Apple Is Like a Failing Religion

Tim Cook had a difficult job to do at yesterday's Goldman Sachs conference. It would be hard for any CEO to explain why a company's share price has lost a third of its value in six months. But Cook "is not just any CEO," points out Heidi Moore at the Guardian. He's Apple CEO, and "that's not an administrative job; it's a Messianic one." Apple isn't a tech company so much as a "minor religion." So Cook made an appeal to faith, disparaging companies that focus on product specs and singing veritable hymns to Apple's user experience.

But Cook's message doesn't fly. "Apple does in fact make crappy products on occasion," writes Moore, singling out Apple Maps in particular. Suddenly Apple, "rather than raining benedictions on its users, was acting like bumbling, giant Microsoft," bullying customers into using its products. But Apple hasn't been humble about its fall—Cook dismissed a lawsuit from powerful shareholder David Einhorn as a "silly sideshow." That's a problem. "Cook doesn't have that leverage any more, to wave his hands benignly over the masses and declare them blessed by Apple's very presence." Click to read Moore's full column. (More Apple stories.)