“Apple is the world’s definitive 21st-century company, harnessing like no other the possibilities that exist in the digital age. Earlier this month the firm produced truly startling results. Sales leapt by 48 per cent as consumers the world over bought music from the iTunes virtual music store to play on their iPod media players,” John Naughton and Nick Mathiason write for The Observer.
Naughton and Mathiason ask, “But what will become of Apple when its all-powerful chairman, Steve Jobs, eventually decides to spend more time with his billions? Can it withstand growing competition and are we witnessing the end of the Californian dream?”
Naughton and Mathiason write, “Microsoft without Bill Gates seemed unthinkable until last month when he announced he was stepping down. In retrospect, we can see that a good deal of planning went into it. There’s no equivalent to Ballmer or Ozzie at Apple.”
MacDailyNews Take: That’s a Good Thing™. Ballmer is a buffoon and Ozzie’s main claim to fame in the much-despised-by-users Lotus Notes.
Naughton and Mathiason continue, “Or, if there is, the public has never seen them. Whenever there is a spotlight on Apple, Jobs is in the centre of the beam. His regular keynote speeches at Mac Expos are more like rock concerts than corporate events. If there are cool new products to be unveiled, the chairman is the one who does the demos. ‘He’s absolutely integral to the success of company,’ said Conrad Roeber, partner at media consultancy Mediatique.”
MacDailyNews Take: Surely, of all people, Steve Jobs understands planning for the future. Just because a successor hasn’t been named publicly, doesn’t mean there is no successor.
Naughton and Mathiason write, “In the last 10 years, he has transformed Apple from a failing computer manufacturer into the most innovative company in the industry. Just as, decades earlier, he spotted the possibilities of desktop publishing, in 1996 he recognised the importance of computers as devices for creating and handling multimedia content. The result is that Apple now has an apparently unassailable lead in these areas, and its computers come with excellent onboard tools for storing, editing and manipulating images, audio, movies and music. And last quarter’s results, the second best in its history, underscore the extent of the transformation: 45 per cent of Apple’s revenues now come from music-related products.”
“All of this is very largely Jobs’s doing. But it raises the awkward question: What happens if he falls under the metaphorical bus? Not so long ago, we thought he had – he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August 2004. Fortunately, it turned out to be a rare non-fatal variety,” Naughton and Mathiason write, “…In grown-up companies, one of the responsibilities of the CEO is to find and groom his successor. Jobs tried to do that once and got Sculley. He has given no sign of wanting to repeat the experience. In the end, the Apple board may have to do it for him. Let’s hope they get it right second time around.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Jonathan Ive? More on that idea here.
Related articles:
What happens to Apple when Steve Jobs quits or dies? – March 24, 2006
What happens when Steve Jobs dies? – August 20, 2003
Careful now…Lotus Notes has a very loyal fanbase that can be every bit as fanatical as Mac affectionatos. I’m one of these people. Notes is actually quite a powerful platform, enabling true collaboration across networks and across vast distances. It is unrivaled in secure collaboration which is why it is a standard in the medical and banking industries and in many 3 letter agencies in the govt. Well over 115 million users. You can develop an app quite quickly and with minimal dev skills so you can imagine how ugly things can get. However, when it’s done right, Notes/Domino is almost withoug comparison when you look at the product on a whole.
Ironically, Notes has often been a thorn in Microsoft’s side, as they have never been able to offer a product to replace it. Exchange has done a number on Notes as a messaging solution but that’s about it. Notes is so much more in a single package…it’s messaging, application and web. IBM is including their productivity tools in version 8 – which will basically allow you to read, edit and create all Office type documents from within Notes itself without the need for an Office install using ODF support. This is gonna give Mr. Ozzie fits in the near future.
Also note that IBM did wonders for Mac as a business platform this past winter by announcing that they will soon be releasing a full-featured Mac client at feature parity with Windows. This also means that the Mac will have Sametime capability for the first time, which is big news for alot of our Mac users. Lotus Sametime is the leading enterprise IM solution and it’s actually integrated now within the client.
Bob Dole thinks Bob Dole should run Apple
Bob Dole!
Apple never tells anybody outside of the company about it’s plans for new products. Why would these journalists imagine that Apple would make public the details for Steve’s successor ?
They haven’t announced details of the next iPods or pro-Macs, so it’s not at all surprising that they haven’t announced details of the next CEO.
Running out of stories for MDN?
When Steve leaves we’ll get someone else. Simple really. I’m sure it’s crossed his mind. I’m sure there is someone in the wings in case an accident happens or something.
Ballmer is a Uncle Fester looking walking dildo.
I’m sure someone’s being groomed for the position…it’s someone totally under the radar so they can’t be lured away by some other company, most likely.
Actually, Steve has set Apple on a pretty good path; in another 10 years or so, all the new man/woman will have to do is sit back and not fix what ain’t broken. And Steve will probably be just a phone call away if the new person needs advice for the first year or so…
Steve’s passion is creating new technologies that enhance all of our lives. He will never leave Apple to play with his billions. He’s not in it for the money and he never will be.