00:00Were you surprised by this, Ross?
00:02I've been, it's amazing. I, you know, I'm a big fan of Tim over the years. He's made me
00:09a tremendous, and my clients, a tremendous amount of wealth, and he's mostly done an excellent job.
00:14But, you know, I've been calling for him to step down. It's been time for new blood at Apple. It's
00:18been time for change with AI and so much innovation in software that, you know, really
00:24Apple has fallen behind on despite their hardware being so excellent. You know, this is a great
00:29move for Apple. Yeah, and just to point out, I mean, you've got, certainly if you were sort of
00:34at the start of Tim Cook's 10, you got rich off this. We were talking like a $300 billion market
00:38cap. It's at $4 trillion. This has been a cash juggernaut, something that we talked about quarter
00:43after quarter. It's interesting, though, to see some of the parallels, though. I mean,
00:47Tim Cook, when he took over after Steve Jobs' illness, 50 years old, there were a lot of
00:51questions about whether he was the right guy for the job. And, you know, certainly in terms of
00:56shareholder return, he was. And now Ternus is going to, at 50, is going to face a lot of those
01:00same questions. I am curious as to how much faith you have in his ability based on what you know
01:05about him. Well, I got a lot of faith in Gen Xers like myself taking over businesses. So, you know,
01:11I think this is the right age to be tasked with this enormous responsibility. You know, and I think
01:18it's a huge challenge. But, you know, it's like you got a guy with a great level of experience and
01:24he knows the company and everybody internally well. He's got the hardware chops, but also the
01:30overall balance and to really be potentially a great CEO. So, you know, I've been around for so
01:37long. I remember the Steve Jobs days and the Scully days and then the Steve Jobs days again. And then,
01:42you know, when Tip Cook came over, there was a ton of doubt, you know, about him. And I remember
01:47saying to my clients back then, like, you know, you got to give this guy a chance. You know,
01:51he's well-trained. He wouldn't be doing this if he wasn't confident that this person could take
01:55Apple to the next level. And this is what Apple actually needs to get to the next level. So,
02:01you know, I'm excited about it. I do. I wish Tim well. And I think he's done a phenomenal job
02:06over
02:06the years. And a lot of my career was kind of built on the back of Apple, especially when I
02:10was
02:10younger. So, you know, Apple's, you know, just a real soft place in my heart. So I wish him luck.
02:16And as I said, I'm grateful for what he's done. But it is time for change. And I couldn't be
02:21happier about it. Well, you know, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on his back. Or do you point
02:26out that he's a hardware guy? That has been the discussion around John Ternus. But, you know,
02:32the point has been made that, you know, it's hardware that he's really that's the sandbox he's
02:37comfortable in. It's not necessarily software. It's not necessarily AI. But it sounds like you are
02:41very confident when you think about this next chapter that Apple needs to go to that, you know,
02:46he's the one to lead it. Well, you know, I trust the board, obviously, and Tim in making this
02:53decision, you know, and I love that it's somebody inside Apple and not some outside CEO, because I
02:58always think that that's a much worse way to run a business. But that said, Apple is fundamentally a
03:04hardware company. And their position in AI right now is we just we're the gatekeeper. And if you want
03:09to run, you know, chat or Gemini, we don't care, we, you pay the $20 a month, and it comes
03:14through
03:14Apple, you know, and and nobody, you know, and Apple cares, you know, taking the 30% off the top
03:20or
03:20whatever they make. So I think, you know, for them, they know that with Google, they can get the best
03:26AI,
03:27Apple's never going to make AI better than Google at this point. And so they can really fill the software
03:32hole by getting closer with Google. But what they really need to do is they need to work on the
03:36hardware
03:37side, because they need to address like meta and their glasses. Because I personally believe
03:43the next great AI product is glasses. And meta has gone down the path and, and the products pretty
03:51good. But their AI isn't that good when you talk to the glasses and stuff. But this is an area
03:57where
03:57Apple could just shine. They have better tech and better opportunity. And I do think the next big
04:02thing is that maybe we can get rid of phones and just use the Apple Watch with eyeglasses. And,
04:08and boy, you know, so there's a lot of opportunity. And they do need to work on hardware.
04:14And Ross, we only have about a minute left with you. But I do want to get your thoughts on,
04:18you know,
04:18a topic that has been raised that maybe under John Ternus, we're going to see a more acquisitive
04:23Apple. Is that something that you want to see?
04:26Well, I've been hoping for that for ever. And it's never been their way. And it's never been
04:32their way really, for a long time. And what they always say is we make lots of small acquisitions,
04:36but we don't do anything big. But when I look into the landscape of the future, I don't think
04:40that that's what Apple needs to do to do well into the next decade. I think they really need to
04:46just,
04:47you know, lean in on their strengths. And the fact they are a monopoly for hardware for most people.
04:52And how do we make our hardware that, you know, even more valuable to people through,
04:57you know, integrating AI tools in an intelligent manner? Because currently,
05:02Apple AI is just garbage.
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