From Inside the World of Eddy Cue, Apple’s Services Chief in The Information ($)
It is easy for Apple employees to tell when they have lost the attention of Eddy Cue, the leader of the company’s sprawling internet initiatives—from its music and video businesses to its maps service.
During meetings, Mr. Cue is sometimes known to fall silent, shut his eyes and tilt his head back, leaving other participants to wonder whether he is staring at the ceiling or sleeping, said several former Apple employees and one outside partner present on multiple occasions when it happened over the past few years. In at least two of these situations, Mr. Cue began snoring, one source said…
In interviews with more than two dozen people who have worked with him, Mr. Cue is described as a leader of intelligence and empathy, with a loyal following at Apple. But others who have worked with him say he seems overextended and, at important moments, has failed to intercede in conflicts—for instance, during the creation of the company’s subscription music service, Apple Music, when former employees of Beats, which Apple acquired, battled with counterparts at iTunes.
“Apple tries to do too much with too few people,” said one former Apple executive, who like most people interviewed for this story requested anonymity to avoid the disfavor of one of the tech industry’s most powerful companies. “That sometimes backfires. Eddy is the best example of that at Apple. He’s always doing too many things.”
My take: Pretty much as I suspected. Cue may epitomize the soft underbelly of Apple’s middle management, but he is not the only SVP with too much on his plate.
Cue may epitomize the soft underbelly of Apple’s middle management,
You can’t have it both ways. Cook is a genius, the best person for the job and his lieutenants are not up to the job.
In my estimation, Cook does not suffer incompetence in the slightest (Scott Forestall and John Browett come to mind). Just because we, as outsiders, can’t see what Cue is doing doesn’t translate to incompetence.
Eddy Cue, the leader of the company’s sprawling internet initiatives—from its music and video businesses to its maps service.
That Services is growing at an extended (4) year 30+% average compound rate is all I need to know about his effectiveness.
The argument is that he, and others, have too many responsibilities and that things would be better if they could delegate more.
Based on their results, I don’t have a beef with Apple’s management, and I don’t have even close to enough information to make a blanket statement like “they need to delegate more”.
Eddie, if you read PED, and I hope you do, please be evaluated for sleep apnea, the commonest cause of daytime somnolence– far more common than overwork. (From a long time investor and Stanford trained doc….)
As a person who suffered from unknown sleep apnea for years, I concur. Thanks for your post!
BTW, that includes falling asleep at work numerous times and being made fun of as a result.
Mine was diagnosed after getting conked on the head and not recovering as fast as expected. Thank you, Mr. CPAP (and mental therapies and medications).
None of should judge another, period. And none us really know what is going on in Apple, Siri and Maps lost ground under Cue. We don’t see much of Cue lately.
By contrast, Craig Federighi took over Siri. Very quickly it transitioned to a new hire dedicated to AI and reporting to Tim Cook. Just my guess, Craig quickly figured out how important AI / Siri are and the fact that he could not do AI justice and keep the rest of the software trains on time. Note also, all those XYZKits that help drive services revenue, come from Mr. Hair.
By contrast, Craig Federighi took over Siri. Very quickly it transitioned to a new hire dedicated to AI and reporting to Tim Cook.
Apple has a ton more initiatives going on right now than it did even 5 years ago. A management “shake up” like we just saw happens at the top after discussions with senior management on what was needed (human resources) to advance those initiatives.
Apple Movies doesn’t look like much right now because we haven’t seen the first iteration of the product, but the amount of work going on in the background has to be enormous, hence the realignment of responsibilities.
That management recognized the need for a realignment of responsibilities, and the need for additional human resources, speaks very well of senior management (including Cue) in my opinion, especially since management didn’t through additional bodies at a project until absolutely needed.
I agree with PED and I think iTunes and iBooks are both examples of software that’s in Cue’s wheelhouse that needs serious work and has for years. We keep hearing that things are about to get better but it hasn’t happened in a long time.
Granted, Cue’s area isn’t the only part of the MacOS that has issues with integration, but it’s an extremely important one.
Then there’s Apple’s streaming streaming video initiative… to me, it sounds like a lot of money wasted on questionable content (at this point).
Sort of a tangent if not a bit off topic, but Motley Fool reported today on a recent Katy Huberty report:
“Shares of Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) closed 6.2% lower on Wednesday, hamstrung by a reputable analyst firm’s report on a competing service offering from mighty Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)…In a research report on Apple’s video-service plans, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty estimated that an as-yet unannounced Apple Video service could collect revenues in the neighborhood of $500 million next year and $4.4 billion in 2025. The report hardly moved Cupertino’s trillion-dollar market cap, but Netflix investors ducked for cover…For comparative purposes, Netflix’s top-line sales have reached nearly $4 billion per quarter. Huberty is not arguing that Apple is about to kill Netflix, but her report does outline a rapidly growing global market for streaming video services.”
More from Market Watch:
“Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty raised her price target on Apple AAPL, -0.65% shares to $245 from $232 on Wednesday, writing of the company’s opportunities in video and streaming. “We believe that Apple Video will become a reality sooner than investors think,” she said, and if the company plays its cards right, it could bring in $37 billion in media revenue by 2025.
Huberty figures that Apple could take one of two approaches with its video offerings: focus on a standalone video service or combine original content with its music and subscription news products. Given Apple’s come-from-behind position in video, a bundled offering might make the most sense….Apple could perhaps offer a standalone video product for $7.99, reasoned Huberty, which is lower than what Netflix Inc. NFLX, -6.17% and others charge. But the company seems focused on quality over quantity, meaning that it might not have a huge content library at the start and thus would be “more reliant on big hits.” With a bundled offering, Apple could appeal to more value-oriented customers, those who might currently be considering Hulu and Spotify’s combined $12.99 product. It could offer a video-only option as well.
She expects that a combined offering would provide “differentiation” versus peers and “reduce the dependency” that Apple’s original shows become big hits off the bat. Her projection calls for $37 billion in “Apple Media” revenue by 2025, 64% above what the company might be able to generate if it didn’t offer a combined product and far above the estimated $4 billion revenue impact that Apple’s media efforts could have this year.
For context, Apple is expected to generate $37 billion in revenue for the entire services segment in the fiscal year ending this September, according to FactSet. Consensus estimates call for $165 billion in iPhone revenue this fiscal year.”
Thanks for the tip, Joe. Got the note from Katy. See here…
https://www.ped30.com/2018/09/05/morgan-stanley-245-apple/