“Well, talk about a FTW moment,” Christian Zibreg reports for 9to5Mac. “First Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello lavishes praise on Apple and paints iPad their fastest-growing platform as gaming on traditional consoles is on a decline and today the super publisher’s founder Trip Hawkins tells IndustryGamers that Apple is heading towards decline.”
If you look at any institution in history – look at the Roman Empire – anything in history, and what it looks like when it’s peaking. Look at Apple, and how can you say it’s not peaking? The CEO is still alive, let’s start there. They invented this tablet thing that’s going to be really big. They’ve done really well by reinventing the phone. They breathed new life into the Mac. They’ve got this super-high marketing. All these things are about as good as they ever can be – how much better can it really get? The thing is, it may take another year or two before it starts to decline, but it has to – everything does. Everything revolves so much around Steve, and no matter how good his lieutenants are, they’re not Steve. None of us is going to live forever, though I hope he lives for a really long time. – Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously Jobs is irreplaceable. That doesn’t mean Apple Inc. would fail without him. Last time he left, the company was woefully prepared for his absence. That is not the case today. The list of fools who counted Apple out is long. Add Riccitiello to the list.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Edward Weber” for the heads up.]
You could have said that after each innovative product–iMac, iLife, iWork, Final Cut Pro, MacBookAir, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Tiger, Leopard, Lion, … What will they say next? …
Hum …. Question?????
How is Ford doing now that Henry is not around? Wasn’t Ford the only US Auto Company not to take US Loans?
The things is the tablet market is just starting. It isn’t peaking. The smartphone market is still growing like gangbusters. It isn’t peaking. In fact, the Mac market is growing fast as ever, with a lot of room for more growth. If anything it may be reaching a real tipping point, as more and more college age kids are using Macs. And, how long have Macs been with us, and they haven’t yet peaked!
So, the premise, that Apple is peaking is so fundamentally wrong, as Apple is just getting started. I mean, you could have said Apple was peaking 2 years ago, or 4 years ago, or 10 years ago, and been wrong, wrong and wrong.
Apple is Steve Jobs. No Jobs no Apple. Sorry, Apple will decline without him.
Why isn’t EA heading for decline? Haven’t they peaked?
ok just for arguments sake Steve Jobs actually leaves…
can Ballmer, Elop (Nokia), Apoetheker (HP), Michael Dell or the RIM Twins beat Tim Cook….?
nope.
(seriously if Cook was to move to HP, Nokia etc their stock will go rocket up… )
Look I’m an Apple fanboy and worship Steve Jobs and his vision. I hope he finds a way to live forever.
But Apple has a long term business plan which was originated by Steve and he has surrounded himself with hundreds (really thousands) of people who understand and support that vision. I don’t see Jonathan Ives jumping ship any time soon, and Jobs himself has been only sparingly checking in over the past year anyway, even though Apple is at its peak. So there is just no logical reason for Jobs resignation to have that much of an impact on Apple for many years. And there are many new and possibly even more visionary versions of Steve Jobs rising up through the Apple ranks right now. So everyone just RELAX – Apple is going to be defining the digital lifestyle for decades to come.
I guess my real point is, the vision lives in the culture he’s created at Apple, and not in Steve Jobs.
Heck, I think the next Apple CEO after Jobs will do an even better job. Forget $666, shoot for $1666!
@MDN…woefully prepared? Wouldn’t that be unprepared. 😉
John…. I told u many times, Crack is not good for the brain.
Another idiot gets in line with the Apple is doooooomed morons.
Hey Guys! I just created an Apple News website at the url: http://vanimox.com
If you would like to check it out that would be amazing! Also I’m currently looking for people to make posts on the webpage. If your interested in helping, please email me at tom@vanimox.com
Compare the Roman Empire to Apple?
The Roman Empire declined from a combination of enormous military spending which just kept growing and growing, an unwillingness to tax its own people and an unwillingness of its own people to pay tax to fund its military expansion, and a supreme arrogance that their empire would go on forever.
Now if Apple ever spends more on it’s ‘military’ (lawyers and sales guys) than it gathers in ‘tax’ (creating and selling great products that people love), then there is cause for concern. At the moment, they are just somewhat arrogant, but its the dismissive kind of arrogance and for good reason.
It would be more appropriate and much, much closer to the truth, to compare the downfall of Rome with the accelerating decline of the once great and bountiful U.S. empire. In fact the parallels are quite obvious.