The former Apple, Ken Segall, worries Tim Cook gets "vanilla" advice

Ken Segall, a veteran of advertising and a former ally of Steve Jobs, fears that Apple will lose some of its popularity under the leadership of Tim Cook.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, former art director of the advertising agency Chiat / Day said that Apple was not taking some of the marketing risks that it was doing under Jobs and could not create personalities around new iPhones.

Segall worked on definitive campaigns such as "Think Different" and created the name iMac, so he knows what brand worked for Apple after Jobs returned to the company in 1997.

"The death of Steve Jobs has created completely different marketing approach of which we can see the results, "Segall said." As a marketer, I look at this and I can see the difference between Steve who is there – and who does not. is not there – very clearly. "

Segall suggested that this could be because Cook took into account advice for playing safety." Tim Cook goes by recommendation of people around him, "he said, adding that these people were "a little vanilla." Segall continued: "In a big business environment, people tend to become safer … In the old days, Apple was doing things that attracted a lot of people. be careful. "

This is not the first time that Segall criticizes an Apple post-Jobs. In 2016, Segall said Apple's iPhone's naming policy had "served to confuse customers" and made the marketing work problematic.

He alluded to these concerns in a conversation with The Telegraph. "They should build a personality for the phone," he said, "something that people might want to be part of because it exceeds the characteristics of the moment." He said it would help Apple outperform at a time when smartphone sales are slowing.

Business Insider contacted Apple to comment.

Apple will post its second quarter results on Tuesday, during which we will hear more about how the iPhone X has been received by customers. There was encouragement on Monday when UBS wrote that Apple was successfully persuading people to increase the price range of the iPhone. This could boost revenue and help it overcome the maturation in the smartphone market.