Cook (right) with Mossberg and Swisher.
FORTUNE — It didn’t take long for the critics to weigh in on Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook’s performance at D:11 AllThingsD Tuesday night.
Thanks to the Internet — and especially to Twitter — the first reviews were posted before he left the stage. They were not very kind.
A representative sample:
- Adam Lashinsky, Senior editor at large, Fortune. The unbearable lightness of what Tim Cook says: The interview conducted by journalist-luminaries Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher was alternately painful and tedious… It is a strange sight to see the CEO of Apple, a company known for its brilliance and vision, decline over and over to discuss just about anything in any detail.
- Steven Levy, Senior writer, Wired. @StevenLevy: If “incredible” was trigger for Tim Cook drinking game, #d11 would be an alcoholic toxic disaster.
- Chris Anderson, Founder, TED. @TEDchris: Tim Cook more compelling on Apple’s tax issues than on product pipeline. Simplify and Apple will pay more!
- Tonya Hall, Host, Bloomberg Radio. @TonyaHallRadio: The leadership gap left by Steve Jobs looks widest when Tim Cook is on stage talking about the company.
- Richard Stelling, Developer, App Surgery. @rjstelling: Why are tech journalists so pre-occupied with Apple’s stock price?
- Heidi Moore, U.S. finance editor. The Guardian. @moorehn: Yes, like destroying Maps? RT @MParekh: “We think the customer pays us to make choices on their behalf”
- Bernard Gershon, President, Gershon Media. @bgershon: Cook was smug and showed no “vision”!
- Yuriy Dybskiy, Salesman, Cloudant. @dybskiy: Can’t believe I stayed up till 3am watching Tim Cook at #d11. Such a waste of time. 0 information or hope for apple. You win, #google.
- Bill Gross, CEO, Idealab. @Bill_Gross: #D11 where Tim Cook mightily fights off Kara & Walt, defends Apple, but unfortunately still compared to the most charismatic CEO in history.
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