At the Vatican, white smoke coming from a chimney at the Sistine Chapel indicates that a new Pope has been selected by the College of Cardinals. Well despite yesterday’s news of Steve Jobs’s departure again from Apple for medical reasons there is as yet no sign of white smoke in Cupertino where Jobs remains firmly in charge.
Readers expect me to comment on this news and I will, but frankly I’m still trying to figure it out so here are a number of random thoughts.
I sent an e-mail to Steve Jobs early last week and he didn’t respond. That’s not in itself such a big deal because Steve periodically ignores me. But other folks at Apple were copied on the message and they didn’t respond, either. That is telling. What it tells me is that this medical leave was no last-moment thing, that it was well on its way 10 days ago.
Well sure, you say, what’s the big deal with that?
The big deal is that Steve Jobs was supposed to participate with Rupert Murdoch later this week in the announcement of The Daily — News Corp’s electronic newspaper for the iPad. Suddenly that announcement has been pushed-back, supposedly over subscription prices. Yeah, right. It’s pushed back because Jobs was no longer available. But until yesterday Apple was quite happy to have us all thinking Steve would appear in New York later this week.
There’s a lot of slick timing at work here. First the Verizon iPhone then killer earnings followed by the Daily, but then that all went kerblooey so when do you announce the bad news while keeping the damage — both legal and financial — to a minimum? Yesterday was the best they could do. thanks to Martin Luther King.
I have no idea what’s going on with Steve’s health. He could be having a whole-body transplant for all I know. But he’s neither a fool nor a sentimentalist — just a narcissist — so I am sure he’s been giving a lot of thought to the succession at Apple. And it is my guess the next Apple CEO won’t be Tim Cook, not because Tim isn’t a good executive but because he isn’t Steve’s creation.
When the white smoke finally drifts over Cupertino that new CEO is going to be a surprise to everyone.
Well I’ve always thought Wintel was just computerware whereas Apple’s a religion.
+++!
Jonathan Ive?
Tim “Ripper” Owens?
I’d guess that Bill Gates has a better chance of becoming Apple CEO than Jony Ive, at least after AntennaGate. Yes, I’m aware that it was as much an electrical problem as a design problem…
Northeast Ohio thanks you for the Tim Owens mention. Maybe he can be played my Marky Mark in the movie 🙂
I think Steve’s successor will actually be Steve’s own brain in a jar, contained within a sleek, new Apple designed robot, styled in the manner of the iPhone, and it will be called iSteve. It will have a multi-touch interface.
I have to agree with the whole white-smoke analogy. I like Apple products; I don’t like them enough to pay the price for them, though. I often regard those most passionately FOR Apple with a mixture of sympathy and caution; much like those who have decided to sell Amway. Apple makes beautiful tools and hitches them to an attractive user experience. But I feel as if I just sent all my hard-earned money to a televangelist. No wonder there is so much mystery and circumspect behavior around this move.
Apple is so bound up with Mr. Jobs’ personality that any successor will suffer for the comparison. I wouldn’t be surprised if, after his passing, Steve Jobs’ corpse was to be mummified and preserved much as Jeremy Bentham’s was; only to be rolled out for the annual shareholders’ meetings in the coming decades…
So, Apple products look good, are solid technically, and they work well together, but you won’t buy them because they are more expensive (because they look good, are solid technically, and they work well together).
And you feel sorry for people who don’t mind paying extra to have products that look good, are solid technically, and work well together?
I don’t look down on you for wanting to tinker on your old car in your garage on the weekends, so how about you don’t look down on those of us who just want to drive a car and don’t mind taking it somewhere to get the oil changed, OK?
And you feel sorry for people who don’t mind paying extra to have products that look good, are solid technically, and work well together?
If those people can’t really afford to pay extra, but are swayed by marketing, then yes, I’d also feel sorry for them. No matter how good the product they buy is.
Dude, it isn’t about marketing or pretty, shiny boxes. It is simply this: Apple is the most creative technological company on Earth (at least that size), just as Pixar is the most technologically advanced creative company.
Before Apple was popular and cool, it was innovative and advanced personal computing, not just advancing M&A like Microsoft. So keep your pathetic sympathy to yourself. You may not appreciate quality, and that is what it is about.
Me
I’ve been an evangelical pastor for 10 years previously but now heading into an Anglican setting. Obviously there is a significant cultural adjustment from the freeform evangelical ecclesiastical organization (or lack of it, in many cases) to a highly disciplined structure where the bishop and/or the Archbishop has total authority. Nonetheless, within traditional sacramentally oriented churches there is a clear succession plan always within canon law. Roman Catholics have bishops consecrated after a formal review by the Vatican and any open dioceses are assigned by the Vatican. Orthodox bishops come strictly out of monasteries as both Rome & Eastern Orthodoxy agree on celibacy for bishops but Orthodoxy encourages deacons & priests to be married. Anglicans have no prohibition for celibate bishops and provincial councils nominate candidates for ratification by the provincial synod. The basic point is candidates for consecration to be an Apostolic Successor are generally well known and have exhibited a level of giftedness in previous ministry that clearly sets them apart from the rest of the clergy.
What we know inside Apple is that more projects (likely several worthy projects for any number of reasons) have been killed by His Steveness than allowed to be fully completed and brought to market. These killed projects likely would’ve been green lighted at other companies and the Apple rumor world has been besotted with hints, traces, & invariably disinformation since Steve came back in ’97 but he plugged the leaks & caused a certain hirsute individual in leather known as Mac the Knife to be unemployed (dude–I miss the missives!!) so we do not know what the skunk works has worked on as proposed products. But what has come out is only after His Steveness has driven the attention to detail to ridiculous levels other R & D shops do not do. This has been Steve’s legacy which needs to be replaced at some future time.
Obviously long time Apple watchers think of Woz but Woz was always the tinkerer who simply was interested in how things worked and then make it work himself with fewer parts. I don’t see Woz ever replacing Steve. Who else has the capability of saying “No” to projects that would be otherwise very attractive? Maybe our very own RXC? Imagine RXC in a mitre…
Who could possibly think that Wozniak could replace Jobs? Woz was a brilliant engineer but he has never demonstrated any capacity for leading, much less running a company. If it wasn’t for Jobs, Wozniak would probably still be employed by HP designing calculators and perfectly content.
If it’s not Cook then Jonny Ive for sure. For the last 10 years Steve’s been molding him from a designer first into a manager of designers first.
A lot of people assume it could be Tim Cook or Jony Ive, but neither of them seems right — the latter seems to be “ideas”, the former seems to be “implementation”, but only Jobs appears to balance both of those well enough.
Maybe it could be a board member?
Maybe it could be …Al Gore?
Okay, I doubt it — too polarizing, if nothing else — but he just might be up to the job.
I’m betting on a series of holographic recordings of Jobs presenting each new product in the same fashion as Hari Seldon’s psychohistory predictions from Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. The technology exists:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/11/hatsune-miku-japanese-holograph-_n_782442.html
Maybe Eric Schmidt? Nah, too much bad blood.
“I have no idea what’s going on with Steve’s health.”
No-brainer. He’s dying from the side-effects of that bizarre diet he is following.
Isn’t he a vegan? What’s so bizarre about that?
he was a fruitarian/frugivore for a long time. one possibility is that his diet exposed him to a greater quanity of carcinogenic pesticides than most people would get.
Unlikely to be the problem. My diet was nothing like his and I came down with the same thing.
I have the same kind of cancer Jobs has. It is very draining. What has almost certainly happened is that, despite the Whipple Procedure back in the day and the more recent liver transplant, the cancer is simply reasserting itself.
The other possibility is that he is actually on some kind of treatment regimen that is kicking his rear end (as mine is doing to me).
And do not forget that they removed about half of his pancreas during that Whipple (my primary tumor was on the other end of the pancreas, so I was spared a Whipple, but I still lost half my pancreas and my spleen to boot) and that made him an instant diabetic. Just being a diabetic can be very hard. Top that with cancer to boot and you suddenly have a very difficult and draining life. I typically have to sleep 10 hours a day most days now and I’m doing well for someone with neuroendocrine tumors.
Reed Paul Jobs will take Steve’s place. After all, it’s Steve’s own creation. I’m sure Tim Cook will fill in until he is old enough.
The replicant has to have these qualities, amongst some others:
1. The drive to kick-ass…creating products that can be the #1 or #2 product in its category, or creating a new, huge category.
2. Crazy attention to detail. To me, this is the most overlooked quality in business.
3. Great sense of aesthetics and design. Products must not just be kickass but must look kickass.
4. Really knowing what’s not good and choosing the right battles.
5. Keep aggressively improving the key products. (Something I wish Google did with gmail, docs, reader.) Make it difficult for others to ever catch up.
Jobs replacement could have a Philip K. Dick edge to him – be sort of a replicant Deckard type, including the Harrison Ford good looks from the Blade Runner movie.
“If it can’t be mine, it can’t be anyone’s.”
Winding down AAPL: Sell the IP at auction, distribute the cash to stockholders.
No white smoke, but isn’t it a worrying way to run such a large business?
All those money-men holding their breaths: buy/sell; buy/sell. Waiting to see what happens next. Like vultures I suppose.
Yes, that’s how modern industry works on a certain level, but it’s just parasitic. Yet, as we know they can build-up or crush a sound and innovative company in seconds.
How can Steve Jobs realistically let go (and of course I do hope he recovers) and not cause the company to be ripped apart by these people with no real techno-creativity?
Whether or not you like the gear or the characters, no world-class company should be so vulnerable.
After such a long and profitable career, bringing such advances to the electronics industry, why can’t the guy just retire if he wants?
The thing that I don’t understand is why Apple, being a public company, is not required by law to be more forthcoming about Jobs’s health. After all, investors would certainly take his health into consideration when making a decision to buy or sell Apple stock.
In any case, here’s hoping that he gets well and returns to Apple soon. As someone else mentioned in a previous comment, one of Jobs’s great assets is his ability to pass on products that are just good and green-light only the ones that are truly great. Jobs does this with remarkable accuracy and it’s hard to imagine anyone taking his place.
I do know of one former CEO — Ken Williams of Sierra On-Line — who was also quite good at this, but his industry was software rather than hardware, and his company’s track record suffered a bit after it went public.
Maybe Bill Gates should come out of retirement. 🙂
It’s quite the opposite really. Health privacy laws ensure that employee medical information is not the business’s business, even though it is literally their business.
the securities laws DO REQUIRE that any material information about health in the C-level be disclosed at an appropriate time.
to withhold that information to investors is to conceal material information.
the definitive word on “material information” is it affects the stock price and the future viability of the outfit.
that’s Stevie Turtleneck’s health in spades and doubled.
why Apple Inc. has not been heavily sanctioned twice so far, and another one being drafted now, is purely a mystery to me.
perhaps they use Macs at the SEC, and whenever somebody types “Jobs” on them as an adjective, they lock u
clickclickclick
rats. Force Quit.
What if Steve’s been keeping his powder dry for an acquisition that will bring in the next CEO. Are there any companies that could be a target for both. Or how about a three way merger with Yahoo being one leg for more cloud credentials.
OK, I’m laid up recovering from back surgery so I’m posting wildly…
How about an Oracle/Apple tie-up? Bob has mentioned in a previous article how Larry generates revenue…Apple’s xServe is now discontinued and xSAN likely to follow…OS X could likely be easily ported on to SPARC and/or opened up to generic Intel or AMD chipsets and the BSD components easily match up to Solaris. A nicely integrated enterprise hardware/software pkg for iPhones, iPads, desktops and laptops (becoming irrelevant anyway), and server/enterprise software.
Never say never, but I don’t THINK so. Steve and Larry are friends but Larry is no product genius. What Oracle knows about is the very enterprise sale that Apple has rejected. Cynics might say this is deliberate positioning to have no overlap other than Filemaker, but it just sounds too darned complex to me.
No history to support acquiring an heir apparent with the exception of Steve returning to Apple when NeXT was purchased.
You may recall that when Apple acquired NeXT, Steve immediately sold all of his recently acquired Apple shares IN A SINGLE DAY. That’s not the action of a man who expects to become the next Apple CEO. I don’t think Gil Amelio was looking for his replacement nor that Steve was expecting to BE that replacement. But once he got inside, fulfilling his duties under the acquisition, it was just too tempting (and easy to do). But the share sale clearly proves Steve didn’t go into the deal with the CEO position in mind.
Either you lost your tin-foil hat or you’re off your meds again. Two sad articles in a row and I’m now seriously thinking of deep sixing you.
Tough crowd Cringely. Tough crowd.
I agree that Steve is smart enough to plan his medical leave at the best possible moment. Perhaps his lack of response is due in part to you mentioning he was no longer active with IM back when he was having what we found out later was his transplant.
If he fails to return by June to announce iPhone 5, we will know the health issue is really serious. I wish him the best of luck and hopes he returns in a reasonable amount of time. The electronics industry is rather boring without him around.
Anyone from Pixar fit the bill?
Steve Jobs is gone for good.
Based on previous mis-representations, it’s clear that Apple can’t be trusted to be straight with Jobs’ story. Do they risk a shareholder suit this way? Sure, but the damages are going to be lower than announcing, “Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO.” Instead, they’ll show four strong quarters under Cook before having to come clean. This is the strongest argument for Cook as CEO – switching horses is going to kill shareholder value.
Based on his previous medical history and the timing relative to the Verizon iPhone deal, he’s done. He’s succeeded in integrating easy-to-use computers into daily life, with the user as the penultimate beneficiary. I suspect we’ll see the real fruits of this with the Verizon LTE iPhone (i.e. data-only, portable plans).
Mission accomplished. Now he’ll spend his remaining time with those he loves, and where he wants to be. He deserves it. Namaste, Jobs.
agreed. without Steve at the Verizon announcement on the 11th, I knew the jig was up. it was the re-announcement of the iPhone.
only way I see he’ll be back this time is if Special Limited Edition iThingies have a Relic of the True Steve at extra cost.
Apple products are overpriced and made by sweatshop labor in China. You can buy much more faster computers that have more productivity software for a lot less cost. Apple keyboards since the first Apple to today’s Macs, were never really good. Steve Jobs had a good eye for aesthetics and marketing. His designs were good, but he was making boutique electronics for upper middle class and rich people, not computers for the rest of us. Sorry to say, but after Jobs is gone, then maybe Apple will get out of the computer hardware business, license their OS to other companies, and then the mainstream will make Apple OS the dominant OS. Either they do that, or Google Android will become the next big OS and cloud computing will make hardware aesthetics irrelevant.
Before pooping on Apple for hiring “sweatshop labor”, look at the HP or Lenovo or whatever computer you are typing on – it’s made by those same “sweatshop” laborers. Not liking Apple products is one thing, using stupid reasons to not like them is something else entirely.
Robert – I would have agreed with you two months ago. But, I recently broke down and got an ipod touch as a replacement mp3 player. I was blown away – the screen is beautiful, the interface is very intuitive, and despite all the naysaying about walled gardens and all that, there is a plethora of good apps on it. Having a computer that JUST WORKS is as important as having a cheap, powerful, but temperamental PC.
I would second that, Abram. Many years ago, around the timeframe of the “iPod Photo” (first iPod with a color screen), I chose to go with the “Creative Labs Zen” player. It had the same capacity HDD (30GB), but seemed much more flexible. It was a 2.5″ drive vs. a 1.8″ drive, but there were sites that told you how you could hack in a bigger HDD, and you could do things on it that you couldn’t do on the iPod (create custom playlists, for example). And, it was $100 cheaper. Why, oh why, would I spend more to do less?
However, after using it for 6 months, I just wanted to toss it in the trash. The USB interface was pathetically slow because Creative went cheap with USB, so syncing was a nightmare. Windows Media Player was a pile of junk that was hard to use, so using it to sync was also a nightmare, I rarely, ever, made playlists (never did more than the iPod equivalent of its Party Playlist or whatever it’s called), and due to all those above problems with syncing, never felt like I would want to spend the time to replace the HDD with something bigger.
Ditched it, got an iPod, and have been happy ever since.
Now, there are a lot of people who didn’t mind the syncs being slower, would happily have their music player unusable for a couple of days to upgrade the HDD, and so, they would use the Zen. Obviously, not that many people, because the iPod exploded in popularity and the Zen faded. So, to those folks who liked to tinker, have a field day. Personally, the extra $100 for a thing I never had to think about, EVER, was worth it.
I too gave in and replaced my Creative Jukebox with an iPod last year. While upgrading to Windows 7, I didn’t bother to back up my extensive music collection and playlists because there was a copy on my iPod. Guess what? You can only copy music in to an iPod, but you can’t copy music back from an iPod like I could do with my Jukebox; unless you buy third party tools. Good looks and design can go to hell!
Ummm- you didn’t back up your songs before you wiped your disk. Damn Apple!
Senuti is all of $19, and a trial version that transfers 1000 songs from your iPod to your Mac is free. It’s worked well for me in the past. $19 doesn’t seem like that much to me.
It’s not on Windows, but I would guess that there are similar utilities on the PC, maybe for free. Or borrow a friend’s Macbook for an afternoon.
I’m sorry that your iPod didn’t behave as you expected. When Mac users update/upgrade their OS version, they usually don’t have to wipe their disks and as a result their music is untouched. If you buy a new Mac, you can use Migration Assistant to move all your stuff from your old Mac to the new Mac easily and automatically, and without screwing everything up.
https://www.getsharepod.com/
I found this with Google.
My wife was once a member of Overclockers Australia. Two weeks ago, she bought an iMac 27″ to go with the iPad she bought three months ago that she bought to go with the iPhone 3G she got a year and a half ago that she got to go with the iPod she got 3 years ago. She is now of the opinion that your stuff should just work well, and crawling on the floor and leaving the side door on your PC open all the time kinda sucks.
Once she laughed at Apple, now she gets it.
Same story with me, Glenn! My office used to be littered with motherboards, cases, and i would scour for the cheapest price on a CD drive. I scoffed at Apple. Now my whole house is Apple, i don’t fiddle around with anything, and I seem to be happier. At some point, your personal time can be valued as real money, and I’m sure I “spent” more on PC stuff considering that.
Pretty lame post. I’m not an Apple fan boy but you cannot disregard the incredibly innovative products Apple has produced. I went to a financial conference recently and was blown away by the number of people in the crowd using iPads. These were not 20 something hipsters at coffee shops. These were 40, 50 and 60 year old professionals. I travel for a living and I am still amazed at the number of professionals I see using an iPad in their day to day business, in ways I’m sure Steve Jobs never imagined.
We just recently bought an iMac after being a Windows user for 15 years. So far so good. Yeah, I paid a little more for the computer than I did for my old Windows machine….but you get what you pay for, as with anything in life.
If you want to whine about sweat shop labor in China, take a look at the tag in your shirt, pants, shoes….pretty much everything you own before making such a silly comment.
I don’t think Steve will be coming back this time. I think his health has taken a turn for the worse and we’ll hear more in about 60-90 days. Apple can’t announce anything about his health without his permission due to HIPAA regulations, which trump SEC regs in this regard.
Tim Cook will be the placeholder for the next 4-5 months during which time the board will conduct a search for his successor. The only individual that could match Steve’s intensity for the product would be Larry Ellison, but Larry focuses too much intensity on the profit at the expense of the product. I predict the successor will be someone we’ve heard of before, but who will be an unexpected choice. Someone like Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim or Bill Joy, perhaps.
In any case, after this next year, Apple will have seen the peak of it’s influence on the industry.
“In any case, after this next year, Apple will have seen the peak of it’s influence on the industry.”
So that is the new position that is taken when calls of “Apple is doomed” are greeted with derisive laughter. It is also worth noting in these CEO worshipping times that there are actual people – engineers, designers, managers – who unlike the CEO actually do the work that produces the products that we buy and use.
What about Ray Ozzie?
Can we bring back “beleaguered”?
What an interesting idea, those three Sun founders! But McNealy is today a broken man, Andy never wanted to lead anything, and Joy is just not temperamentally suited to take the heat in that kitchen. He’d wilt.
Last time Apple was looking for a new CEO, the final two candidates were both former Apple execs who had been forced out by John Sculley and responded by building their own successful niche computer companies. If Jobs has to relinquish his position at Apple, might they fall back on their previous “plan B[e]”?
Jean-Louis Gassée hasn’t had a particularly illustrious career since Be Inc. finally died, but he’s still in the neighborhood, now working at a Palo Alto venture capital firm. It seems to me from his regular blogging that he could do at least a decent job of providing direction to a consumer electronics and computers company like Apple. His Apple would be different from Jobs’s Apple, but it’s a far more palatable notion than Apple run by Larry Ellison or many of the other tech CEOs who are household names.
Could not agree more. Larry is too much like Bill Gates (yes I know they are polar opposites in many ways, including ‘style’ or their both lack of). Larry’s idea of profit over product is more in line with Bill and way below that of Jobs. The products are just ‘good enough’ for what he can get people to pay for and far from innovative. Thin client anyone? Steve gets it done. Job’s definition of ‘good enough’ is pretty darn high and demanding and I don’t think anyone can match it.
What’s John Sculley up to? Maybe he could have a brilliant second act as well.
I kid, I kid…
and whoever the new Pope is that Jobs has selected will have all of Cupertino gunning for him and/or watching, waiting for him to fail.
Successful narcissists leave few friends behind.
If you think about it, there’s really only one person on the planet who could satisfy the Apple fanatics and that is…. the Woz.
The Woz would be insanely great in the executive suite, even if it was only as a figure head.
Like I said previously, that is a terrible idea. If you know anything about Apple history you would know that Woz is definitely not cut out for this job. He is a great engineer but has no business running a company.
Woz is not C-level. he plays with tech all the time, intensely, finding tricks in the silicon that weren’t designed in there.
you expect him to sit in stuffy boring phone-droners telling the billionnaires at the stock houses exactly why his stock is worth two bucks more than theirs is, but by the end of the week, they’ll match him? that’s CEO stuff. Jobs stretches it quite a bit by being the majordomo of design. but he speaks a few magic words at the right time on droners, too.
Woz would say, “geez, we can overclock this bus chip we’re playing with in the lab on the — oops, can’t talk about the project. but this bus chip SCREAMS when you raise the data lines a tenth of a volt and overclock ten percent. it’s a whole new dimension. If I stack 20 of these, and common-gate the tristate, crap, we can put a petabyte of NAND on there and make supercomputers into temporary storage for the next iPad. guys, you can drop your corporate data ANYWHERE and have it when you want it! this is awesome! I gotta show this, swing the camera over here. I’m hacked into GE right now… ”
it ain’t Woz.
If it were Woz, think of what he could do with dilithium crystals.
Picking Woz would be like choosing Scotty to replace Captain Kirk at the helm of the Enterprise.
You mean Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is unlikely that a new CEO would be as good as Jobs, but on the other hand, for Apple to continue to thrive, he (or she) would really only have to be better than the rest of the tech company CEOS. That is a MUCH easier proposition.
Good point. That puts Woz back in the race!
sounds like the first rule about hiking in bear country… go with a slower, fatter friend.
I’m disappointed at some of the “smallness” this seems to bring out in people. Sadly it’s probably pointless to even care these days.
I’m mostly struck by the ominous feeling that Steve Jobs may not be long for this world. Things can’t be good right for him right now.
As a Mac person, I know that when Bill Gates goes he will have my utmost respect. It’s only the PC business after all and whatever perceived ills someone may have committed are pretty small in the grand scheme of life.
Robert, that email you sent was tossing your name in the hat for CEO, wasn’t it? You sly devil, you.
The truth is, Steve Jobs is closer to an artist than a techie. His combination of intuition and an aesthetic are the basis of the design ethic of Apple products, and Pixar movies, too. I could see his successor coming from a completely unconventional background, capable of very far reaching vision but grounded in market pragmatism. There is no lack of the other kind of talent at Apple, the kind that actualizes and brings things to market.
I think Steve Jobs was very aware of the quality of his vegetarian diet and believe he scrutinized everything, with the possible exception of those annual Christmas fruit baskets from Bill Gates.
It’s not the veggie diet. I have the same thing Jobs has and my diet was nothing like his.
As far as a replacement for Jobs, few names come to mind that have all the business, marketing, artistic and technical acumen to fill Steve’s shoes. I for one hope Jobs lives to be 100 years old and is sharp as a tack; for then we’d have another 40+ years of amazing innovation, and an iconic leader heading an iconic American company. How great would that be?
There are some interesting names inside Apple (Forstall, Schiller), late of Apple (Rubenstein at Palm), and outside Apple (Bezos, Hurd, Bartz) that might fit the bill. But there’s one person who I think could do it all, AND help lead Apple into its NEXT BIG THING. The name?
ROBERT A. IGER. CEO, Disney.
THIS would be a really interesting choice (and somewhat ironic given Jobs is the largest Disney shareholder.) Can you poach the CEO of one of your companies to run another company of yours?
Why Iger? He is a really strong business guy…deft, driven, but diplomatic. Righted the ship when Eisner left. Has experience managing a huge organization in a seriously driven business culture that’s filled with highly creative folks. (Just like Apple.) He’s got experience in digital media (iTunes/App Store/BookStore? check!) product/experience design & merchandising (hardware & software? check!), retailing via the Disney Store (Apple Store? check!), and more. He lacks a bit on the technical side, but makes up for it leading a huge media company that certainly knows how to a) get the customer experience impeccably right and b) leverage multiple properties for value. (Just like Apple) Therefore, he would be a fine choice to manage Apple’s NEXT BIG THING……Ping.
If Ping isn’t a Facebook killer lying in wait, I don’t know what is. And where everyone is wondering what Apple’s next big gadgety THING is that will be the next wave they can ride to billions in sales…well, it’s not a gadget. It’s Ping (backed by a bazillion Xserves in the NC data center! The data center. There’s your “new” & big gadgety thing…TO THE CLOUD!).
Iger has the chops to position Ping against Facebook and rally ALL of the Apple properties to ensure Ping’s success: hardware, software, Mac/iPod/iPhone/iPad users’ media libraries (photos, music, contact/friend lists), and the online commerce juggernauts of the App Store & iTunes with their credit-card wielding Apple accounts AND iAd. Big plus: he knows the Comcast / FiOS world, and understands pipes to the home and the data/media that runs through it. Launching Ping against Facebook would be the tech industry equivalent of launching a Disney/Pixar movie and managing all the tie ins via the (endless) merchandising, Disney Store, Disney Channel, Disney.com, and ESPN (had to get ESPN in there somehow!).
If there’s one company that can take on Facebook and replace them as the Social Media darling, it’s Apple. Facebook is mostly friends, messaging, and photos. Apple has the iPhone directory / Mac Address book / Mail email contacts (friends), iChat & Facetime (messaging), an iPhoto (photos). Put that together, flip a switch and how much of the Facebook experience is now replicated….and with more business value, as Apple can deliver an experience that is both ad-supported AND e-commerce supported. Take THAT sweaty Zuckerberg!!!
(Plus, after exponentially increasing my kid’s future debt and paying that money out as bonuses the last couple of years, it would be great to see Goldman face-plant and lose its shirt on its recent Facebook investment. (HOW much is MySpace worth right now? Take THAT Murdoch!!!! It could happen again, and quick!!!) )
So if there’s one executive that Jobs knows well and can be comfortable with managing his Apple empire, it’s Iger. And while I hope Jobs lives forever, I think Iger’s the man who can lead Apple for the next 50 years.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
Iger is a master and trustworthy as the day is long. but he’s getting a little up there age-wise. he wouldn’t dump Disney to be a chairwarmer at Apple. his integrity wouldn’t let him do that to two great companies.
what do you think about a break, and a pure media guy in at Apple?
the evil voices in my head say John Malone.
The Wires are telling me it’s a creative. Spielberg is one possibility. Lassetter is another.
they’d have to be a creative first and a solid businessman to understand how to capitalize and pivot around the next new thing. insiderism says Lassetter is more likely than this year’s chief accountant.
Of course, Disney! Proves what they said in the early days about Mac being a toy computer.
That’s a fascinating idea but I think your Ping analysis is more right-on than your Iger prediction. Can you imagine that social media strategy being implemented by someone other than Iger?
I wonder if Steve Jobs would do a Wille Wonka. Bring some kids in and show them what goes on behind the curtains and then pick the one he feels would fit best. Wasn’t there a rumor that he meet with Mark Zuckerburg recently.
I think john lasseter could be someone of interest in the future. Let someone like Tim Cook look after the business side and Lasseter look after the art. He has more than proven himself.
It’s sad the world is going to lose Steve Jobs . . . but if he leaves a tissue sample, perhaps one day we can clone him, or a thousand of him. Hey, think different !
Well, Eric Schmidt is back in play…now ‘Executive Chairman’ of Google as Larry Page takes over day-to-day operations.
While I wish Mr, Jobs the best in his ongoing battle with cancer, I do think it’s time for him to step down. Sadly, the one person who would do the very best job of revitalizing Apple won’t be offered the position. But just think for a moment – wouldn’t it be wonderful if Steve Wozniak was in charge of Apple.
Man, if I read one more post about Wozniak leading Apple my head is going to explode.
Do your research people. Woz would undoubtedly be one of the worst choices they could make. He’s an engineer. I think the last significant contribution he made to the computer world was the Disk II drive on the Apple ][. No knock on the guy but he is not CEO material. On the other hand, Steve Jobs was not an engineer. He was a visionary that could motivate people to fulfill his visions.
I’d rather see Steve Ballmer or (god forbid) John Sculley get the job over Wozniak.
no, I think Woz’ last great contribution was consulting on the IWM disk controller chip for the Mac.
IWM on the top meaning Integrated Woz Machine on the inside.
How, exactly, would that be wonderful? He’s never run Apple (or anything, for that matter) before. Woz is a great guy and I count him as a friend but he wouldn’t take the job if it was offered. He’s WAY too smart for that.
I seriously doubt that the next CEO will be older than Jobs.
All of the cold, practical considerations around Steve Jobs’ succession planning are all well and good, and it’s a necessary discussion.
But as a guy in the industry who cut my teeth on an Apple ][, and who from early on took a deep interest in all of the stories surrounding the germination of the personal computer industry in the 70s & 80s, and who lived through the times that saw its initial genesis, I can’t help putting all of the intellectualism aside and just hoping that this doesn’t signal the end of Steve’s career, or indeed an inexorably downward spiral in his health. Steve’s an icon and a giant of the industry. This sounds obvious to say. But for many of us around my age, he is in a very real sense the father of our careers, and the founder of a not insignificant proportion of our way of life. I just hope all of the non-geek Apple customers out there can appreciate what the man has achieved in his lifetime.
When Steve is lost to us, whenever that may occur, it will really feel like the captain has left the bridge.
Long Live Steve Jobs.
And I’m not even an Apple fanboy.
Before I claim anything further let me first say that, having lost someone dear to me to cancer, I really hope Steve Jobs’ health issue isn’t insurmountable, and that he’ll be okay.
I’m not looking down on anyone; certainly most people who take the time to be here are not drinkers of popular Kool-Aid. From reading your other posts, I cannot characterize you as an Apple zealot so please don’t take my remarks that way.
I am saying that, after 25 years of servicing Apple’s products, I believe they enjoy a reputation somewhat greater than is warranted. They have foisted their share of stinkers on the public and they largely get a free pass by dint of the charm of their leader, combined with an “underdog” status which no longer exists. Certainly not in an era when Apple’s market cap exceeds Microsoft’s by $5 billion…
If Bill Gates possessed half of Steve Jobs’ charm, do you believe that M$ would be as reviled as they have been? Just because Mr. Jobs appears to be likeable and “on our side” does that mean he is exempt from questions and criticism over shortcomings in his products?
Having said all that, I truly do not dislike Apple products. I’d have more of them if I could afford them. It’s just that I prefer not to be an early adopter and wait for the second revision of any Apple products I would be considering…
Cancer two times, now maybe his third. I know the time frame and Steve’s number is probably up and he’s smart enough to have known this for a long time. He’s also a Buddhist which wonderfully centres the mind—it’s call mindfulness. (More about this shortly.) To hear over and over the comments on his personality, spit out like a mantra, never questioned, is not the sign of a thinking man but that of an entertainer in bad dress. Funny, maybe clever, but not smart.
“But he’s neither a fool nor a sentimentalist — just a narcissist — so I am sure he’s been giving a lot of thought to the succession at Apple.”
I’m sure he was, at one time, very self possessed. That’s how people on a mission with a vision come across. Yes, he had a vision, was sidetracked from the company he helped form and direct. It took a dive thereafter. He comes back and saves the company. He strides on stage full of confidence. Blah, blah, blah.
Take some time. Check out Youtube. Watch his presentations since his second coming and you can easily see the growth and maturity over the years if you bother to look beyond his act.
I suspect Steve has chosen and nurtured the company so well it will continue long after his passing. This may be his greatest legacy. Who would venture to say that the way things were done in the 19th Century was good enough for the energies of the Twentieth Century, any more than how business has been done in the Twentieth Century is the best way for the century we are now well into. One big chief CEO at the helm may have worked in simpler times, but today, the complexities that make up a Google, a Microsoft, an IBM, possibly a GM demands a different strategy. All four companies are wealthy enough they could be badly run and stay afloat for years to come; but they would eventually sputter to a halt on vacuous leadership.
No modern day CEO can be the be all and know how that directs every avenue of its company’s course. To think that Steve does this, is to expect a Superman that doesn’t exist except in comic books. I suspect he has built each of Apple’s productive teams to perfection not alone but in co-ordination with the best minds he could find. I haven’t a clue the structures but I suspect his brushes with death, his experience with Buddhism, and yes, his egotism and love for the company he and Steve Wozniak built and that Steve Jobs brought back from the brink, has help centre the mind and concentrate the energies that have built Apple into the Goliath it is today. Don’t think his Buddhism has not had a profound influence on his blessed company. Mindfulness means vision and accomplishment in the small things in life and in the profound and Steve Jobs has shown how possible this is.
I truly do think Steve will not be back and I hope to be proven wrong. And wether it is due to his diet or blood type or some crappy gene disfunction matters not a wit. What I am sure of is that Apple is a different company from any other company raised in the climate of the Twentieth Century. It is no longer dependent upon one colourful saviour and has the team effort and vision that will help its continued charge into the Twenty-first Century with continued improvements in its present products and great new products to challenge the thinking of those in involved in this profoundly technological age and to amaze all who will experience them.
When Jobs finally leaves Apple (and/or this world, for that matter), what will really be missed at the company will not be his design genius or his business acumen or innovative thinking. What will be sorely missed will be his dictator-like authority to cut through any departmental BS and corporate turf war to guide projects to completion via a unified vision.
Without Jobs, Apple sooner or later just turns into another Microsoft, but with a prettier logo.
Whoever replaces Jobs will have to have a stronger will than all the other egos at Apple. As was previously stated Jobs is a dictator that cuts thru all the turf wars.
Whoever it is it can’t be a nice guy. I say Jonny Ive. Design an user interface are the most important things at Apple. I see Jonny being successful if Apple can keep a strong bullpen to back him up. The hope would be that people like Cook would not leave if they are not chosen.
Whoever it will have a very difficult job.
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