Tim, we like you and have little against you, but you're not Steve. Luckily we don't expect you to be Steve. But the problem is, Apple needs 'a' Steve.

Seeing that you aren't Steve and you haven't hired a 'Steve' replacement, we would like to give you some advice. Part of what made Apple great at what it did was Steve, but that was only part. He was the 'Yin', hardware and design engineers were the 'Yang'. Now all you're left with is the 'Yang', and you've let them run roughshod for too long.

It would be great if you spent the amount of time that Steve did obsessing over every detail of all the products. Testing them, beating on them, making sure that they were easy to use, but it's fairly obvious that this is beyond your abilities and you have left these things up to Ive and others. The foxes now control the henhouse, and more products like the Mac Amateur will continue until the 'Yin' is restored.

At some point you have to start holding people accountable and instead of giving them ridiculous amounts of stock bonuses they'll get pink slips and stock claw backs. How much market share in video editing does Apple have to loose, how far do sales of high-end Mac Pros have to drop before you start blaming the people at the top? Otherwise at some point, the shareholders may start truly holding 'you' accountable.

You were a great COO, you managed the supply chain better than anyone. You can lead Apple in that same way, but only if you start to understand that someone needs to 'be Steve'. The future of Apple depends upon it. You can be part of Apple's continued rise, or you can be a footnote along with Sculley, Spindler and Amelio.