Apple may have a bit of a PR problem on its hands thanks to a former executive who doesn’t seem to mind voicing his very frank opinions of the company’s top brass to all interested parties.

David Sobotta spent nearly twenty years in sales at what is now the most valuable business in history. He started writing an Apple-centric blog after leaving the company in 2004, and last month he published “The Pomme Company“, an e-book offering readers a “look inside one of America’s most secretive companies” from someone who was there for the long haul.

Apple execs, however, are more concerned with an interview between the writer and Dan Lyons of Readwrite titled “What’s It Like to Work for Tim Cook“. Turns out Sobotta wasn’t a big fan!

Sobotta calls Cook “one of the three people directly responsible for saving Apple” and admires the chief’s chutzphah; he wasn’t surprised by the decision to cut two top execs loose last month in a management shake-up move. But he refers to the current CEO as a technological “lightweight” who has “no personal loyalty”. He doesn’t have anything good to say about Cook’s management style either, claiming that “The people I saw him hire were not good ones” and that “he is poor judge of character.”

His final proclamation? “It is going to get worse at Apple. It is not a sustainable business culture.”

Wow, that’s more than a little harsh, Dave. Tell us what you really think!

Will Sobotta prove to be a big problem for Cook and Apple, or this just more of the usual Silicon Valley infighting, best ignored by all but fanboys and tech bloggers?

For a company often praised for its sleek, hyper-modern design aesthetic, Apple seems conflicted about the future of its user interfaces. In the wake of a staffing shake-up that went under-reported thanks to Hurricane Sandy, the company seems to be in the midst of a subtle but certain visual re-branding.

A New York Times report that will get a lot of design nerds excited notes the importance of the Monday departure of mobile software development leader and Steve Jobs loyalist Scott Forstall, who was dedicated to the company’s current “retro”, real-world visual style. A few widely maligned examples of that old-school aesthetic include this faux-leather “find my friends” app:

Don’t think any Apple fans will miss that one. A podcast app modeled after an old-timey tape machine won’t be a big loss either:

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Well, it’s official — the iconic Granny Smith symbol of The Beatles‘ record label, Apple Records, no longer belongs to the timeless band that made it famous, but to the monopolizer of all things apple-related: computer and electronics giant Apple.

Thus ends the final chapter of what has been a years-long saga of legal battles between the record label and the computer company. In 2007, the two parties settled their major dispute: Apple agreed to purchase all of the Beatles’ related trademarks and then license them back to the band’s estate.

“We love the Beatles,” Apple founder Steve Jobs said following the 2007 settlement. “And it has been painful being at odds with them over these trademarks. It feels great to resolve this in a positive manner, and in a way that should remove the potential of further disagreements in the future.” I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

Even after the settlement, though, it seems Apple wasn’t quite ready to “let it be”. In an apparent effort to tie up any loose ends, Apple moved to secure its rights to the Granny Smith trademark in 2011–and that right was granted last week.

On a side note, I was able to go apple picking last week without the orchard paying any royalties to Apple (that I know of), so at least there’s that.

Here we go again. Apple launches yet another highly-anticipated product amid a media whirlwind/ hype machine set to whip up the public like a bowl of meringue. And it works. Every time.

This time, as we’re sure you know, it’s the iPad Mini, released this week to combat the Friday debut of Microsoft’s Surface tablet and its brand-new Windows 8 operating system.

OK, even the most committed technophile reaches a saturation point. Nothing in life can be completely new and revolutionary and hype-worthy all the time, and while Apple’s success is well-deserved, we can’t help but wonder just when the working public will tire of these $500 “upgrades.”

As PR professionals, however, we do know that whenever super-CEO Tim Cook feels the need to apologize for poor decisions like omitting Google Maps from the iPhone 5 and creating a terrible app to replace it, the public takes notice. So the brand must tread carefully with regard to the public’s trust, good will, and willingness to get excited about something “new.” Need we remind you that many Americans are still just scraping by? Read more

When you try to think of the most groundbreaking “devices and services” company in the world today, the first name that comes to mind is…Microsoft, right?

No? Well, CEO Steve Ballmer wants to change all that, and he’s got a brilliant, semi-secret plan to do it—by making the company “cool” again. See those air quotes? Oh yeah, we’re totally (not) feeling it.

Ballmer’s recent letter to shareholders promises to deliver more products like the Xbox (which is actually pretty cool) and the Surface (which is an iPad with a kickstand) as well as the brand new MS Office and Windows 8, opening on PC screens near you later this month. Ballmer also plans to focus more on omnipresent cloud services, which will be key to any electronics company looking to compete in the market of the future—or the present, come to think of it.

By referring to “a new era”, Ballmer all but concedes that his company has fallen behind a certain fruit-themed competitor—a theory reinforced by Kurt Eichenwald’s Vanity Fair article about Microsoft’s “lost decade” which notes that the iPhone currently “brings in more revenue than the entirety of Microsoft”. The article focuses on bureaucracy inhibiting innovation—and, you know, we haven’t heard about too many ground-breaking products emerging from Microsoft in recent years. Have you?

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Google’s executive chairman expressed the headline’s sentiment during a discussion with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher of All Things D at New York’s 92 Y yesterday evening. Schmidt’s comments varied from scripted to candid when discussing his Silicon Valley competitors and Google’s innovative products such as driverless cars.(Google’s Street Views Car, pictured at left, is currently on display at Mountain View’s Computer History Museum)

Schmidt leveled his harshest criticism at Microsoft, a company he excludes from his list of four major industry players (Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook). He said, “They’re well-funded, but they haven’t been able to bring out state-of-the-art products in key areas. Let’s see what their new set of products does.”

Yet Schmidt sympathized with HP‘s recent struggles, describing his friend Meg Whitman as a “capable CEO.” He noted, while enterprise businesses once had lots of time develop various strategies, they’re now under considerably more pressure to find solutions to pressing problems as quickly as possible.

Schmidt also cut Facebook some slack, saying that “with a billion users, they can find ways to make money.” While acknowledging Facebook’s enormous database of registered users, he also pointedly noted, “Google wants more registered users, but we’re not forcing customers to sign up.”

Schmidt also lauded Twitter for doing “an excellent job of celebrity branding” while referring to the many stars who have used the platform to expand their followings and expressed hope that Google+ might one day become a key competitor.

Despite Schmidt’s widely quoted critiques about Apple’s inferior iPhone maps, he saved his highest praise for his main rival. “Apple did a phenomenal job of building integrated solutions and they did a tremendous job with tablets.” He also emphasized that Apple has more cash. He said that Apple “still has a special place in his heart”, which makes sense–Schmidt once served on Apple’s Board and had a close personal relationship with Steve Jobs.

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Steve Jobs died one year ago today.

The best thing about time is that, when given enough of it, we can gain perspective on just about everything.

This sad anniversary is not only a time to reflect, as Apple has done in the above video, but to assess and even speculate. It’s what Steve Jobs would have done. People typically don’t like change because we’re afraid of what we don’t know. So when Steve Jobs passed and an uncertain future faced Apple, many feared the worst, whispering in gloom-and-doom tones like that paranoid aunt we sit next to at Thanksgiving dinner. But instead of veering into financial collapse, the Apple brand awoke this morning as the most successful company in America.

And you can thank Steve Jobs for that. The public is discerning and critical by nature, but what Steve Jobs gave the public wasn’t just a string of innovative, sleek and disarmingly useful products that many of us can’t live without; he gave us a legacy. For most of us legacy is relegated to family members, but we’re not exaggerating when we say that Steve Jobs changed the world–and the way we interact with it.

A legacy takes a lifetime to create, and through energetic diligence, bombastic discipline and a humming internal nuclear reactor of creativity, Steve Jobs revolutionized our lives to such a degree that his death was much more than just a physical event. He lives on through the way we use technology in our everyday lives both personal and professional–and these changes will extend to our children and their grandchildren. The public still loves Steve Jobs, flaws and all, because he made a positive and lasting impact on the world (unless, of course, you are a button).

With each passing year the anniversary of Steve Job’s death will receive less and less coverage. But as PR people, today, we’d like to do what we can to stem the tide of time and call attention to a true innovator. RIP Steve Jobs. The public knows what you did. Thanks.

Thanks to Interbrand and common sense, we now know that Apple is the No. 2 most valuable brand in the world—and its profile is rising faster than that of any other company.

Yet, in the wake of disappointing iPhone 5 sales numbers and the whole Apple Maps debacle, some have begun to wonder whether CEO Tim Cook is strong enough to sustain his company’s incredible upward trajectory.

We may find out soon enough with Apple’s latest product roll-out: the iPad mini. Details about the model are still vague, but if we didn’t know better we might say that Apple is playing the classic “show ‘em the carrot” PR game by leaking news about their newest digital accessory, encouraging rumors to build in the tech world and getting ahead of chief rival Samsung’s mini-Galaxy S III roll-out.

How important will the iPad mini be? Will it distract the public (and the ravenous tech blog community) from Apple’s recent PR stumbles?

The public doesn’t know Apple as a company prone to apology. We imagine its communications team would be far more comfortable issuing a statement to the effect of “the obvious superiority of our products speaks for itself, hahaha”. Hey, we understand—apologies acknowledge the imperfections that come with being human, and CEO’s aren’t generally too big on humility (with good reason).

And yet, CEO Tim Cook felt the need to release an official statement to customers today in order to control the spread of bad publicity stemming from the awfulness that is Apple Maps.

We can’t imagine Cook enjoyed writing this little letter, and we wonder what finally led him to draft it: Was it Motorola’s viciously effective #iLost ad? Was it this hilarious tumblr page? We’re not sure, but we do admire Cook’s ability to acknowledge that his company made a completely terrible product!

Readers should note Cook’s unreservedly apologetic tone in writing that Apple “fell short on this commitment”. Unlike the other big “damage control” missive released this morning, Cook’s note includes the word “sorry”. A real-life apology! We just might be impressed!

Cook promises to get to work on improving the map app, and we’re sure that a few programmers have had anxiety attacks this week–but what will the CEO’s next move be?

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PR is a tricky art—sometimes what looks like a big win turns out to be anything but, and companies that seem to be stuck in the PR doghouse may actually be doing much better than they appear.

There’s no doubt that the last few weeks have brought a string of negative news for Samsung, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer. The latest development in the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung fight indicates that the company’s biggest iRival isn’t happy to leave a mere flesh wound. After winning the big copyright suit, the Silicon Valley tech god’s reps filed a motion on Friday to ban the sale of each offending product in the US—and they’d also like an extra $700 million in damages just to round things out.

Sounds like Apple has Samsung down for the count, right? And no one, not even the company’s own representatives, has tried to argue that it makes the more innovative, higher-quality products.

Here’s the thing, though: Samsung is doing just fine despite all this noise. In fact, it’s doing better than ever.

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