27.360 Now there have been times when the mobile CPU wars have been somewhat close, 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:32.400 as competitors like Qualcomm or Samsung have attempted to leapfrog Apple Silicon. 00:04:32.400 --> 00:04:36.620 Even the Apple haters have gotta admit that under Tim Cook's leadership, 00:04:36.620 --> 00:04:39.640 Apple has executed nearly flawlessly 00:04:39.640 --> 00:04:44.040 on their mobile processor roadmap, delivering consistently industry-leading performance 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:49.160 year after year after year, if only the same could be said of Apple's partners. 00:04:49.160 --> 00:04:52.800 The mid-2010s were a tough time for the MacBook. 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:57.520 And thanks to some questionable design choices that limited heat dissipation, 00:04:57.520 --> 00:05:00.360 a pretty tough time for the Mac as well. But why? 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:06.320 You guessed it, while Intel had also been enjoying a long streak of wins, 00:05:06.320 --> 00:05:09.520 starting from the 2006 introduction of the Core 2 Duo, 00:05:09.560 --> 00:05:12.680 by 10 years later, they had completely run out of gas 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:15.920 and begun a troubling pattern of releasing new chips 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:19.160 that were actually built on old manufacturing processes 00:05:19.160 --> 00:05:23.400 and just were not moving the bar for performance or for efficiency. 00:05:23.400 --> 00:05:27.920 At a time when Sir Johnny Ive was chasing thinner and lighter designs for Apple's products, 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:31.080 this had a profound impact on their ability to innovate. 00:05:31.080 --> 00:05:35.740 Not helping matters was Apple's ongoing feud with NVIDIA due to the bump gate scandal 00:05:35.740 --> 00:05:39.800 that led to the untimely deaths of many GeForce-powered MacBooks in 2008. 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:43.260 Apple removed all NVIDIA hardware from its product portfolio 00:05:43.260 --> 00:05:47.040 and then, even today, has never looked back. 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:53.140 That's all fine and good until you realize that Apple's customers were relying on AMD's GPU team 00:05:53.140 --> 00:05:58.120 in order to deliver competitive GPU performance in their MacBooks and Macs. 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:03.600 Hmm, little did we know though, Apple's leadership was cooking up a plan. 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:08.760 Rumors of an ARM-powered Mac prototype have actually been around since as early as 2011, 00:06:08.760 --> 00:06:12.160 according to this article from CNET. But it wasn't until 2018 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:17.600 that the first credible rumors began to circulate that Apple had deemed that their chip performance 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:20.620 was actually good enough and a switchover 00:06:20.620 --> 00:06:23.760 from their floundering partner Intel was imminent. 00:06:23.760 --> 00:06:29.520 But why did it take them so long to make the call? To be honest, even with Intel's struggles 00:06:29.520 --> 00:06:36.040 and MacBooks overheating, I don't blame them. I mean, the transition from PowerPC to x86 Intel 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:39.520 back in 2006 was still a pretty vivid memory 00:06:39.520 --> 00:06:44.280 in the minds of both the Mac user base, not to mention Apple's own software teams. 00:06:44.280 --> 00:06:49.520 During that time, many applications needed to be recompiled and then debugged by developers, 00:06:49.520 --> 00:06:52.600 which ended up costing consumers money directly, 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:55.600 sometimes in the form of completely repurchasing their software. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:00.320 And that completely ignores that Apple themselves was stuck maintaining compatibility tools 00:07:00.320 --> 00:07:03.880 and parallel versions of their operating system for years. 00:07:03.880 --> 00:07:07.180 Then on top of that, developing your own chips, 00:07:07.180 --> 00:07:13.040 even for a company with the resources and talent of Apple is kind of a hassle, you know? 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:16.120 And it's pretty nice if someone else could just do it for you. 00:07:16.120 --> 00:07:22.720 While I strongly believe that the Apple Silicon transition was inevitable, the second that the A4 was a success, 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:28.480 I also believe that if Intel hadn't fumbled as hard as they did, it could have come as much as 10 years 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:32.680 later to just avoid rocking the boat and allow Apple to allocate their resources 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:36.400 to new product lines rather than the oft-neglected Mac. 00:07:36.400 --> 00:07:39.920 But with all that said, I don't think there's a person alive 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:46.240 who would say now that the effort was wasted. Apple's M-series Silicon launch was a smashing success 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:51.120 that vastly exceeded the expectations of all but Apple's most devoted of glazers. 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:54.920 And this doesn't get enough credit, in my opinion. It wasn't just the hardware. 00:07:54.920 --> 00:08:00.520 Apple's execution around software compatibility with Rosetta 2 and their ongoing support 00:08:00.520 --> 00:08:04.280 for Intel CPUs and macOS has given their legacy customers 00:08:04.280 --> 00:08:10.000 over half a decade to upgrade their devices before they'll lose access to the latest software updates. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.040 That's a pretty decent amount of time in tech terms. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:16.520 Surprisingly though, it's actually not M-series Silicon 00:08:16.520 --> 00:08:22.360 that inspired me to make this video. And it's not even the AirPods. Another candidate for top Tim Cook success stories 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:25.520 that rely on Apple Silicon for their competitive advantage. 00:08:25.520 --> 00:08:29.520 It was actually this. Every tech pundit worth their salt 00:08:29.520 --> 00:08:34.760 has been watching a couple of convergences taking place at Apple over the last decade plus. 00:08:34.760 --> 00:08:37.880 The iPad and the MacBook have been slowly, 00:08:37.880 --> 00:08:43.400 painfully slowly sometimes, becoming more and more alike, both in form and function. 00:08:43.400 --> 00:08:47.840 And when M-series Silicon showed up in the iPad, it had just about everyone, 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:52.520 including me going, well, it's powerful enough now. macOS on iPad when? 00:08:52.520 --> 00:08:59.160 But then Apple went totally the other way. They zigged instead of zagged and they put the A18 Pro, 00:08:59.160 --> 00:09:04.400 a relatively inexpensive phone chip in their most affordable MacBook ever. 00:09:04.400 --> 00:09:08.400 Now in a vacuum, the MacBook Neo is already an outstanding product that deserves 00:09:08.400 --> 00:09:11.400 its millions of units of sales and more. 00:09:11.400 --> 00:09:14.600 But looking at the bigger picture, it is so much more than that. 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:18.120 And I think it's gonna prove to be the most important move 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:24.160 that Mr. Cook has made during his entire tenure. I've talked for years about Apple's inexplicable, 00:09:24.160 --> 00:09:30.680 near complete abandonment of the education market. When I was a kid, every machine in the school was a Mac. 00:09:30.680 --> 00:09:36.080 Love it, hate it, you had to use it. And an entire generation of children was raised believing 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:40.880 that the left side of an app window was the appropriate place to click, to close it. 00:09:40.880 --> 00:09:45.840 And then they just stopped being affordable and stopped caring that young people, 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:49.960 especially young students, had been completely priced out of their ecosystem. 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:55.800 That's what just changed. For me, the 599 price for this was as big a mic drop 00:09:55.800 --> 00:10:00.200 as when Sony went on stage and said 299. 00:10:00.200 --> 00:10:03.600 And it would have been impossible without the vertical integration 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:08.760 and supply chain mastery that Tim Cook oversaw. Also, right along the Neo's launch, 00:10:08.760 --> 00:10:13.600 Apple has completely overhauled their tools for education and fleet management, 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:18.720 creating an alternative to Chromebooks and Windows machines that's so powerful that within days of its launch, 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:23.600 it was already changing the industry. Anyway, the Neo has been so successful 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:27.680 that it actually almost punched a hole in that supply chain management aspect 00:10:27.680 --> 00:10:31.280 of Mr. Cook's tenure. All that stuff has been so expertly managed 00:10:31.280 --> 00:10:36.240 that I feel like we'd almost started to take it for granted. Remember how you used to line up for a new iPhone 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:40.960 and it would be backordered for ages all the time? I mean, any hot item has shortages. 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:44.040 But I don't even remember the last time that we saw something like the Neo, 00:10:44.040 --> 00:10:48.800 where it was backordered for like a month. Apple's ability under Tim Cook's leadership 00:10:48.800 --> 00:10:52.480 to keep products in stock on time around the globe, 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:57.040 even during disruptions, is nearly unparalleled. 00:10:57.040 --> 00:11:01.520 And I guess that's the wisdom of putting an awkward supply chain guy in charge. 00:11:01.520 --> 00:11:05.480 Under Tim Cook's leadership, Apple's gone from a valuation of hundreds of billions 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:11.080 to multiple trillions, which isn't to say that everything's gone perfectly. 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:14.560 The Apple Vision Pro almost feels like an intentionally bad product. 00:11:14.560 --> 00:11:17.880 I mean, a VR headset that refuses to acknowledge 00:11:17.880 --> 00:11:24.480 the two main use cases for VR, high fidelity gaming and high fidelity other things. 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:27.880 But what were they thinking? But hey, maybe I'm looking at the small picture. 00:11:27.880 --> 00:11:32.120 Maybe Apple's VR efforts are gonna completely turn around with their rumored smart glasses. 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:36.520 Kind of like we saw with the Apple Watch where it turned from a luxury gold-plated timepiece 00:11:36.520 --> 00:11:41.440 to a health-focused smart wearable. If that happens though, it won't be under Tim Cook 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:44.640 who has taken a role as executive chairman. Well earned, sir. 00:11:44.640 --> 00:11:49.000 We haven't always agreed, but I respect the hell out of the hustle and I salute you. 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:53.200 Which leaves only one question. What do I meme about on my personal Twitter now? 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:56.360 No, actually there are more questions. Who's taking over? 00:11:56.360 --> 00:11:59.560 His name is John Ternis. He's currently Apple's senior vice president 00:11:59.560 --> 00:12:03.160 for hardware engineering and he was part of the team that introduced the iPad, 00:12:03.160 --> 00:12:08.120 which actually before the iPhone 4 was the first device to use Apple Silicon. 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:11.480 And I gotta say, knowing almost nothing about the guy, 00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:17.440 I love this move. I love the idea of hardware geeks learning biz stuff 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:20.800 and then getting an opportunity to bring their deep product knowledge 00:12:20.800 --> 00:12:25.200 all the way to the top levels of leadership. I strongly believe that Intel, for example, 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:29.640 is much better off today because of Pat Gelsinger's short tenure as CEO, 00:12:29.640 --> 00:12:34.260 even if an imposter is getting a ton of credit for the balls that Pat rolled into motion. 00:12:34.260 --> 00:12:39.840 And as if Apple was legit trying to suck up to me specifically, John Ternis' replacement 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:43.100 is gonna be John Suruji, the guy who led Apple Silicon Design 00:12:43.100 --> 00:12:48.040 during the A4's development. He's also getting a title bump to Chief Hardware Officer. 00:12:48.040 --> 00:12:51.480 So Apple is getting two new C levels from their hardware team. 00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:54.880 They can't make it any more clear how much of a priority the hardware is right now. 00:12:54.880 --> 00:12:58.240 And I gotta say, that is really exciting for me. 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:01.800 Just like I get excited telling you about our sponsor. If you guys enjoyed this video, 00:13:01.800 --> 00:13:06.160 why not check out the recent comparison we did between the MacBook Neo and a bunch of other 00:13:06.160 --> 00:13:09.320 similarly priced Windows and Chrome OS machines. 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:13.520 It's kind of a bloodbath, not gonna lie.