CNBC's Steve Kovach joins the "Power Lunch" team to discuss Apple CEO Tim Cook's future with the company, Apple's AI struggles and more.

CNBC's Steve Kovach joined 'Power Lunch' to discuss Apple's succession planning amid ongoing speculation about CEO Tim Cook's future. Kovach highlighted that similar doubts were raised when Cook succeeded Steve Jobs, but Cook has since overseen the launch of major products such as AirPods and Apple Watch, proving critics wrong multiple times.

The discussion also touched on Apple's approach to artificial intelligence, noting the company's history of catching up in software-driven shifts and its current strategy of partnering with other firms for AI technology. The conversation addressed Apple's supply chain challenges, particularly the shift from China to India, and emphasized the complexity of vertically integrating new technologies across Apple's product lines.

Here's who could replace Tim Cook as Apple's CEO

So back here with us to continue the discussion about Apple's succession plans is CNBC's technology correspondent Steve Kovacs Steve. I Have limited patience for the kind of calling for CEOs heads When people are looking at stuff outside the company and I think seem to have very little historical context You and I have covered this company for many years and we've seen this before like when Tim Cook first took over from Steve Jobs That was literally the same criticism that he got right? Oh my god We're losing this product genius at the helm and now we have this operations dork running everything instead And then we saw that it play out throughout his tenure multiple times I mean and it seems like every time you see Apple slip back a little bit Everyone starts questioning with this happened when Johnny I've left six years ago This happened when Samsung was kind of innovating on phone designs and making these big screens and getting people Excited about different kind of phones outside the iPhone Cook managed his way through all of those challenges. Yes, artificial intelligence is different. Yes it's also still early days right and he has made some changes among the leadership ranks to Potentially fix this problem and we'll see if they can do it now if they can't do it if they miss their second shot at This okay, then maybe the conversation can get started again. But look at look at what we're starting here I mean, these are huge products that Apple has launched under Tim Cook and this idea that nothing has ever happened under him Seems crazy walk around any city in the country and you're gonna see everyone wearing AirPods You can see everyone wearing an Apple watch a lot Apple TV shows are so many smash hits there I mean sure. It's like a marketing thing. But at the same time it's he has the track record Yeah, I mean doesn't mean in the future won't happen. But boy has he proven the naysayers wrong every single time Apple culturally Under Steve Jobs had a history of missing software driven sure shifts iTunes was a catch-up move after Steve Jobs was focused on iMovie and DVD burning instead of CD burning and then they caught up and then you you can go to the Apple Maps Debacle where people are saying? Oh my goodness. How will they ever do? I thought I use Apple Maps, but sure Mobile me ping all these things software driven social media driven where it's not exactly an Apple's wheelhouse but they seem to manage to partner up with somebody while developing their own and Then they manage to come out ahead and that's exactly what we're hearing about the AI on the AI front It seems like we Bloomberg reported a couple days ago that they might just give up on doing their own LLM and do exactly what they did with Google search and have a partnership a very lucrative partnership By the way for both sides and and leverage that technology and build on top of it And so they kind of have this backup or insurance or what have you to get this out the door next year now again If it's not if this they missed their second chance at this sure There's some real questions of whether or not they're ready to meet this AI moment But right now are we seeing people ditching their phones to start using? I mean, what are they using chat GPT on? They're using it on their iPhone. They're not using it on a Samsung device I wonder if the thorny or problem is we were talking a little bit last hour, you know to get the book Apple in China You know Tim Cook being the operations guy this being a whole supply chain thing, you know Are they gonna bring in somebody who's really directionally moving more of the supply chain to India with all they're already doing that though Yes, it would be to do it much more. So I don't who's gonna make that call But how can they do that out? But how could they do it more? I know the thesis of this book is kind of Tim Cook, you know Kind of dug himself into this hole and he should have foreseen this and that the tariffs would happen and to rely it on China And so on and so forth, but they started their India journey over a decade ago. You got to keep that in mind He planted a Tim Cook planted a flag down in India over a decade ago He started talking about this kind of stuff and saying we see a potential here It kind of died down the chatter around India and producing in India and and then it renewed again Even just right after I think this also makes a point that it's almost like nowhere else could Apple have actually done this I mean China was just a quick market where they could like you said build eight-lane highways and mobilize an entire world It's him. We're sitting here right now. He would literally say the same thing. Yeah, I Understand the decision-making that went into that what I'm curious about is what do they do about it now? Do they just say this is what it is for better or for worse, but now it's become a whole geopolitical thing So who's going to make those decisions that I don't know what the rate they step on the gas and keep doing India takes a long Time also, I would encourage investors to remember when you're vertically integrated like Apple is you can't afford to just fail fast and try stuff Out and drive it across your entire product line You really have to take the time to get it right because it's not just the software that you're putting on there You're tuning the chip designs to that and the phone features and the camera features and all that

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