Tim Cook is No Steve Jobs, Jobs' Ex-Publicist Says
*By Chloe Aiello*
Tim Cook is an excellent steward of Apple, but he's no Steve Jobs ー and what Apple really needs right now, is innovation, said Andy Cunningham, who worked with Jobs to launch the Macintosh.
"Tim Cook is an amazing steward of the assets he was left ... however, they have not been able to come up with the next big thing, which is really what they have to do. And Steve did it over and over and over and over again," Cunningham told Cheddar on Thursday.
Apple ($AAPL) stock plunged 9 percent on Thursday, continuing its declines from Wednesday for its lowest stock pricing since July 2017. The losses followed a letter Tim Cook wrote to investors on Wednesday, adjusting Apple's first-quarter revenue guidance down significantly to $84 billion from a previous estimate of $89 billion to $93 billion. The new outlook is about 5 percent less than the $88.3 billion in revenue it reported the same quarter last year.
[In the letter](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/01/letter-from-tim-cook-to-apple-investors/), Cook mostly attributes the revision to "the magnitude of the economic deceleration" in emerging markets, especially China.
"Most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 percent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad," Cook wrote in the note, adding that lower than anticipated iPhone revenue "accounts for all of our revenue shortfall to our guidance and for much more than our entire year-over-year revenue decline."
The company has now lost about $420 billion from previous all-time highs, dropping it into place as the fourth largest publicly traded company, behind Microsoft ($MSFT), Amazon ($AMZN) and Alphabet ($GOOGL).
Although Cook blamed China and its decelerating economy, Cunningham said it's all really about iPhone sales.
"Apple missed on its iPhone and I think that's the real issue here," Cunningham said. "They blame the Chinese economy, primarily for the sluggish sales of the iPhone, but really I think underneath that issue is, I think, the fact that Apple really is in need of its next big thing."
Despite the company's sizable cash horde, Apple prefers to invent in-house rather than acquire new products, Cunningham said, so what the company really needs is "a product visionary," like Jobs, to explore new ideas. Barring that, the company could be in trouble.
" I think we are starting to see ー this may be an omen ー but we are starting to see the beginning of the last days of its heyday," Cunningham said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/member-of-macintosh-launch-team-talks-apple-troubles).
Andrew Hawkins, transportation editor at The Verge, joins Cheddar News' closing Bell, where he breaks down FedEx's EV truck delivery from GM's BrightDrop Company while also discussing the shipping giant's strategy following its latest earnings report.
Alinda Mashiku, Conjunction Analysis and Risk Assessment Deputy Manager at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, joins Future of Space: Humankind's Leap Forward to explain how space debris is threatening operations in space at a time when more satellites are being deployed.
Marshall Smith, Senior Vice President of Space Systems at Nanoracks and Kirk Shireman, Vice President of the Lunar Exploration Campaign at Lockheed Martin join Future of Space: Humankind's Leap Forward to discuss upcoming plans for developing their Starlab commercial space station after being awarded a $160 million contract by NASA.
Both AMC and Cinemark shares rose Friday after a pandemic-era record number of moviegoers attended the 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' opening night. The movie is expected to pull at least $150 million in box office sales opening weekend. But is this momentum enough for theater chains as the COVID-19 omicron variant poses new threats? Daniel Loria, Editorial Director at Boxoffice PRO, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The billionaire space race took off in 2021, making major strides in space tourism. That growth is only expected to skyrocket in the next year, as the government and private institutions and companies look to shape the final frontier's exploration. Cheddar News dives into the biggest moments of the year in space, and what comes next for space travel and tourism.
While other CEOs of Southwest and American Airlines questioned current mask mandates in front of Congress, Delta CFO Dan Janki in his exclusive interview with Cheddar, was more cautious about doing away with the safety measure. "We're right now at the beginning of another wave," he said. "This is probably not the time to change mask policy." Janki also discussed his airline's future in loyalty program pricing, international travel, meal services, and stock pricing.
E-commerce data platform Rokt is prepping for an IPO as it comes off of a $325 million Series E fundraise, and CEO Bruce Buchanan joined Cheddar to discuss the future of his company. He explained how Rokt uses data science to optimize the consumer experience with their clients and discussed the goal to go public in 2023. "We're at a size and scale now where it's important we can give liquidity to investors, we can use the public markets to attract more talent, and we can use the public markets also to go on and acquire more businesses," he said. "We think it's about time that we do list."
Rideshare company Lyft is following its competitor Uber into the food delivery market by partnering with Olo, the on-demand commerce platform, and its dispatch network. Joining Cheddar to discuss the team-up, Olo founder and CEO Noah Glass. "Consumers will be able to place orders through the same apps and websites they go to … and see delivery as an option," he said. "And Lyft is now one of the providers who may be picking up the order on behalf of the consumer and taking it from the restaurant to the consumer." Glass also stated that Olo optimizes deliveries without adding the burden of additional fees on the restaurant side.
Chloe and Halle Bailey are no strangers to hard work. The sisters got their start performing covers on YouTube and have become a force in the music industry. Since then, the two have spread their wings beyond their duo group to individual projects. Now they're coming together to face off in the LG OLED Ultimate Gaming Showdown. Chloe and Halle join Cheddar News to discuss.
