I knew things were bad when Steve Jobs didn’t make even a token video appearance at Macworld. He would have done it, I’m sure, had he been well enough. Maybe someone at Apple, weeks before, thought of suggesting such a video, but of course to do so then would have been committing career suicide even if in retrospect it would have been a good idea. So now Steve is off on his six month (or longer) medical leave, readjusting those hormones, and the press is abuzz with what the heck Apple will do without Steve.
Apple will be fine.
Steve Jobs is an amazing chief executive, clearly the best of his era, but that doesn’t make him irreplaceable. True, he saved Apple, but now Apple is saved. The company is rich, has growing market share and a mindshare dominance envied throughout the computer AND music AND video AND mobile phone industries. Steve could die tomorrow and Apple would be fine for years to come. Apple might even be better.
Steve, for all his design insight and high standards is also a pain in the ass, but it is his narcissism – keeping the whole company on edge and terrified, will he or won’t he? – that has to have taken a toll and may well land the company in court. Twenty thousand people are sitting around wondering whether their jobs are endangered because he is ill and that’s just crazy.
For a time Apple will be run with everyone asking, “What would Steve say?” And because he’s been such a huge factor in the lives of his direct reports for so long, they’ll have that voice of Steve in their heads and will do the right thing automatically. And eventually, if Steve for some reason doesn’t return to Apple, new Steves will emerge. If that happens I’m guaranteeing right here that Apple will gain a new CEO and it won’t be Tom Cook OR Phil Schiller because neither man can replace Steve Jobs and they know it.
In the long run the goal won’t be to replace Steve, anyway, but to transcend him, because Steve was far from the perfect leader.
The last time Steve Jobs left Apple, back in 1985, the entire company breathed a sigh of relief. Steve back then was an undisciplined brat. John Sculley was able to dramatically improve Apple’s balance sheet through one simple technique – eliminating all the wacky projects Steve was spending $200 million per year running at Apple – projects that were generally never going to hit the market anyway. Alas, that’s where Sculley ran out of gas as a leader because he lacked technical vision where that’s all Steve had in those days.
It took learning to run NeXT on a budget and almost losing the company to teach Steve how to be a leader. It took learning to leave Pixar alone to teach Steve that there were some things – many things – best left to others more talented than he. Those two experiences, added to his fall from grace in 1985, made Steve Jobs the leader he is today. Still all elbows and shoulder blades, he somehow makes it work.
I feel for the guy. It’s not his health scare, but his lack of true friends that worries me. When your best friend is Larry Ellison you know you are in trouble. But that may be the best that either man can do.
Steve is the critic of everyone around him. Yet the image I prefer to keep in mind was from an InfoWorld meeting years ago – back in his NeXT days – when Bob Metcalfe got Steve to show up and he brought with him his little baby. In that short time I saw a doting and concerned father — a side of Steve I would have sworn could not exist. Cynically I attributed it at the time to the baby being pre-verbal: how do you criticize someone who can’t understand what you are saying? But Steve went on to have more kids, apparently with equal success, and I give him credit for that. It’s not easy to be a good Dad.
So here’s to Steve Jobs, may he return in six months or go off and do anything else he likes. But don’t worry about Apple.
Apple’s on a roll.
I think his break will do Apple a lot of good. If they can launch a few successful products without him it will prove to the analysts that they can survive and the stock might not tank every time he sneezes. Then he can return, achieve what he wants to achieve then retire or hand over some of his powers when he is good and ready.
Very glad to see that you’re starting to post audio, post-PBS.
Also super happy about the iTunes audio version:) thanks and good luck cringely.
[…] Cringely shares some thoughts about Steve Jobs. […]
Small suggestion for naming the downloadable audio files: use the ISO 8601 order for the date, e.g., 20090116.mp3. That way, when my Cringely collection extends into next year, they’ll sort correctly.
Good idea! I’ll try to remember to do that.
Bob
quote:
“John Sculley was able to dramatically improve Apple’s balance sheet through one simple technique – eliminating all the wacky projects Steve was spending $200 million per year running at Apple – projects that were generally never going to hit the market anyway. Alas, that’s where Sculley ran out of gas as a leader because he lacked technical vision where that’s all Steve had in those days.”
Well, you’ll never have plants if you do not seed… and not all the seed could be possible good!
I think this comment and analysis is too shortsighted: Sculley clean the day-to-day and destroy the future.
I’m not saying that “all those projects were OK,” as you say, Steve learnt in NeXT how to budget projects.
Then what’s your point?
Bob
It’s a matter of knowing which projects to continue and which to cut.
Yes, some projects may never make it to the showroom floor, but that doesn’t mean you don’t learn something vital from them. If you cut all your R&D (or even just product development) in hopes of saving the bottom line to get the stock price up, then you’ve cut short the company’s future – and ultimately put a time limit on that life.
So Sculley is as much to blame for the 1995 failure of Apple as Jobs might have been. However, if Jobs had stayed, that 1995 failure likely would not have happened as he would have pulled one of those silly projects out to revive the company with. And that’s what he did with Apple when he returned – he pushed it into new markets (iPhone, iPod, iTunes, etc.) and pushed it with new products after having spent a lot of money on the R&D for them. But if he hadn’t spent that R&D he wouldn’t have made it.
Take a little risk, make a little profit.
Take a lot of risk, and potentially make a lot of profit.
Take no risk, and you’ll only lose out.
Sadly, too many CEO’s today are in that “Take No Risk” category.
R&D are one thing. R&D under Scully survived and was even able to maintain an expensive empire under Gassee. After all, Scully approved and released the Newton. Jobs was the aggressive one at cutting R&D when he returned.
Product ideas are another thing. There’s something to Paul Graham’s idea that product ideas are worthless; it’s all about execution. And you don’t really need expensive R&D to execute new products. After all, the iPod was originally based on the PortalPlayer platform.
I don’t think Apple would have made it to the 1995 crisis if Jobs were around for the previous decade. He left as a middle manager, creating little fiefdoms to the detriment of the company. He learned to leave the technical decisions to the technical people through driving a company other than Apple into the ground. (Poor Ross Perot.) I think that experience allowed him to run a company as diverse as Apple without disaster.
I’m with Bob C. 100% as usual. Indeed, this might be great for the Mac Mini and maybe, dare I say it, a smaller, cheaper notebook, the kind everyone else seems to have.
That said, I suspect what will REALLY happen is most major decisions will wait for the Glorious Return.
I think Apple will continue to prosper as has been said.
Does anyone think that during Steve’s absence Apple will produce a desktop computer
which uses desktop chips?
I’ve read a few books on Apple and Mr. Jobs. Although I love Apple and what, through his force of will, he’s done with it, it’s hard to like him. He can just be such a jerk to those with less power than he does (which is everyone). However, I wish him well and hope he gets better soon.
– Dave
@David at Animal-Kingdom-Workouts.com
Books don’t do Steve justice– Steve treats everyone like a Bozo, whether they have less power (or more) than him.
I was in the room when Steve said: “Never trust anyone over 30.” I was 40 at the time.
The best compliment you can get from Steve Jobs is when he gives you his attention, listens, or takes the time to convince you that what he has to say will change your life.
The latter, is what Steve does at keynotes and product announcements (whether it be leather iPod cases, iPod HiFi, iPhone, or a new iLife feature).
And, he is the best there is at that…
This article is spot on. I too though hope to God that Steve will make it ok. He has been the most influential and benfecial father figure to me since as long as I can remember. Everything I am today is thanks to Steve.
You’re just adding to the nonsense.
How so?
Bob
This reads almost like an obit. Is that by design?
I think you’re right about Apple tho. It has the team it needs to survive long term, with or without Steve.
Can a company survive the loss of a visionary leader?
Companies like Disney and Kodak have survived, even grown, after their leaders left the building. But I’d argue that these companies today lack the capacity for original vision that their founders had. They are damn fine brands, but it seems like a lot of effort is being spent on shoring up or preserving the brand rather than moving it forward into new territory.
Can anyone think of a company founded by a visionary leader that has kept the vision strong after the leader has left?
Actually, Yes!
IBM was founded by Tom Watson, Sr. in the early 1900s. He was replaced by his son, Tom Watson, Jr. in the early 1950s. Under young Tom’s stewardship IBM transitioned from Time Clocks and Accounting Machines to become the world leader in main frame computers with 96% market share. I worked for IBM from 1964-1978 and it was a great company through several changes of top management (none of which were founder related).
My last assignment at IBM was the Palo Alto Systems Center…
…then along came this thing called a microcomputer– specifically, the Apple ][…
Or how about Nintendo? Just read over their history of how they went from Playing cards in the 1800’s to the TV Entertainment systems they have today. Still in the family, but definately far beyond their original CEO.
It’s good to hear from Bob as most investment analysts have little knowledge of how Steve actually impacts operations. Some positive views are needed for balance. With the secrecy structure segregating knowledge most employees have little, if any, contact. Individual employees do not relish just running into Steve on the job. Fear isn’t a positive atmosphere to instill while it does give leverage and privacy. A new product, such as a tablet, would likely come out in the Fall. Jobs would like to be in shape to launch it. Meanwhile we can expect updates to the Mini, iMac, and Apple TV lines before he returns. I also expect him to cut back his activities at Apple to new projects and the status/strategy meetings. Leaving Macworld eliminates much of the pressure to produce major news announcements out of sync with Apple’s market calendar. This was a major stress factor in Steve’s calendar.
You hit the nail on the head with your comment RXC. And not for the first time, I must say!
Reading the flood of commentary since the announcement, I’m amazed at the passion the topic of Steve Jobs can elicit from people, both positive and negative. The envy factor seems to shine through some of them – example that KDC comment above! The Apple, Jobs has created since his return is a company with a brand appeal unlike any other and a loyal following unlike any other and that is hard to achieve today. I also feel it will survive the eventual departure of Jobs. In the meantime, the decent thing to do is wish him a speedy recovery!
I agree with you. I remember back in 1996 – when Steve Jobs was announced back to apple as an iCEO – most apple fans was negative, but I somehow knew that it was going to be a good thing. And boy has things gone good for Apple. I’m sure the company will do fine – but at the same time I hope and prey that Steve Jobs returns to his position, and run the company for a lot of more years to come. So here’s to Steve Jobs – may he get well and get well soon!
I would like to disagree with you on that note. Steve Jobs return to Apple was a blessing and perceived by many Apple fans and non Apple fans as the second coming. At a time when Apple was about to go down for the count and for good, Steve Jobs was brought back in and was seen as the only bright spot left for Apple with the Next acquisition. Remember the Time magazine cover story that ran in 1997 with Steve Jobs on the cover with the quotes (paraphrase) “The world is a better place with Apple”? Steve was seen as the messiah and we were rightly so in believing that.
The pieces came together like a puzzle back then, who else was going to be able to pull a rabbit out of a magic hat?
Thank You Steve.
[…] X. Cringely is very bullish on Apple, with or without Steve Jobs. […]
What could you possibly know about Steve Jobs and what kind of friends he has?
I’m not sure what Bob knows, but… come on:
“It’s not his health scare, but his lack of true friends that worries me. When your best friend is Larry Ellison you know you are in trouble.”
That’s hilarious.
First up, Bob has been reporting on Silicon Valley for a couple of decades now. He knows a *lot* of people in and around Apple. Hell, he was an early Apple employee who thought he was being smart when he held out for cash in lieu of Apple stock.
The bottom line is: If Jobs has friends, then it will eventually be obvious. People will gossip about him having lunch or dinner with his friends, or going away on holiday together, or how they saw all the cars belonging to his friends parked outside his house on Super Bowl Sunday when he had his annual Super Bowl party, or whatever.
If he has no such friends, the noticeable absence of such things will eventually become common knowledge among Apple employees, executives close to Steve, their families, and people in other companies. And *some* of them might report on this Bob.
If I recall correctly, Bob worked for Steve and had the particular distinction of being fired personally by him. He’d probably know better than you or I. 🙂
http://tinyurl.com/9xrdqt
Woz on Steve Jobs: “when most creative types take a time out, they tend to have a flood of ideas”.
Very true. I launched a company on an idea I had during a month between jobs. I can’t wait to see what Steve comes back to the table with.
A very good perspective on Apple, Bob.
However, I am curious on thoughts you have on what Steve will do to occupy his time. It is hard to stop-dead from going 1000 mph. What will occupy his time? I cannot imagine him not getting into something, even as a hobby. Six months can be an awfully looooooooooong time!
I kind of hope for two things:
1.)Steve Jobs recovers or goes into remission from what sounds suspiciously to me like an auto-immune disorder (that will take more than six months), but still steps away from Apple,Inc..
2.)When he recovers, he takes over as the charismatic head of Walt Disney for a few years.
Even Steve Jobs, as he shows time and again has an…. EOL… look forward people !!
Great to have the audio again – thanks!
Bob, I agree that in a vacuum Apple will survive without Jobs. Maybe even thrive.
But this isn’t a vacuum. Cynical media aside, there is an entrenched priesthood of uber-nerds who maintain order in the Cult of Apple. They aren’t journalists, but they are the online influencers who helped christen the iPod as cool, and the iPhone as essential as oxygen.
Apple’s future hold on the kool-aid distribution flows through this cadre of Jobs’ worshipers. If the flock begins to waver for a moment about the direction Apple takes sans its Priest-King… if the annointed feel slighted by a failure of expectations (like another delay in implementation of the H.264 chips)… if the righteous taste the knowledge that their bitten Apple might actually be their invitation out of Eden…
that’s a load of self-indulgent crap, and you know it. if these self-appointed “elite” were ever influential, which i doubt (apple’s marketshare was in the basement for years), they’re irrelevant now. the ipod got cool when people saw it on the bus and the subway. the mac got cool when people saw it in the dorm and the classroom. get a grip.
I guess the fact that Apple products are more well-designed and usable had nothing to do with it?
James, Pete…
I am referring to the degree to which perception drives mindshare.
Apple will survive jobs if the fashionable crowd still swoons at everything with an “i” prefix.
Get over yourselves. You can’t use Macs as an example of popularity because of superior design until Macs have a majority penetration.
And you might have a point, when the Apple fanboys quit coming up with excuses about why it’s okay for Safari to crash on their iPhones, and why it’s better to log in to an external website to Cut and Paste.
Please.
Cringe,
I think you’re being schizophrenic… every third column is about how Steve’s leadership is the answer to every problem, but now he’s replaceable. Perhaps you might have been more clear. Is leadership lacking in general, or is Steve truly one of a kind?
Don’t feel for Steve; we orphans prefer our way of life. In fact, we pity people who need other people in order to be happy. Yes, I have “friends” like Larry, but they are really just kept around for business purposes. Don’t be surprised by the good paternal instincts: orphans are not the cold robots you think we are, but can be as caring as anyone about animals and children.
I’ll also add that having close friends, getting married — now THAT’s Trouble with a capital ‘T’… 🙂
i pity people who don’t know how to trust other people. being an orphan has nothing to do with it. you can’t be truly happy without other people.
I’m here to tell you that you can be truly happy without people (I’m living proof). Consider that not everyone will be happy living your narrow-minded way of life. There are some people who are only happy when having sex with automobiles — not my bag, but you won’t hear me say things like, “surely they can’t be happy banging Buicks.” 🙂
Mr. Cringley, I have been reading your stuff for a very long time. I find it well reasoned and interesting. So I rarely comment. But I couldn’t leave this one alone.
I couldn’t leave it alone because I wrote something very similar to this a few days ago. I have never done that and it makes me feel smart.
Steve Jobs, while having been so important to Apple, is not the only creative person in the world. Indeed, I do believe if Jobs had not come back, Apple would no longer exist. I don’t care how religious people are about the products, nobody will buy junk. And that was where Apple products were going. Steve came back and brought fresh vision and the guts to push products people (including me at times) said would never work. That took stones!
That was then, this is now. And I think Jobs may even be holding Apple back. I think his success with all those new ideas has him believing he is the only one with good ideas. He has stopped listening to his customers. When he did listen, he got the iPhone and then the video iPod, but didn’t seem to learn from that. People have been begging for some products, and he doesn’t seem to be listening (or this is part of his tactic to get people so hungry for them they devour the entire store when the product is released). This leaves a lot of potential for a new CEO to look like a hero if they can pick the right products.
They are talking about a netbook, how about a netbook/touch-screen tablet? Fix MobileMe. A good office suite. Unlock the iPhone. Improve the iPod touch with some better gaming software, gps, maybe make it skype compatible. Make the AppleTV a DVR. Push Apple into elementary ed.
There is a lot to do that doesn’t require genius (and I will admit some of these might be bad ideas, but they are off the top of my head). I think we may find Steve’s time at Apple is over. He can retire and enjoy the rest of his life, and Apple will find it’s wings like a baby bird from it’s nest.
@Bignumone
I have been observing Apple since 1978, as a customer, Dealer, Supplier, project participant, developer.
Apple has never really listened to its customers and never really accepted other’s ideas… at least on one level!
The iPod and iPhone (or even the Mac) were not the result of listening to customers or entertaining others ideas.
These were home grown products. Sure, they were influenced by outside forces (e.g. Xerox PARC, for the Mac) but the ideas were re-engineered, the “Apple Way” to remove complexity and add simplicity to deliver a “Totally Apple” solution. I saw the same Alto Demo at Xerox PARC, that Jobs, Atkinson, et al, saw. I was impressed, but never took the quantum leap necessary to even conceive of something like a Mac
So, In a way, Apple does listen to other, and entertain their ideas– On a global level, they look at what’s available, what’s possible, what people [seem to] want. Then they listen to their inner vision, (I believe to their souls) to determine what a product should be, what people should want!
That’s what they deliver!
In a way, it is elitist for Apple to think they know better than we: what we need and what we want. But they build it anyway.
I have been watching Apple for almost 31 years, and of thousands of products they delivered:
1) I can count on the fingers of 2 hands, the number of times they delivered a loser product.
2) With the exception of misjudging MicroSoft’s tactics re Windows and missing the mass acceptance of computers as business appliances– I can think of few products/markets that Apple should have persued and they missed the opportunity.
3) Often, Apple will watch as everyone else does it “wrong”… then deliver the Apple solution– where the reaction is: “Of course, that’s the way it always should have be done.”
Reflecting back on 2) above, I would rather be where I am today, a happy, loyal user of Apple products (and a shareholder)… than have put my time/effort in MS products and mass-produced drone personal computers. Had I done this, I wouldn’t care enough to write this post!
Dick
This is a spot-on analysis. Apple makes the products that people want but DON’T KNOW they want. In a world where everyone’s opinion and taste is supposed to have merit, only Apple seems to understand that good design principles are basic and universal. Choice is NOT always a good thing, especially when it goes from empowering to paralyzing you.
Apple has influenced a greater focus on design but many companies haven’t truly understood that eye-catching design isn’t the goal… it is bringing PRACTICAL innovations and improving the computing experience that is what is most important. Apple makes computing and tasks related to using a computer better. They have a monopoly on that concept.
As nifty as Steve Jobs is, he’s not a technical person, so no amount of his decision-making will make MobileMe better. And software is notorious for having problems that don’t show up until deployment.
Maybe the MobileMe engineers are killing Jobs by telling him their product was ready when it wasn’t. :-/
I know that Apple, when it brought Jobs back, started a process of removing old product that was not profitable, and begin to concentrate CORE products – in part to make certain that the future OS would be stable.
There are a ton of opportunities for the future of Apple, that can follow a VERY generic Jobs “path”, without his daily help. As mentioned in previous comments, there are new potential products – tablet netbooks, new battery designs, etc. But more importantly for their health is the continuation of products that will allow Apple to have a long and healthy life. The feature set that they are not exploited by most worms and viruses is a HUGE value to the future of the market. (In the case of Vista, all Apple has to do is wait, and switchers will begin. Market with style and it convinces More people to switch.) Future changes will be made with ipod storage sizing adjustments and wifi, OSX using 64-bit better, Apple TV feature growth, laptop and desktop feature changes (consider Intel i7, DDR3 design changes and the eventual NVIDIA GPU influence to general computer processing).
A visionary like Jobs MUST have already prepared to hand off a lot of this product path to his predecessors. He is NOTE STUPID. (Regardless of all the brilliant people who imply they are smarter;like financial analysts on CNN and MSNBC (sarcasm).)
The biggest challenge is for Apple to stay the course and not allow any executives to ‘toss in a wrench’ into their future equation. Spending money that does not need to be spent, cutting corners on design and style, releasing a ton of stuff all at once, buying companies that will cost too much and provide nothing in the long run. Apple does not have to spend as much time innovating into consumer electronics as much as simply stay the course and keep engineering / release dates honest. Job’s Example is the most valuable asset Apple has. It just is a matter of the rest of the company to see it and take advantage of it.
Great piece. As a long time reader of your work I don’t always agree with your view. But here you have reached in and grasped the essence of what I believe is the crossroad that Apple is currently finding itself. They will be fine.
One thing of note: I believe it ‘Tim’ Cook – not ‘Tom’…
Just a thought about Apple’s future success: most Apple customers probably don’t know who Steve Jobs is, or at least much about him. So as long as the leadership remains committed to stylish, artful, and well-made products, Apple will probably keep steaming ahead. It’s only the tech community that “knows” Steve Jobs, and for most of us, that is probably fairly superficial.
RE: Steve Jobs the great dad.
My sister went to Harvard with Lisa Jobs. Lisa wasn’t such a vocal fan (among friends) of Steve’s parenting. Not in the least.
Erm … and what kid is? 🙂
Lisa had good reason to think that about Steve’s parenting. He denied that Lisa was his daughter for many years.
I have a few thoughts on Steve and his leadership at Apple. Jobs is a visionary in a different way. Instead of bringing truly new and revolutionary products to market–he takes existing products and ideas and perfects them (at least in that instance of time). His compulsive involvement in creating elegant and simple products makes them seem more revolutionary than evolutionary. There were GUIs before the original Mac. The market had MP3 players before the iPod and there was a huge smartphone market before the creation of the iPhone. Just think of one of the first products he introduced on his return back to Apple: the iMac. The iMac was nothing special, but it was packaged differently and marketed differently. This is where the brilliance of Steve Jobs comes in. He takes an existing product, refines it and convinces people that whatever he is selling will change the world.
The question is can Apple survive without Jobs or at least during his absence? I think the answer is yes, and I agree with Cringely that it may even be a good thing for Apple for several reasons:
(1) New Apple products are often attributed to Steve’s good taste. He has an intuition for what HE can sell and how the product will fit in with his vision for Apple. He is notorious for telling others that their ideas are crap (that’ putting it mildly). Just because he has good taste doesn’t mean that he hasn’t dismissed some great ideas from employees within the company. Maybe his absence will allow some new products to take shape that would have never made it past Steve for one reason or another.
(2) Jobs has been described as an extreme micro-manager, but I seriously doubt that he is involved at a low level for most of Apple’s projects. However, he is the companies top critic and has final say, so he is more involved that most CEOs in the day-to-day product development. This can be a liability for Apple as it continues to grow. Either Steve would have to have less involvement with the projects (which I doubt would happen) or growth would stagnate. Apple without Steve may be a company with more irons in the fire or at the very least able to update products at more frequent intervals.
(3) Jobs is very vindictive. He has been known to cancel products for spite. He also likes to take credit for the great products that come out of Apple and if he can’t be linked to it, then he may just kill it. Take the Newton for example. This was a product ahead of its time, but Steve killed it upon his return. Some would argue that this was part of his reorganization and focus on Apple’s core competencies, but many attribute it to the lack of connection of Jobs to its development.
Apple will continue to move forward with our without Jobs. It is a company filled with great employees. There is no better evidence for this than the Palm Pre. It is a device that may be every bit as good (if not better) as the iPhone. A lot of credit for this goes to former Apple employees working at Palm. They actually pulled an Apple on Apple. They took a hard look at the best phone in the market and asked the question, “how can we make this device better?” They didn’t just try to copy the iPhone, they tried to make a better one. If these former Apple employees can beat Apple at its own game, then you can expect to see the same thing happen inside the company, even if Jobs is no longer around.
I will reserve judgement on the Palm Pre before it is released.
Apple still might pull an Apple on Palm 😉
Oh and by released, I mean in the stores 😉
[…] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Don’t Worry about Apple – Cringely on technology – […]
Well, heck. Seems that my previous comment either did not post properly or was deleted. (I prefer to think it just didn’t post.)
Anyway, as I said in response to the last “The Pulpit” column at PBS (https://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20081216_005509_comments.html), the only prediction that I thought was wrong on its face was the one about Apple at number 10.
Steve Jobs IS Apple and without Steve Jobs, the momentum that Apple has at this time will surely dissipate. It won’t happen all at once — freight trains and supertankers alike do not stop on a dime — but it will happen.
We’re headed into an economy that is in trouble not for quarters but for years. Apple sells overpriced hardware (lusting after fat margins) when they could (but won’t) make masssive inroads into the overall market by becoming a software company (especially now that they run on Intel compatible platforms) and licensing their OS. Given the widespread (unjustified and largely media driven) dissatisfaction with Vista, imagine the inroads that Apple could make! Swapping positions with MS in terms of OS dominance would not be out of the question.
I wish both Apple and Steve Jobs well. I hope I am wrong and Jobs is in fact able to return to lead Apple once again. But I don’t think I am wrong.
How Apple can continue to improve itself without Steve Jobs
1.) No longer acknowledge competitors or competing products. Continue forming strategic partnerships – but don’t allow Apple to be the bitch in the relationship. Maintain profit margins on products. Maximize shareholder value.
2.) Focus on improving customer service experience – leave the customer always feeling satisfied, even if initial problem isn’t solved. Find creative solutions. Listen to customers and then surprise them. Overcome and overwhelm their expectations.
3.) Love what you do or leave – encourage employees to work on different projects from time to time, then move on. No deadwood, no people marking time. Hire new blood constantly.
4.) Focus on constantly evolving core products without losing sight of core values – simplicity, awe, style – that makes people go, “I want it !” Think where the future is going, even replacing core products with exciting new stuff.
5.) Don’t ship until the product is ready to be shipped, i.e. MobileMe. Test, test, test. Don’t announce a ship date unless it is ready to be shipped yesterday. Don’t announce future products that can cause a downward slant sales graph of existing product.
Steve has helped the company immensely in many ways, like the iMac, the iBook and the iPod. But his narrow-mindedness has hurt the company, too. As long as he is around, there will be no tablet or mini-tower. His control compulsion extends down into obsessive arrogance about little things, like the iPhone SDK. The best thing for Apple, in the long run, would be for him to go away.
Not much unlike when Walt Disney passed away. Many didn’t know how the company would survive without him. Looking back at the CEOs since his death one can see that others can make the company successful while others cannot–but the company can survive and thrive.
[…] Niet dat ik het altijd eens ben met Cringely, maar nu even wel: Steve Jobs is an amazing chief executive, clearly the best of his era, but that doesn’t make him irreplaceable. True, he saved Apple, but now Apple is saved. The company is rich, has growing market share and a mindshare dominance envied throughout the computer AND music AND video AND mobile phone industries. Steve could die tomorrow and Apple would be fine for years to come. Apple might even be better. – Don’t Worry about Apple […]
Steve Jobs makes overpriced boutique computers for upper middle class and rich people, not for the rest of us. To most people, Apple computers are too expensive. His marketing campaigns, trying to associate computers with famous dead people only worked on losers who believed they could identify with high achievers. Buying an Apple product does not make one a John Lennon, Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Jim Henson, or some kind of free thinking genius. It just says to others “I have money to burn on luxuries.” His products were made in sweatshops where workers were paid pennys per hour. Exploitation is not “thinking different” and would have offended the people he used in his ads. When you look at computer sales and market share worldwide, Apple’s presence is almost trivial. Just watch and see what computers Europeans and Asians choose. You really believe that EU Inc and China Inc are going to allow billions of their consumer dollars to flow out of their countries to Steve Jobs? You’re dreaming. EU Inc and China Inc are going to clamp down on foreign technology to build up their own. Apple is missing out on the notebook computer trend and will ultimately join the long list of faded brands.
Firstly, thank you, thank you, for my weekly IT news fix.
I may or may not like like Steve Jobs personally. As I have never met him, I obviously dont know. Well, its obvious to me anyway. What I would like to say though is that the world can do with a few more individuals. It seems to me that the world is becoming full of people who just do their job, tow the line and get by so they can pay their mortgage, knowing in their heart that where they work is going to hell and dragging the rest of the world with it. The share market is a recent example. So I say, lets have some more passion and thank God there still is a weekly cringely column.
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