Has Tim Cook Become a Liability at Apple?

Frankly, I'm tired of defending my tendency to bring up Steve Jobs' name in relation to what ails Apple. We're stuck in this loop of uncertainty, in part, because we subscribe to the notion that Jobs is dead so we'll forget all of the credit we gave his genius for Apple's success when he was alive. That impact -- that ingredient in Apple's greatness -- did not die with the man.

Apple -- and this comes down to the board and other influential people inside and close to the company -- needs to stop ignoring the elephant in the room. That is, is a Tim Cook-led Apple capable of reversing the trend, innovating with new and existing products and, once and for all, ending the negativity?

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Apple doesn't want to address this. It has invested so much in Cook it appears almost impossible to reverse course now. And it sure as heck wouldn't look good. In fact, it would only ratchet up the level of uncertainty.

That said, Apple could contain the damage by having an aggressive plan in place to admit the miscalculation, bring in a capable and dynamic leader, regain the market's confidence and accelerate the pipeline of innovation Cook claims to have in place, but can't seem to implement.

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--Written by Rocco Pendola in Santa Monica, Calif.

Rocco Pendola is TheStreet's Director of Social Media. Pendola's daily contributions to TheStreet frequently appear on CNBC and at various top online properties, such as Forbes.

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