Apple, Tim Cook | featured news

Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook acknowledged on Wednesday that his shareholders were disappointed with a five-month slide of more than 30 percent in the company's share price, but urged a focus on the longer term.

Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook's 2012 compensation package of just over $4 million is a huge cut on paper for the top executive of the most valuable U.S. corporation, after a 2011 package fattened by more than $376 million in long-term stock awards.

Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company will produce one of its existing lines of Mac computers in the United States next year.

At least one former Apple exec wasn't surprised or sad to hear the news that iOS chief Scott Forstall is leaving the company... Several reports since then have suggested that Forstall didn't get along well with some other key players on the team and angered CEO Tim Cook by refusing to apologize for Apple's maps application.

The smaller device will officially be called the iPad Mini and be priced starting at $329, pricey when compared with popular 7-inch tablets like the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7, which start at $199. The iPad Mini will have a screen slightly smaller than 8 inches -- the original iPad has a screen just under 10 inches -- while having the same screen resolution of the larger version.

The furor over Apple's faulty mapping software reached the Silicon Valley company's highest echelons Friday, prompting an apology from Chief Executive Tim Cook and opening the way for rival Google to capitalize on the misstep.

Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company is "extremely sorry" for the frustration its Maps application has caused and it's doing everything it can to make it better. In the meantime, he recommended that people use competing map applications to get around... "While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app," Cook wrote.

Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs when it comes to leading Apple Inc. As the debut of the new iPhone 5 just proved, that may not be a bad thing. The taller, thinner and lighter phone prompted a rush on Wall Street to raise price targets for Apple stock, but the optimism was not because of a big technological advance or design breakthrough; the "wow" factor that was the trademark of the late Apple co-founder Jobs was decidedly absent.

Google Inc CEO Larry Page and Apple CEO Tim Cook have been conducting behind-the-scenes conversations about a range of intellectual property matters, including the ongoing mobile patent disputes between the companies, according to people familiar with the matter.

This is Apple’s second earnings miss under Tim Cook. After the second miss, the scrutiny of Tim Cook’s leadership inevitably comes into play. The big question is, “Are Steve Jobs’ shoes too big to fill?” Steve Jobs was a master at managing expectations. He mastered the art of under promising and over delivering. Steve Jobs perfected the art of managing expectations by not giving good guidance regarding earnings.