Roger Fingas
During the past six years with CEO Tim Cook, the average gap between Apple announcing and shipping a product has reportedly been 23 days — more than double the 11 days under the previous six years of Steve Jobs.
Some examples of delays include the Apple Watch — which was promised for early 2015, but shipped in late April — and AirPods, which were intended to arrive in October 2016 but were delayed at the last minute, ultimately shipping on Dec. 20, the Wall Street Journal noted. The company was also late in delivering the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro.
Most recently the company missed a December target for the HomePod, which should now ship in the next few months. The delay may have further entrenched Apple's rivals in the smartspeaker space, Amazon and Google.
The discrepancy between Cook and Jobs is said to be at least partly attributable to preferences on when to make an announcement. Jobs normally preferred waiting until a product was ready to ship, according to former Apple workers, the exceptions being more radical products like the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
Other factors are said to include the growing complexity of Apple's products, and more micromanagement of components. Whereas early iPhones used a complete camera from a single supplier, modern ones mix-and-match parts for an ideal technical combination and maximizing profits.
Cook has shipped over 70 products under his tenure. Of these, five had gaps of three months or more, while nine arrived within one to three months. Jobs is said to have delivered roughly the same number of products, but only one had to wait over three months, and only seven came within the one- to three-month window.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Marko Zivkovic
60 Comments
Means nothing, other than the fact Apple is a little bit more "open" about upcoming products (instead of keeping everything a secret until launch).
Honestly, I think they should do a test on how many bugs result as a cost of Jobs shipping so fast. There were problems that were put out there at times.
The longer you wait the higher perceived value of products that are being sold. It’s actually better if you make potential costumers wait!
Alternatively, they can announce things when its absolutely ready in every aspect for tomorrow's dispatch. A week or two delay in announcement is not going to hurt anyone. So basically its just shifting of timeframe. But delay is good if product is not ready yet for example HomePod and my expectation from HomePod is to give me the best possible music listening experience. The rest is totally secondary and less important.