The little things Apple misses from Steve Jobs

There probably have been millions of articles written about the Apple of Tim Cook and how it differs from the Apple of Steve Jobs. I’ve always been hesitant to add to that.

Having worked at Apple for 12 years under Steve and 8 years under Tim, that gives me plenty of exposure to both eras. I’ll start with a quick review of the big things that people generally agree Apple misses from the loss of Steve before getting to the little things.

The big things Apple misses

After Steve died, the majority of pundits seemed to predict some level of doom for Apple, as if Steve were personally responsible for the entirety of every Apple product. It was as if he were the sole person making every decision at Apple. The second most common thing mentioned is the loss of Steve’s relentless curation of Apple products. It was argued that Steve had once-in a lifetime skills in these two categories.

This may be true, but it must be recognized than Apple has enjoyed great financial success under Tim Cook and als…