At Apple’s annual shareholders’ meeting today, “Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who returned a decade ago to lead the computer company he helped found, said he sees many potential successors among Apple’s current executives,” Connie Guglielmo reports for Bloomberg.
“‘We’ve got great talent, and I think the board would have really great choices,’ Jobs, 53, said today at a shareholder meeting at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. Possible successors include operations chief Timothy Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, he said,” Guglielmo reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Right now, it looks like Apple’s best hope, and a very good one at that, is Jonathan Ive… He seems to work well with the engineers responsible for the hardware. He is obviously a meticulous genius. And he has “that certain something” which, importantly, comes across on camera and in person. Whether he has the extremely rare “vision thing” that Jobs possesses; well, that’s still an open question…
Watch Ive in the Power Mac G5 intro video. Ive first appears about 40% in, at the 2:50 mark of the 6:33 minute video. Note that he is almost wearing a black mock turtleneck already. Contrast his presentation style and enthusiasm with the other Apple presenters. Can you sense the almost Jobsian, call it Junior Jobsian, aura? Ive has “it” while all of the other Apple employees in the video are just nice people talking about a computer. And Ive should only get better with time. Could we be watching Steve Jobs’ successor, Apple’s future CEO, in the 31-year-old Ive?
Jonathan Ive, Apple Computer CEO circa 2025. It has a pretty nice ring to it, doesn’t it? You heard it here first. I think Mr. Ive could pull it off. And I think Jobs thinks so, too; in about twenty years… – SteveJack, August 20, 2003 (What happens when Steve Jobs dies?)
Guglielmo continues, “Jobs also “reiterated his goal of selling 10 million iPhones this year, including in new markets in regions such as Asia. He declined to say specifically when Apple would start selling the phone in China.”
Full article here.
Scott Hillis reports for Reuters, “Jobs also was asked if the company planned to start a dividend or stock buybacks. ‘At this time, we have no plans to do either,’ he told shareholders.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: As many media outlets (MarketWatch and CNBC, among others) continue to get this wrong even today, to clarify: Apple’s publicly-stated goal is 10 million iPhone units in 2008 alone. iPhone units sold in 2007 do not count towards the 10 million goal.
Apple’s goal has been consistent since it was first mentioned (as usual, it’s become FUBAR thanks to incompetents in the media):
• Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in his Macworld Expo 2007 keynote address that Apple would set the goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008, the first full year on the market. Jobs, standing in front of a 20-foot tall slide, no less, that said, “1% market share = 10M units in 2008,” stated, “1% market share = 10 million units. This is exactly what we’re going to try to do in 2008, our first full year in the market, is grab 1% market share… We’re going to go for it and see if we can get 1% market share, 10 million units in 2008 and go from there.” (Macworld Expo 2007 iPhone Introduction: Jobs’ remarks on iPhone goals begin at 1:15:52 into the QuickTime video).
• On July 25, 2007, during Apple’s conference call discussing Q3 – 2007 financial results, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer reiterated Apple’s goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008.
• On January 22, 2008, during Apple’s Q1 08 financial results conference call Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer again reiterated Apple’s goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008.
• Just last week, Apple COO Tim Cook once again reiterated the goal and stated publicly that Apple is confident that the company is on track for hitting their goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008.
uh???? Tim Cook? WTF?
Jony Ive FTW!
Or me… either way.
I’ll do it.
Not the CFO, you know how Jobs goes on about the money guy running M$
I’ll do it!
Two words:
Jon Ive
Once you put the soulless marketing hacks and bean counters in charge it’s all over.
Wandering joe – I think Jobs’ comments were about “sales guys”, not “money guys.”
Eyeaaaaahhh… Jonathan Ive. ONLY way to go. Charismatic, good looking, intelligent, great presenter and intellectually unrivaled. Plus, he too loves to wear black turtlenecks and jeans.
Ive. Gotta be.
One other thing; Ive is a visionary, just like his master, Master Jedi Jobs. Only difference between the two: Jobs is a visionary who gets design, Ive’s a designer who has learned to be a visionary.
OMG!
WHY was ‘successors’ even brought up at all?!!!
I’m getting shortness of breath, sweats, tremors
Hilary, Obama, I don’t care!
Jobs?
Whoa!
@ IEEE1394®
If you’ve ever seen any of the 2-3 minute promotional spots Apple used to show at the stores back in the day for their products, you’d definitely know this to be true. The guy has the charisma to get people jazzed about the products.
Plus he composes techno music in his spare time for fun.
Ive.
@Macromancer
Right on! I have seen them. He is passionate, like his master. He is so convincing because he too is convinced.
And Jobs loves to throw off the media; I think it is one of his favourite past times! He purposely didn’t mention Ive because that is exactly who he plans to name! Mark my words.
And anyone who knows the only car brand to own, so long as money is not an object – Aston Martin – gets my vote.
http://www.astonmartin.com/home
Jobs, run for president with Al gore.
but really stay with apple, as master visionary. you’re on on the brink of changing the world again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Forstall
There’s no reason Ives can’t be the face of Apple on stage even if he doesn’t have the right attributes to be a CEO. In fact, for Apple, the cheif designer on stage makes as much sense as the CEO.
@ Super Freak : )
Man, I’m freaked out too! Shakes, chills. Successor what the heck are they discussing that for? I need my RDF! To heck with politics and world strife, if Jobs steps down anytime soon it will be …. I don’t even want to think about it. Please Steve, I know you pretend to be mortal human, but please don’t go!
Steve :_)
keep kickin ass
If Jobs’ successor is picked up based on the ability to run Apple like a circus by trying to accomodate everybody who’s whining and complaining, then this MDN forum gots a lot of candidates!!!!!!!!!
Re: Jonathan Ive as CEO
Beware of the possibility of the Peter Principle.
Al Gore is next in line. (Then I’ll switch to M$).
another ive video worth watching is the Cube intro video…although only brief snippets
in brief talks…
1:04
2:33
2:57
3:34
5:15
With all due respect to my fellow fanboys – Ive isn’t it. There’s a whole lot more to running a global enterprise than great industrial design skilz.
MDN continually makes point with this:
“Apple’s publicly-stated goal is 10 million iPhone units in 2008 alone. iPhone units sold in 2007 do not count towards the 10 million goal.”
While it is true that Steve said “in 2008” during his presentation, he also said in the same breath that iPhone would achieve 1% of marketshare “…by the end of 2008, the first full year of sales.” Market share would include ALL iPhones sold, not just those sold in 2008. With that, it is easy to construe that Steve meant 10 million iPhones sold by the end of 2008, including those sold in 2007. He NEVER states that he was limiting to sales projections to 2008 ALONE. Admittedly, it is not such an important point, but MDN seems to be on a crusade to make sales expectations of 10 million in calendar year 2008. Regardless that Steve did not literally say that, I contend that he meant THRU the end of 2008, like so many others have understood Steve’s presentation, based on the attending market share projection.
So, Spark, even though you’re totally wrong about Jobs’ statement, for grins, please refute the rest of the reiterations that you’ve ignored:
• On July 25, 2007, during Apple’s conference call discussing Q3 – 2007 financial results, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer reiterated Apple’s goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008.
• On January 22, 2008, during Apple’s Q1 08 financial results conference call Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer again reiterated Apple’s goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008.
• Just last week, Apple COO Tim Cook once again reiterated the goal and stated publicly that Apple is confident that the company is on track for hitting their goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008.
Dont get me wrong, I would LOVE to see Ive step up into that role in the future…
However, I’m a little curious how well Ive would handle the politics of boardroom meetings and boring stuff like that. Design, no doubt he’s a fantastic creative person. I’ve watched the product promotional videos and think he does come across as the quiet persuasive kind, not in-yer-face at all. Just brilliant. But will that be sufficient to be CEO of the most observed tech company in the world? I hope he does.
If Favre can retire, anything can happen.
Kinda funny Jobs would bring up succession on the same day?
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